Why Did Jesus Have to Die? The Whys of Easter Greg Lavine and Dustin DeJong So diving into God's word, we're. We're focusing on Jesus. I know that sounds strange for a church to do. No, we're, we're leading up to Easter by specifically focusing on Jesus and asking, asking some why questions of why Jesus had to live, why Jesus had to die, and why Jesus had to rise from the dead. And I joke with focusing on Jesus. If you're ever a part of a church that does not focus on Jesus, find one. Because Jesus is everything. He is not only the way by which we are saved. It is his name that caused demons to shudder. It is his name that sets us free and forgives our sin. And so we're focusing on Jesus. And this morning we're considering why did Jesus have to die? And that can be an odd question. Death is kind of a gloomy, cold subject. In fact, we don't like to use the word die. Even if a loved one or family member dies, we don't say it. We say they passed away, they fell asleep. I like to say they graduated to glory if they knew the Lord. We don't like to say the word die. We avoid it at all costs. So why would we spend a week fixed on the question, why did Jesus have to die? And I would propose to you that it is enormously important. In fact, what we're going to do this morning is go through a top 10 list of reasons why Jesus had to die. And as we go through, there are truths in every single one. But I want you thinking, even as we go through all of these profound truths, there is one reason that I believe biblically rises higher than all the others. It is, it is the most right answer to the question, why did Jesus have to die? And we'll save that for number one. So I'm going to jump right in with the 10th reason. What's a reason that Jesus had to die? And I would say to fulfill everything that came before. To fulfill everything that came before. The shadows all through history were pointing to Jesus and even specifically his death. When Abraham took Isaac up out Mount Moriah in, in Jerusalem, that was a symbol and a picture that pointed to Jesus when, when Moses and the Israelites painted their door with the lamb that was slain for Passover. So they would sacrifice a lamb, they would take the blood, they would put it on their doorframe. And because of that, the angel of death would pass over their homes because of the blood of lamb. The blood of the lamb pointed to Jesus. The day of atonement, Yom Kippur, the most holy day of all of the Old Testament, it points to Jesus. The entire sacrificial system is pointing to Jesus. So I want to read just one passage. This is in the Psalm, Psalm 22, and it's David in the midst of suffering, and he's crying out to God and listen to the words that he writes. Psalm 22, verse 1 and 2. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me from the words of my groaning? My God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest. If you've been in church for very long, you might recognize those words as words that Jesus spoke on the cross. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And so I would suggest that even King David and his suffering, it's pointing to Jesus dying on a cross. Everything that came before points to Jesus paying the price on the cross. Why did Jesus have to die to fulfill everything that came before? Number nine. Why did Jesus have to die? He had to die to be fully human. I mean, think about your own human experience, something that we all go through. Jesus entered into that Last week. Pastors John and Greg were preaching and they shared out of Hebrews chapter four that we do not have a high priest in Jesus who cannot sympathize with our weakness. No, no. Jesus in every way experienced the human condition, and yet he was without sin. Jesus experienced triumph and loss. He experienced great glorious joy, and he experienced loss as well. These are all experiences that you and I share as well. Jesus came as both fully God and fully man. And in being fully man, he experienced everything that we experience. Read these words out of Hebrews, chapter 2, verses 14 and 15. Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself, that is Jesus, he himself likewise partook of the same things that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death, were subject to lifelong slavery. Jesus himself partook. Of all the things that we experience in humanity, Jesus ultimately experienced death as well. Something that we are all promised to experience. Something that even though we know it's coming, still brings great, great hardship to us. Just a few weeks ago, I went and did a hospital call. I got a phone call in the afternoon, and they had requested that a pastor come out to do a visit. So I came out almost immediately. And as I walk into the hospital room, this lady was in her mid-80s. She, she coded like right as I was walking into the room. And her family was Just devastated. I mean, this, this is a lady who loved the Lord, who lived a great life. She was, you know, she was in her mid-80s. She. She was content with where she was at. She was content to go home to heaven. And yet her family was still experiencing the sting of death. They knew that she had hope in Jesus, and yet they still, they, they. They were still devastated. Death is all of our experience. It's all of our destiny. And Jesus being fully God and fully man, he didn't avoid death either. He stared death in the face and he defeated it. Death had power. And Jesus says, no longer will death have power. We just sang these words a few minutes ago that death once had a sting, that it once held power over us. And yet through Jesus life, through his humanity, he proved that death is not the end of the story. And so why did Jesus have to die to fully experience what it means to be human? Why did Jesus have to die to fulfill everything that came before to be fully human? A third reason. Number eight. To show us the cost of our own sin. To show us the cost of our own sin. As human beings, we constantly diminish the holiness of God and we constantly overestimate our righteousness. Consider the sacrificial system of the Old Testament. All of the blood. Sometimes I get asked, why the blood? Why the sacrifices in the Old Testament? When we ask that question, we acknowledge that we don't understand the significance of the gap between our sin and God's holiness and the stench and the vile offensive nature of who we are in our selfishness to a holy and pure God. Consider these words in Leviticus 4. So there are five offerings in the book of Leviticus. One of those five is the sin offering. These are a few words describing the sin offering. Beginning in verse four, he shall bring. Talking about the priest. He shall bring the bull to the entrance of the tent of meeting before the Lord and lay his hand on the head of the bull and kill the bull before the Lord. And the anointed priest shall take some of the blood of the bull and bring it into the tent of meeting. And the priest shall dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle part of the blood seven times before the Lord in front of the veil of the sanctuary. And the priest shall put some of the blood on the horns of the altar of fragrant incense before the Lord that is in the tent of meeting. And all the rest of the blood of the bull he shall pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering that is at the entrance of The Tent of Meeting. Now, you can read that verse and think of the blood like, that's a lot of blood. It's being sprinkled, it's being wiped down. The rest of it is being poured out at the entrance. Why the stench? Why the smell of it? Why the sight of it? Why the horror of it? To teach us the whore of our sin, that we would acknowledge God is holy and pure and righteous. And on our best days, we underestimate the blackness and selfishness of our own heart. We constantly diminish our own sin. We diminish God's glory, and we exalt ourselves. Jesus died that we would gaze up at the cross and recognize. My sin did that, My sin did that. Why did Jesus have to die to show us the cost of our own sin? Another reason that Jesus had to die was to practice perfect obedience. Now, Jesus, who was both fully God and fully man, he had to live, like I said, by the same human experience as we do, which includes a conflict of wills. Jesus, though he lived a perfect life, we like to elevate the deity of God in that moment and say, well, yeah, I mean, Jesus was God, so of course he followed God's will. And yet we lower his own humanity. I mean, consider these words out of Luke, chapter 22. This is Jesus the night before he was to be crucified, starting in verse 41. And Jesus withdrew from them about a stone's throw. And he knelt down and prayed, saying, father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Do you hear these words of Jesus? He doesn't want what's coming. He knows what's about to happen. He knows that he's going to be arrested, that he's going to be flogged and beaten and hung up on the cross. And Jesus says, God, if there's any other way, will you please take this away from me? I don't want to experience this. He was agonized. He was under distress. Let's jump down to verse 44. It says these words, and being in agony, he prayed more earnestly. And his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. Jesus, yeah, he was perfectly obedient, but at great cost. And yet, what did he say? The second half of verse 42, he says, nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. Jesus experienced the cost of obedience. He realized that he had to sacrifice his own will in order to follow the will of God in order to enact all that needed to be done on the cross. And so he stepped up. And where Adam failed He succeeded. We read these words last week out of Romans, chapter 5. That through the death, through the sin of one man, that all have now trespassed against God. And yet through the obedience of one man, that is Christ, that all now have a way back to God through Jesus obedience. We now see what it means to be obedient. Verse 43 says this. And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. This is the key. Jesus didn't depend on his own strength in order to obey Jesus, who is fully God and fully man. He did not depend fully upon himself and his own strength. He needed the strength of God. He needed the strength of the angels to come and to help him. And it was through his dependence on God that he could perfectly obey. And so we're fooling ourselves every single day if we think that we can be obedient our own will. No. Jesus proved that if he, fully God and fully man had to depend on God, then we too must fully depend on God for perfect obedience. Why did Jesus have to die to show us what perfect obedience looked like? Number six. Why did Jesus have to die for cosmic justice? Think about this for a moment. Before the cross, God had forgiven sin. Throughout the Old Testament, he forgave sin. He forgave David. His sin washed over his sin and didn't hold it against him. In fact, you could make the accusation God was not fair. By what right on a cosmic level did God have to forgive David? Consider this. Go back to Moses. God forgave Moses, but held Pharaoh's sin against him. It's unfair. Why? On what grounds? God forgave Jacob and holds Esau's sins against him. Why? It's unfair. It's unjust. Consider these words from Romans chapter three. He says, Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, as a. As a sacrifice, essentially as a sacrifice by his blood to be received by faith. This was. This is the reason. This was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. How did God forgive Moses and hold Pharaoh's sins against him? Because the blood of Jesus Christ was applied to Moses. The justice of God was on the line because God had been benevolent and forgiving up to that point. And no blood of a bull or no sacrifice while it pointed to Jesus, it couldn't forgive sins. Jesus died that on a cosmic level the justice of God would shine. There's times I picture an angel before that whispering in God's ear, how can you possibly forgive him? The answer, of course, is in Jesus Christ dying. Reason number five. Why did Jesus have to die? To die in our place. To die in our place. The doctrinal title for this is Substitutionary Atonement. That he didn't. He didn't just die as a blanket for all people. There's a sense in which he did. But he died. He died in our place. That when I gaze upon Jesus, I know that he paid my price, that I deserved to die for my own sin. And if I had faced that consequence, my own death wouldn't be good enough to pay for my sin. But Jesus then raises his hand to say, I will die in the place of Greg Levine in the place of. And you can fill in your name in he died in our place for us directly. Consider these words. You could go lots of places with this. I'm actually going to go back to the Old Testament. Poetically, this is portrayed in a beautiful way in Isaiah. Chapter 53 says this beginning in verse 4. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. With his stripes, we are healed. You hear it in the language? Yes. He died in our place. In fact, what I'd like to do is go back and read those two verses, personalizing it. The words will be on the screen. Would you read it with me? If you're comfortable. Surely he has borne my griefs and carried my sorrows. Yet I esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was wounded for my transgressions. He was crushed for my iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought me peace. And with his stripes, I am healed. We can never forget to gaze up at the cross and recognize in that moment, he died for me. He died for you. He absorbed my sin. He absorbed your sin and paid our price. Why did Jesus have to die to die in our place? Another reason that Jesus had to die was as the ultimate display of selfless glory. When we think of glory, we often think of being on the highs of life, accomplishing all the things that we desire. Just last week in the NCAA men's and women's tournaments, they crowned champions and the athletes after winning the championship went up on the ladder and cut the nets. We often picture that as the picture of glory. And yet Jesus had a vastly different picture of glory. Read these words from Philippians chapter two. And being found in human form, Jesus humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Jesus didn't consider glory being on top, being elevated above everyone else, no, he considered glory lowering himself to the point of death. Jesus went straight to the cross with joy in his heart, lowering himself so that he could elevate us. Now, the cross was Rome's greatest way to show dishonor, to dishonor another and to elevate Rome above all that they had the authority to completely embarrass and make somebody unhuman, subhuman. And Jesus says, no, that's not embarrassment, that's not the bottom, that's. See Jesus, he sees our version of glory and he flips it, says, it's not about being on top, it's about helping others to be on top. It's not about elevating myself, it's about elevating others. And so what does Jesus do? He descends. He lowers himself so that he can elevate us. That is what we experience in Jesus. That's what we see in him, is the ultimate display of selfless glory. We read these words in Mark 10:45, for even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. That is the picture of selfless glory. It's not in elevating yourself, but in lowering yourself in service to others. Jesus showed us what the ultimate true picture of. And it's not self seeking, no, it's self giving love. Jesus asks, you want to know what glory means? It's sacrifice, it's service, it's love, it's elevating others at your own cost. Why did Jesus have to die to show us the ultimate picture of self sacrificing love? Why did Jesus have to die to fulfill everything that came before, to be fully human, to show us the cost of our own sin, for perfect obedience, for cosmic justice, to die in our place as the ultimate display of selfless glory? Reason number three, perhaps one of my favorite. To triumph in victory over death, sin and darkness. To triumph in victory over death, sin and darkness. Colossians chapter three or chapter two, says these words beginning in verse 13. And you were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh. God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside nailing it to the cross. So we were spiritually dead and he makes us alive. We were spiritually in debt and he washes that away. He does it by nailing it to the cross. And he closes with these words in verse 15. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them. In Him. He took the sting out of death. He took the shackles off of sin. He sets us free in victory. He makes it so that Satan is bound on a tight leash and tweeted or tweeted, treated like the little twerp that he is. He took Satan and demons and he bound them and shackled them and pushed them under his authorities. The principalities and powers of darkness were total defeated. Why? Because Jesus Christ died on the cross. He gained victory over death, victory over sin, victory over darkness. In this we have nothing to fear. We have nothing to fear as we gaze into death. I get the challenge and I'm just a young pup, you know, I'm getting older all the time. Yesterday, weren't you invited to the seniors ministry recently? Yesterday there was a little joke going around campus during the extravaganza that there was a silver alert for me because I was lost. That's where it's going. I'm getting there now. I. You know, these things, they. Now what was I in this room for? What did I come in to get? Sometimes I've knelt down to pray with people who are near to death. And I always ask, are they afraid at all? Is there any. Is there anything that they want to pray about as they approach God. Sometimes people been saved longer than I've been alive will confess fear. I've never been in those shoes. I don't think it's wrong to. To wrestle. It's death. It's a big thing. Here's a sweet truth you should never forget. Jesus Christ's death on a cross proves victory over death, over sin and over darkness. And we can rest in that victory with nothing to fear, nothing to hide. Amen. Number two. Why did Jesus have to die? He had to die to forgive our sins. That is a great promise that we have. And yet it came at a great cost to Jesus. It came at his own life. Hebrews 9:22. We read this. Indeed, under the law, almost everything is purified with blood. And without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. Jesus forgave our sins and yet he did so at a great personal cost. And think about this for a moment. Every time we forgive, it comes at a cost. I don't know how many of you have ever borrowed money before, especially money from family. It's usually not a good idea to borrow money from family. But if you do, have you ever had that debt forgiven? I don't know. I've never had a debt forgiven by a bank. But I have had a debt forgiven family before. I've borrowed money, and then I've been told these words, don't worry about it. It's our gift to you. Now, that money that was given, it was free to me, and yet it wasn't free to the one who gave it to me. And in forgiving the debt, they gave me a great gift, and yet it cost them something. It cost me nothing, but it cost them the full amount of what they gave me, the full amount of what they forgive. Jesus gave us a great gift in the forgiveness of our sins, and yet it wasn't a free gift. Not for him. It cost him everything. We often think that in Jesus forgiving our sins that, you know, that we ultimately don't have to, like, pay the full price. And the great thing is that we don't have to pay the price because Jesus stood in our place. And yet we still kind of get things wrong. We often think that it's not really about the blood of Jesus covering us, that it's more if our good outweighs our bad, that somehow the scales of justice tip in our favor. And yet the entire sacrificial system of the Old Testament shows us, and even in the New Testament, it proves the point that that is not the case. It says, only death can satisfy our debt. In the Old Testament, it required blood. We'd go before to the temple, we'd make a sacrifice, and that would cover our sins, and yet that would only cover the sins of our past. That wasn't sufficient for the sins that were to come. And what Jesus did on the cross is, he said, not only are your sins that are behind you covered, but the sins that, that you haven't even committed yet, those are covered as well. Jesus paid a great price for us on the cross, both for our past, for our present, and in the future as well. Jesus blood doesn't just cover the sins behind us, but it covers the sins ahead of us at great cost to himself. Jesus, why did he have to die to forgive our sins? There's aha moments all through there. Which brings us to number one and a Question like what? What reason would rise above all of those profound reasons? And I genuinely believe there is a reason that is woven all through Scripture, through all the reasons we just read. Kind of feel like we need a, you know, David Letterman drumroll or something. Coming into number one, what is the reason that Jesus had to die? Because God loves you and your neighbor. God loves you. God loves you. I used to think of the message, God loves you is just milk and cookies, the soft stuff. Like, you want a real meaty sermon. That's a sermon on obedience, on the Word, you know, that's a sermon. God loves you. That's a little kiddie thing. Jesus loves me. This I know. But it's the most profound truth we can go into. And it is ultimately the reason that Jesus died. In Romans, chapter five, we read these words beginning in verse six. For while we were still weak at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person. Though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die. But here's the reason. But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. The song, beautiful name. We used to sing it a little more. It's a little more rare now. Has a line in it in one of the verses that says, he didn't want heaven without us, so Jesus brought heaven down. My sin was great. His love was greater. What could separate us now? Think of that. We just sang it in the song today. That was the first time I heard that. I forget the chorus. But it was like he was wildly. What was the phrase? He was wild. He wildly loves us. Madly. He madly loves us. Madly loves. That's a truth we need to receive. And if the truth. Oftentimes we don't. In this room there are many with voices of the accuser whispering in their ear, saying, God, God could never love you. You're not worthy enough of his love. We speak it over ourselves. God doesn't love me. God loves you. God loves you. God loves you. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son. So that whoever believes in him would not perish but have eternal life. God loves you. Would you close your eyes just for a moment? Just receive. Speak it over yourself. God loves me. Speak that. God loves me. God loves me. Let that soak into your souls. God loves me. Now turn to a neighbor, someone on your right or left. Say, God loves you. God loves you. Turn the other way, across the aisle. God loves you. God loves you. God loves you. We forget this truth. Why? Why did Jesus die on the cross? Because he loves you and he loves you and your neighbor. It doesn't stop with us. In fact, he loves you and the person who cut you off in traffic this week. He loves you and the person who stole from you. He loves you and the person that you're fighting with, not talking to right now. He loves you and your neighbor. That's why Jesus died on the cross, that we would receive his love and share it with others. So how do we bring this home? What do we need to do in order to live out the truth of why Jesus died for us? Number one is this is to receive God's love. We just talked about this. To receive God's love. There's a hundred reasons why we feel like we're not good enough to receive God's love. And the truth is we're not. We can't earn God's love. There's no amount of good that we can put out into the world. There's no amount of good deeds or service to others that can help us to earn God's love, to earn the gift of Jesus sacrifice. That's what the cross is all about. The cross proves the point that we can't earn it, that we're not good enough. And yet Jesus died nonetheless. And so what does it look like then, for us to receive God's love? I'd say, for starters, it looks like to lay down striving because we can't earn it. We can't clean ourselves up enough to earn God's love, to earn his respect. I don't know about you, but that's a personal struggle of mine. I feel like I have to clean myself up first. I have to be presentable. I have to do the right things. There's got to be a track record of that before I am worthy of love, before I'm worthy of being honored or approved of. And yet the cross says it's not about that. No, we are to simply rest in the love of God. We often talk about like, I can't forgive myself. And I don't think that's the right question. It's not about can I forgive myself? It's can I receive the love and the forgiveness that God had died for, to offer for me freely? Will I receive the love of God? Will I receive the good gift of forgiveness of sins that I can step into being a child of God? For those of you who are parents, just think about it that way. Can your kids do anything to earn your love? Absolutely not. You love them because they're your kids. In the same way, we, as God's children can live in the beauty of knowing that we are God's love. I mean, that we are God's kids, and that we can receive and rest in his love. So, number one, we receive God's love, and number two, we share God's love. There's a thousand reasons not to share God's love with others, and yet God calls us to share it nonetheless. I was having a conversation recently with somebody who said, hey, Pastor, can you talk to my friend? I've been having conversations with them about God, and I think it would be better if you had the conversation. I'm like, no, you need to have that conversation. You don't have to be a Bible scholar. You don't have to have been a Christian for 50 years. No, all you have to do is offer yourself to say, this is what God has done in my life. 1st Peter 3:15. Always be prepared to share an answer as to the hope that you have in Christ Jesus. No, you just. You share the hope that you have. And let's be real, I can have a conversation with your friend. I can have a conversation with your neighbor. The reality is they're going to see the gospel lived out through you way more, way more legitimately than they'll ever have in me from listening on a Sunday morning. We are to share the love of God. I mean, think about that for a second. We share all sorts of things. We watch a good movie, we watch a good show on Netflix, and we go to the office the next day. Oh, my gosh, Greg, have you watched this yet? Have you watched the Quarterback show on Netflix? Yes, Yes. I have a lot of respect for Kirk Cousins after that. Yeah, I didn't feel as good about Patrick Mahomes after that. But, like, we do that kind of stuff all the time. I went to this new restaurant. Check this out. You should. We share it with meaningless things like food and tv, and yet we received Christ, Jesus and the forgiveness of our sins. And we're scared to share that. We don't have to preach a sermon. We don't have to lead them in prayer to receive the gospel. It can be as simple as bringing a plate of brownies. A couple years ago after day camp one one summer, the challenge was to share love with your neighbor. And so my kids made a batch of brownies and brought it to our next door neighbor and said, God loves you. It can be as simple as sharing a plate of brownies. Let's not just say simple. That's one of the best ways ever. Yeah. Yeah. It can be having somebody over for dinner and just sharing the love of God and say, hey, God loves you. God loves you. So I want you to think about that. Who is it that God's placing in your heart? Who is it that needs to receive and hear about the love of God? Who in your family, in your neighborhood, at your workplace, in your school, who needs to hear of God's love? I want to challenge you this week to go to that person. Whether it's a meal, whether it's, whether it's bringing them a coffee, whether it's just sitting down for a minute and saying, God loves you. How can I pray for you this week? Consider two things. One, that we need to each receive the love of God. And number two, that we then go and share God's love as well so we have the privilege. I'm glancing. Don't look at your watches. We have the privilege of closing with baptism this morning. A grand, glorious celebration. So for those being baptized, if you want to head back, you can. I, I, I, I will say this. Being baptized is receiving God's love. And then because you've received God's love, taking a step to give your life to him, you receive God's love. And because of that, you make a commitment to say, jesus, I will follow you all of my life. And when you do that, you pass through the waters of baptism. It's been there all through scripture. Noah received God's love, made a commitment, and passed through the waters. Moses set on the Nile passed through the waters. All of Israel passed through the waters of the Red Sea. Again, all of Israel through the waters of the Jordan River. Jesus himself talked about his own baptism as fulfillment. Baptism is, is this first act after you receive God's love to say, jesus, I want to follow you and obey you all of my days. We'll watch a video of some of the testimonies, and we'll join in the celebration of baptism.

The Power of the Indwelling Holy Spirit In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul writes, "to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good" (v. 7). He goes on to list various spiritual gifts like healing, wisdom and faith, and then explains, "All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills. For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ" (vv. 11-12). This is an insane truth! Meditate for a moment on the fact that the third person of the Trinity literally dwells inside of you. Then consider the promise that He has empowered you with a supernatural gift for the sake of blessing the church. It doesn't say to some is given, but to each is given a manifestation of the Spirit. False Humility Some of you reading this have a tendency to write off these promises. You don't believe that the church really needs you. And this can almost seem like the humble approach. Culturally, we often associate humility with timidity or reserve. But think about the story of Jesus driving people out of the temple with a whip and flipping over their tables. That doesn't sound very humble! And yet we know that Jesus was perfectly humble. So we have to understand that humility is not a lack of confidence or boldness. In fact, God is not casual about people who shrink back from their calling. When God calls Moses and Moses says he can't talk well enough, God doesn't applaud him for his humility. He responds, "who has made man's mouth?" (Exodus 4:11) When Moses still pleads with God to send someone else, it says that "the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses" (v. 14). Or when the twelve spies return from scouting out the promised land and report that it will be too hard to drive out the inhabitants of the land, God is not pleased with their meekness. He says since you spied out the land for 40 days, you will wander in the wilderness for 40 years, and the 10 of you who doubted my word will all die before the people enter the promised land. Doubting the promises of God is not humble—it's demonic. Doubting the promises of God is not humble—it's demonic. The enemy loves when the people of God sit back out of fear, insecurity or passivity. God loves when His people believe with all their hearts that He is faithful to His word. Like Jonathan and his armor bearer battling an army, or David taking on Goliath. "For without faith, it is impossible to please Him" (Hebrews 11:6). The truth is, if you are not using your spiritual gift for the good of your church family, they are crippled. Whether big or small, every part of the body has an essential function to perform. If you don't know what yours is, start asking, and start loving the people in front of you! Come to your church service looking for an opportunity to serve, bless, or encourage someone. Step out in faith and trust God to direct and equip you. Jealousy and Judgementalism Some of you may not struggle with doubting your own gifts, but rather with coveting other people's gifts. Maybe you find yourself longing for the influence, respect or praise that others get because of their gifts or position in the church. But James issues a harsh warning about this mentality: For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.(James 3:16) When the body operates with a spirit of jealousy, things end up out of order. If your hand decided it only wanted to be a foot, it would throw everything off balance and your ability to function would be seriously impaired. And when selfishness and pride are present, it poisons our relationships, leading to division and "every vile practice." Or perhaps you find yourself feeling frustrated or judgemental towards people who are not gifted in the same way you are. If God has graced you with a gift for evangelism, it may be hard for you to understand why others don't evangelize as much as you do. If God has made you an intercessor, it may be difficult to hear others talk about struggling in their prayer life. It is true that every Christian should be growing in evangelism, prayer and so many other things, but you have to recognize that some people have more or less grace in some areas than you do. And that is actually a great thing! We need our eyes to be eyes, and our feet to be feet. It's part of the beauty and diversity of God's design. Growing into Christ In Ephesians 4, Paul writes: We are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.(Ephesians 4:15-16) I long to see the Church get out of the arrogant individualism that is so prevalent in our culture and be the loving, humble, interdependent group of people that God made us to be. Where every part works properly so that we build one another up in love, into Christ who is our head. This will require taking a godly view of ourselves and those around us—trusting God's promises, laying aside selfish ambitions, celebrating our differences, and using our gifts to serve one another. As you finish this article, take a moment to pray this over yourself and your church community.

Monsters Among Us - Judges 17:1-6 - Skip Heitzig Welcome to Calvary Church, with Skip Heitzig. Thank you for joining us today. As we walk through life, we begin to realize that not every monster lurks under the bed. For centuries, demons and dark spiritual forces have been downplayed as entertaining mythical figures, while insidious and destructive sins have been disguised as fun and freedom. This message with Pastor Skip will expose the hidden idols and dangers of our culture and reveal the true freedom that is found in Christ alone. [MUSIC PLAYING AND THUNDER ROLLING] This is a series that we're calling A Monster's In Our Closet." This morning, would you turn in your Bibles, please, to the Old Testament book of Judges, the book of Judges, chapter 17. This is a message I'm calling "Monsters Among Us." I think you'll see why. This is a message that has been on our hearts for some time. A quick announcement before we begin, and that is, with all of the appeals that we make to your generosity, and you are so generous with all these projects, there is another project we have been involved in for decades. And it is now the season for Operation Christmas Child. So those are the shoeboxes that we pack with toys and your address, if you so wish, or your picture of your family, if you so wish. And these will go to children around the world. 12 million of these shoeboxes will go to countries, different languages, different distribution sites. Children will open them up in a service of a church that is dedicated to have parents and children in the community come. The kids, open up the boxes. They haven't had presents, many of them, ever. They understand that there's people who love them because Jesus loves them. And it opens a door for the gospel. It is the most effective child evangelism tool I have ever seen in my life. That's Operation Christmas Child. And the boxes are available for you. So Judges, chapter 17 is where we begin. You've probably noticed that the past has a way of repeating itself, that things that were in vogue or practiced in the past find their way into the present, that everywhere you look in society, it seems that there are signs of ancient worship systems still around us, symbols of the gods and goddesses of antiquity. It's so prevalent we hardly notice. For example, I am confident that none of you are worshipers of Nike, the goddess, the winged goddess of victory from Greek mythology. But I bet a lot of you wear Nike shoes or sports clothing. I saw a few this morning on some of you as we came in. And that borrows from ancient Greek mythology, even the swooped wing from the worship of this ancient goddess of victory, Nike. The Goodyear Tire Company decided many years ago to use as its logo the Roman God Mercury, or at least a part of it, called by the Greeks Hermes. This is the God of travel, the God of speed, and hence, Goodyear tires. They thought that would be a great logo for us to employ. Ajax the Great was the warrior in Greek mythology, one of the heroes of the Trojan wars. He probably never knew that a grime cleaner would be one day named after him. But it is, Ajax. Some of you have that in your homes. Athena was the favored child of Zeus, the goddess of strategic warfare. Now a body wash is named after her and a lotion. It's a whole company called Athena. Zeus was the king of all the gods, king of the Olympian gods. He was the ruler of the sky. He was the master of the thunderbolt. And so many corporations have taken as their logo the thunderbolt, whether it's Gatorade, or Opel Automotive, from Germany, or Zenith Electronics, it's that idea of the thunderbolt from Zeus. NASA has used the name Apollo for its space program, one of its space programs. Apollo, of course, was a son of Zeus. He was the God of the sun and the light. Then some of you who drink Starbucks coffee, though you really should drink Solomon's Porch coffee. [LAUGHTER] But Starbucks uses as its logo this siren. And they will even state on their website-- they do it on purpose-- the siren in ancient times was like a super mermaid. She had two tails, but she had an alluring voice. And she would call to sailors and lure them to their deaths-- very appropriate, actually, for Starbucks. [LAUGHTER] Just kidding. But there are so many examples-- Midas Muffler, Trident Foods, Mercury Car Company, Pandora Streaming Service, art, literature, video games. All of them are filled with motif or ideas or logos from ancient worship systems. Now, I think we probably agree that most of that is benign. I'm going to put that in the relatively harmless category. I'm not all hung up on what logos companies use. There's something far more sinister going on. And that is philosophies, ideologies, from paganism, trends, that we have ancient gods dressed in modern garb. There are monsters among us. There are practices, beliefs, once considered aberrant in our culture, once considered abhorrent in our culture, now widely accepted by our culture. And not just accepted, but they're considered normal. Not just considered normal, but they're being considered as good. Not just good, but they're considered something worthy to be celebrated. Not just worthy to be celebrated, but if you don't think it's good and you don't celebrate it, you, in fact, are evil. That's the concerning thing. There are monsters among us. Now, they are not called by the same names that they used to be called. Nobody talks about worshiping Baal anymore. But they do worship the idea of hedonism, materialism, pleasure. Nobody worships Ashtar or Ishtar or Ashtoreth-- she goes by several names-- from the Babylonian pantheon, but transgenderism, which was a huge thing with them, is prevalent today. Nobody is worshipping at the feet of Molech, like they did in the Old Testament. But abortion on demand has been widely practiced in our country. Nobody's worshiping Chemosh or Mammon or Dagon or any of these other gods, but these philosophical and ideological practices, including gender fluidity and the like, are all a part of modern culture. And we're going to be talking about all of those things in this series. We're going to be talking about how these ancient systems have made their way into modern society. Now, let me just take you back without taking you all the way back through all of the scriptures. But in the Old Testament, whenever those gods that I mentioned or goddesses were being worshipped, the Bible places a different title on them than just worshiping Baal, or worshiping Ashtoreth, or worshiping Molech. The Bible says they were actually worshiping demons, worshiping demons. So it might appear that they're worshiping just Baal, but behind Baal is a demonic force. And the Bible says they are worshiping demons. You know how the scripture says Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Deuteronomy chapter 32, "They sacrificed to demons and not to God, to gods they did not know." 2 Chronicles, chapter 11, speaking of King Jeroboam of Israel, "He appointed for himself priests for the demons." Psalm 106, the psalmist says, "They worshipped their idols, and this led to their downfall. They even sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons." Now, just think about what that means for a moment. If you know your Bible, you know that demons are spirits. And if you know their spirits, you know that they don't die. So if demons don't die, then the same demons that were around thousands of years ago haven't gone anywhere. They've just figured out a way to reinvent themselves in new disguise. Jesus even said that if a demon leaves a man, he searches through the dry places to find something or someone else to inhabit. So that is a fundamental idea that we're going to build upon in the next several weeks. Now, in this first study, in Judges chapter 17, I want to show you how this trend develops. I want to show you how societies over time tend to shift away from God, from truth, from his authority. We're going to be looking today at Judges chapter 17, verses 1 through 6. Let's begin. "Now there was a man from the mountains of Ephraim, whose name was Micah. And he said to his mother, The 1,100 shekels of silver that were taken from you, and on which you put a curse, even saying it in my ears-- here is the silver with me; I took it. And his mother said, May you be blessed by the LORD, my son. So when he had returned the 1,100 shekels of silver to his mother, his mother said, I had wholly dedicated the silver from my hand to the Lord for my son, to make a carved image and a molded image. Now, therefore, I will return it to you. Thus he returned the silver to his mother. Then his mother took 200 shekels of silver and gave them to the silversmith, and he made it into a carved image and a molded image. And they were in the house of Micah. The man, Micah, had a shrine"-- notice that word "shrine." It literally is "he had a house of gods, a house of gods." He was worshiping several idols. "Micah had a shrine, a house of gods, and made an ephod"-- this piece of clothing used for worship-- "and household idols. And he consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest. In those days, there was no king in Israel, and everyone did what was right in his own eyes." What I'd like to show you briefly in this passage are three notable characteristics that tell us how monsters gather around us-- corruption in the nation, confusion in the home, chaos in the heart. Those are the three characteristics. All three are inextricably twined. One leads to the other. One exists with the other, corruption in the nation, confusion in the home, chaos in the heart. Let's begin with the first, Corruption. In the nation. Go back to verse 6, which we just finished with. It says, "in those days, there was no king in Israel, and everyone did what was right in his own eyes." What days is he referring To The days of the judges, a very specific period of time in which the nation, God's nation, was falling away dramatically. The period of Judges was a 350-year period after the death of Joshua and before the United monarchy under King Saul, King David, King Solomon. That 350 years was a period of tribal confederation. That is, leadership was dispersed among the tribes of Israel, all 12 of them. There was no king in the nation, and it was a time of spiritual decline. So there's no central leadership. And the implication of saying there's no king in Israel, and everyone did what was right in his own eyes, is that had there been a king, had there been a godly king, especially, he could have, at least in part, prevented the wholesale outbreak of idolatry. And there were righteous kings in the Old Testament that did exactly that. But there was no king in those days, and everyone did what was right in his own eyes. The first thing, as I'm reading chapter 17, that stuck out to me is that we are dealing with God's people. These are God's people we're talking about. These are not Philistines or Ammonites or Canaanites or Amorites or Jebusites or termites. These are God's people, the Israelites, the covenant nation, the ones that he redeemed from Egypt, the ones that he gave the land of Canaan to, through which would come the plan of salvation for the world by birthing the Messiah, that nation. And that's a profound thought. And I want you to just see hints of this in our text. It says in verse one that this man was from the mountains of Ephraim. Ephraim was the second born son of Joseph in the book of Genesis. He became a tribal leader of a prominent tribe that got their land allotment right in the center of Canaan. So it is a very, very prominent Jewish tribe. Then I want you to notice in verse 1 his name. The name Micah means "who is like God?" or "who is like Yahweh?" specifically. So he had a great name, but he didn't live up to that name. Though his name meant "who is like Yahweh?" he is very, very unlike Yahweh. He is very ungodly. Then something else to make a note of that is noteworthy is that his mother, in verse 2 and 3, uses the covenant name for God, the very specific Hebrew Jewish covenant name for God, not just God generically. But look at what it says in verse 2. "May you be blessed by the"-- What does it say? "May you be blessed by the LORD." Notice something about that word, all capitals, all cap, capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. Whenever you find that in the Old Testament, you are dealing with the tetragrammaton, the four-lettered word of God in Hebrew, which we would transliterate Y-H-W-H, in Hebrew, yod, heh, vav, heh, Yahweh. It's a very specific name that God introduced himself to the children of Israel with when he made a covenant with them. It was the Jewish God, Yahweh, sometimes named Jehovah. But it's Yahweh. So she uses that in verse 2, and also in verse 3. "I had wholly dedicated the silver," she said, "from my hand to Yahweh, to the Lord for my son." Now let's just stop here and get a big picture. This is the book of Judges. The book of Judges can be divided into two sections. The first section is the chronological section. The second section is the biographical section. So chapters 1 through 16 is the chronology. Then it stops. Beginning here in chapter 17 to chapter 21, the second section, there's no more chronology. There's just little examples that are given. It's biographical. It is an appendix, if you will. The first 16 chapters describe the external threat to the nation, through the Philistines, through the Midianites, through the Amorites, and how they were delivered by these judges. That's chapters 1 through 16. But chapters 17 through 21, as I said, is biographical. And it is intended by the author to give example after example, to show the reader how far God's people have fallen into apostasy. And so he says, well, here's an example, and here's another example, and here's yet another example of just how far they had fallen. As if to say, this nation, that once marched triumphantly through Canaan to the glory of God, has now disintegrated so morally and politically, that they are bringing disgrace upon the name of Yahweh. That's what this section is intended to convey. And that's what is so shocking about chapter 17. We're dealing with idolatry, not among pagans, but among believers. You see, when Philistines carve idols and worship them, ah, no big deal. That's what Philistines do. When Babylonians carve little images to Baal, and they worship Ashtaroth, you go, OK, well, that's Babylon. That's what they do. When Canaanites bow to Molech and sacrifice their children to Molech, we have an understanding that is who they are. That's their practice, their culture, for years. But when Israel has molded images, when Israel is practicing idolatry, we go, oh-oh. And that's what we should say. You see, when sinners sin, we expect that. I hope you're not shocked when the world acts like the world. When sinners sin, I can't believe they did that. I can. It's what they do. But when Christians practice the same things, now that should take your breath away. That should give you pause. Why? Because we are supposed to be the transformed ones. We're supposed to be the ones that God changed. Romans chapter 12, Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. I love the Phillips translation of that. Don't let the world squeeze you into its own mold. Did you know that God calls New Testament believers to be nonconformists, to be transformers, to be world changers? We are not to act like them. But there's always a tendency. There's always a temptation. Because there's so much corruption in our culture. And I'm guessing that some of you have friends who are not saved. And the temptation is we want to be so accepted by our peer group, and seen as like them, and seen as cool, and seen as not stodgy. So we are tempted to compromise, to conform. But we are told, "Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed." Now, I believe that one of the biggest threats to the church isn't from the outside. But one of the biggest threats to the church is from the inside. Yes, there is a threat to the church from the outside. It's called persecution. We don't get much of it. You get some of it. People laugh at your bumper sticker. But I mean, as far as none of you lost your lives this week, like they did in Nigeria for being a Christian-- churches are being burned by the hundreds in that country. And that has always been an effective attack against the church by the enemy. But what we face is attacks from the inside, corruption of our culture that has made its way into the church. And when the church becomes like the world and parrots the world, that's when you have the real problems. I mentioned this a couple weeks ago, a quote by Vance Havner. He said, "Satan isn't fighting churches; he's joining them." If you can't beat them, join them. So fill them with people who call themselves Christians, but act no different than those who they live around. You should also note that everyone who has deconstructed their faith or deconverted from Christianity at one time were solid evangelical believers, for the most part. So the first component, corruption in the nation, we're dealing with God's people here. Second, the second component or notable characteristic is confusion in the home. The corruption in the nation finds its way now into the home. There's confusion in the home. Now, we read through this text, but I think you'll agree there's a lot of mixed up activity going on in this home. Let me remind you. First, there's a son who steals money from his mom. Now, you may have done that as a young child. But this is a grown up kid who has his own son and somehow, living in proximity to his mother, steals a significant amount of money from his mother. That's first. Second, she pronounces a curse on the thief, not knowing the thief is her own son. Third, he confesses his sin to his mother because he's afraid of the curse that she uttered. That was a big deal, especially in those days. Fourth, she then blesses him. After she curses him, she blesses him, as if to counteract the curse that she had previously given. Then, fifth, she dedicates part of the return money to the Lord to make an idol out of it. And then sixth, he makes one of his sons a priest. Have you ever seen a family more confused. They broke most of the Ten Commandments. First of all, he coveted what his mother had and he didn't have. Then he stole the silver. Then he didn't honor his mother, like the Commandments say. Then he lied about it. So, so far, he has broken the fifth, eighth, ninth, and 10th commandment. And he-- no, let me rephrase that. They broke the first and second commandments, which says, you will have no other gods besides me. And by the way, when you worship me, you will not do so with an image. So the first two commandments, God's saying, I want to be worshiped exclusively, I want no competition, and then the second commandment, I am to be worshiped without an image, that is, not only no competition, but no representation, no physical, earthly molded image of God when you worship. Oh, so not only have they violated six of the Ten Commandments, they've broken the commandment of the priesthood. The priesthood says, it is only a Levite from the house of Aaron that is to be a priest in the central sanctuary. He's developing his own priesthood, and he thinks, I'm going to have my kid as the priest of my own kind of homespun, do-it-yourself religious system. Now, that won't last too long, because he's going to find a Levite. We won't have the time to get into it. But the chapter continues. He finds a Levite and hires him to be his next priest. Now, let me just touch on something. And that is the whole thing of images. Because I came from a religious background that employed lots of images in worship. Why is it that God makes such a big deal out of no images? Well, you need to know why. First of all, it's because images obscure the glory of God. Images obscure the glory of God. There is no true image of God that can be found in all the world, no true image of God that can be found in all the world. Every image of God that has ever been made is, by its very nature, limited. God, by his very nature, is unlimited. He is unlimited. He is boundless. And he is spirit. So to make something material, an image out of that which is material, is to deny his very essence. So if I place a crucifix in front of me, shows Jesus dying on the cross, that happens to portray the greatest act of love in history. But it's incomplete. It tells me about sacrifice, tells me nothing about majesty, tells me nothing about deity, tells me nothing about sovereignty. It shows a dying Jesus, not a living Christ. Now, I have no problem with what a crucifix depicts. The problem I have is what a crucifix fails to depict, what it hides. And a universe filled with images of God will not give you a complete picture of God, because his nature is holy, unique, separated, other than. There's no image that can contain that. So images obscure God's glory. There's a second reason why images are a big deal. Images mislead people. Not only do they not reveal God, not only do they not reveal his complete character, it's what they do reveal that is often problematic. Images give people impressions. Images give people impressions. And you know that what we believe will determine how we behave. And so it's a psychological fact that if you focus on an image of the one that you pray to, you come to think of him as what the image represents. So here's an example. This is Exodus 32. This is the golden calf thing, when Moses went up to get the Ten Commandments, the verbal and written word of God. They wanted something more visual in their worship, so they created a golden calf. This is Exodus 32. It says, "They began offering burnt offerings and peace offerings to the calf idol." Listen. "Afterwards, they sat down to feast and drink at a wild party, followed by sexual immorality." Now, do you ever wonder why they created a calf? A calf, they had come from Egypt, and one of the gods of Egypt was Apis the calf, the bull, that was a symbol of Egyptian strength. And they wanted a god that represented strength. So they created a golden calf. And they wanted to say, Yahweh is strong. And so they looked at it. They built it. They looked at it, and they worshiped before it. They felt the need to worship this strong God with a strong frenzy. So images misled them. Sometimes people say, well, Skip, when you pray, what do you picture in your mind? What image do you have? Here's the answer. Nothing, absolutely nothing. I'm not picturing a man with a beard and a halo, with robes and sandals. Or I'm not picturing God as a heavenly grandfather. I have no image in my mind whatsoever. So there is corruption in the nation. There's confusion in the home. But before we move on to the third, let's go a little deeper into this. Because she mentions in verse 2 and in verse 3, the LORD, and the name, as you know now, is Yahweh, the covenant name of God, the Jewish specific name of God. It could be that she really did once honor Yahweh, and she wanted to use that money to honor Yahweh in the right way. But her son did not worship Yahweh. Her son worshiped idols. He had, in fact, a house of idols. He had a shrine to several little deities in his home. Perhaps this mother, knowing this about her son and not wanting the curse that she uttered to fall upon him, decided to change the curse into a blessing. Blessed are you, my son, by the Lord. There is a sad trend where some people will actually change their entire belief system based upon their own sin or the sin of a loved one. They are willing to throw God under the bus. Norman Geisler said-- we'll put it on the screen-- "Fraternity will almost always overcome theology." Now, let's just keep that up for a minute. That's a very profound statement. Fraternity will almost always supersede or contradict or overcome theology. See, if I find something in the Bible that conflicts with something I want to do, or with what my child wants to do, or maybe a friend or nephew or niece want to do, I might just change what I believe about that. So, for example, a parent may raise a child to believe in right and wrong, good and evil, two genders, until they walk home one day, and they say, I'm gay, or I'm gender fluid, or I'm pregnant, and I'm going to have an abortion. Are you OK with that? And sometimes a parent will feel, because human relationships can be very, very powerful, as an incentive for eternity can overcome theology. They'll say, well, I really want to affirm my child and show my child that I love him or her. And the best way to do that is to let them do whatever they want. That is not love. And what you are doing is making your child God. If you're willing to say, everything I believed about God is now wrong because my child is practicing this, then you are making your child God and not God, or your family, or yourself. So there is this happening in the book of Judges, corruption in the nation and confusion in the home, leads us to a third. And that is chaos in the heart. And again, all three of these go together. There's chaos in the heart. "In those days, there was no king in Israel." And here's the phrase, I think you will agree, is like the perfect description of our era, our country, our culture. "Everyone did what was right in his own eyes." That happens to be an editorial comment on the spiritual condition of that time. And I would also say this time. Here's the point. If you have no standard of objective truth, all you are left with is subjective truth. Do you understand that? Objective truth means that which is outside of us. Subjective truth means truth that is inside of us, what you feel. So when you have no standard of objective truth-- this is what is true. This is what is right. This is what is wrong, because we have a standard, because we have a God, because he has given us his revelation. If you throw that out, all you're left with is subjective truth. You're going to do what seems best to you. Now, would you not agree, that is the mantra of modern culture? You hear this everywhere-- Well, that's your truth, but this is my truth. Or, follow your heart. Or, go with your gut, some of the worst advice ever. Did you know there was a time in our society when there was a moral consensus that as a society, for the most part, it was very easy to say, that's right, that's wrong, that's good, that's evil. There was a moral consensus, a shared value system, right and wrong, good and evil, truth and error. There was indeed a framework of absolute truth. 2 plus 2 equals 4. That's not my truth. That's the truth. Because truth is ontological. Truth is based upon facts in reality. Smoking is hazardous to your health. That's not my truth. That's the truth. There are only two genders, not 42 genders. That's not my truth. That's the truth. Some of you have asked, well, why is it when I sent my kids to college, they came back thinking so differently? Well, it's because as soon as they hit the college classroom, the basis of truth was moved from something objective to something subjective. There is no universal absolute, right and wrong. It's all how you feel, what you want, what's within you, your gut, your heart. It became subjective. Now, if you wonder where this all started, it actually started in hell. But it started on Earth in the fifth century BC by a philosopher named Protagoras. Protagoras preceded Plato and Aristotle and those great thinkers who, by the way, contradicted what Protagoras said. But Protagoras is considered the father of humanism. And what he said is, man-- here's his statement. Man is the measure of all things. Man is the measure of all things. So, truth is here, inside you. You make your own reality. You decide what is right. You decide what is wrong. Man is the measure of all things. Now, again, Plato and Aristotle will come along and say, that's bogus. That's not right. There are some shared universal truths, et cetera. But in a world like ours, where our philosophy is Protagoras on steroids, any statement of absolute truth, right and wrong, seems arrogant to our culture. How dare you say that? What do you mean? You think you know the truth and nobody else does? You have a corner on the market? That's arrogant. And then when you insert into this pagan culture the truth claims of Jesus, who said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me," that's really narrow and abrasive and confrontational. Now, some of you have been thinking through what I've been saying. And I've left a lot out. There's a lot of history we haven't covered. But you're wondering, so if Protagoras was fifth century BC, and yet you said, in the United States of America, in our culture, we at one time had a moral consensus, a shared value system, how is that even possible that far down the line to have a moral consensus? Here's why. Because originally, the United States was formed with a Judeo Christian worldview, a Judeo-Christian worldview. It's even on our money, In God We Trust. We were making a statement. There is a moral consensus. There is a right and wrong because there is a God who says so. So we had good roots. But we have not progressed. We have regressed back to the philosophy of Protagoras, and fast. Let me put a scripture up, because I think it bears meditation as we bring this to a close. 2 Timothy, chapter 4, says, the "time is coming when people will no longer listen to right teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever they want to hear." Do you think that has been fulfilled in our culture, in our day? In other words, there's coming a time when people will say to you, how can you arrogantly think you have a corner on the market of truth? There is no absolute truth. Ever had somebody tell you that? Do you realize that when somebody tells you there is no absolute truth, that's a self-contradictory statement. Because they have just shared an absolute truth. There is no absolute-- how do you know? If there is no absolute truth, how do you know? Anyway, that's a philosophical discussion. We hold, as Bible-believing Christians, that objective truth exists independently of what a person believes, that it's not my truth, your truth, our truth, their truth. It's the truth. Truth exists independently of human belief. And though a person may change over time what they believe to be true, that does not, in fact, change what is actually true. Truth exists and is ascertained by reason and by evidence, not by feelings, and not by social pressure. The idea of your truth versus my truth is the core of philosophical absurdism. It is an absurd way to live, to say, this is my truth, that's your truth. And I'll tell you why. I'm not just being funny about that. It's ridiculous because it implies there is no objective reality, there's no shared truth. That makes life inherently meaningless. You cannot have a meaningful conversation or agreement on anything unless you agree that there are certain facts of reality. How are you going to teach math, science, history, unless you have common ground on what is true and not true? Christianity rests upon truth, absolute truth, objective truth, that certain things happened in history, most notably the death, the burial, and the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. Moreover, the one who died and was buried and was resurrected said-- he made an absolute truth claim-- I am the way, the truth, the life. No one comes to the Father but by me. And he said, he promised, You will know the truth, and the truth will-- finish it for me-- it will set you free. So yes, there are monsters in our closet. Because demons don't die. And ancient gods have just dressed up in modern clothes. We're going to be looking at those in the next few weeks, monsters in the closet, yes. And though there are monsters in the closet, there is meaning in the cosmos. Because there was a man on the cross who took your sin and my sin and offers a path to live life and say, I know that I know what is true and what is not. Father, we worship you as the only God, the only true God. And we realize from the lens of scripture-- we see clearly through that lens that there's not just different belief systems and different religions. There's the worship of the true and living God, and then there is satanically inspired demonic worship in everything but the true and living God, that Satan's master plan is deception. Help us to see clearly, to be equipped completely, and to live boldly, clearly, and godly in the age in which we live. In Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you so much for joining us for this message from Calvary Church with Skip Heitzig. We would love to know how this teaching impacted you. Share your story with us. Email mystory@calvarynm.church. And if you'd like to support this Bible teaching ministry with a financial gift, visit calvarynm.church/give.

I Kings 19:9-18 Then he came there to a cave and spent the night there; and behold, the word of the LORD came to him, and He said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” And he said, “I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of armies; for the sons of Israel have abandoned Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. And I alone am left; and they have sought to take my life.” So He said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the LORD.” And behold, the LORD was passing by! And a great and powerful wind was tearing out the mountains and breaking the rocks in pieces before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind. And after the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake, a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire, a sound of a gentle blowing. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. And behold, a voice came to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” Then he said, “I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of armies; for the sons of Israel have abandoned Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. And I alone am left; and they have sought to take my life." The LORD said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus; and when you have arrived, you shall anoint Hazael king over Aram. You shall also anoint Jehu the son of Nimshi king over Israel; and you shall anoint Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah as prophet in your place. And it shall come about that the one who escapes from the sword of Hazael, Jehu shall put to death, and the one who escapes from the sword of Jehu, Elisha shall put to death. Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal and every mouth that has not kissed him.” IN THIS PASSAGE, GOD SPEAKS TO ELIJAH IN A GENTLE BLOWING. HOW HAS GOD MOVED, INSPIRED, OR SPOKEN TO YOU? BACKGROUND We noted in our last study that Elijah was suffering from serious depression. He had fled for his life and asked to die. Not a combination that makes sense. But that’s part of what depression does. It confuses our thinking. As we approach this passage, Elijah’s depression is still there. He repeats his complaint to God twice. He seems to have little hope. As we will see, God will give him two things that will help Elijah to overcome his depression. This passage shows God reassuring Elijah that despite apparent spiritual defeat, God remains committed to his covenant promises and will continue directing Israel’s history according to his word. (1) The central comfort offered is God’s reliable word, which never fails. (2) The passage unfolds through a dramatic encounter. Elijah arrives at Horeb despairing that he alone remains faithful while Israel has abandoned God’s covenant and killed his prophets. He had expected the Mount Carmel victory to produce lasting religious reform. (2) But this was not to be. Rather than meeting God in spectacular displays—wind, earthquake, or fire—God appears in “a sound of a gentle blowing.” This shift emphasizes that God communicates through his word, not through power alone. God then commissions Elijah to anoint three successors—Hazael as king of Aram, Jehu as king of Israel, and Elisha as prophet—and reveals that through these leaders, judgment will come upon the unfaithful. Yet God assures Elijah that 7,000 Israelites remain faithful to the covenant. Elijah’s ministry continues through Elisha, ensuring that God’s purposes persist beyond any single prophet’s discouragement. (1) The passage fundamentally addresses the tension between apparent spiritual failure and God’s unshakeable commitment. Though Yahweh had won a great victory, nothing seemed to have changed. (1) The passage resolves this by demonstrating that God’s work operates through his word and covenant faithfulness rather than through visible triumph, and that a faithful remnant always remains even when circumstances appear hopeless. ELIJAH WAS SUFFERING FROM GREAT DEPRESSION BECAUSE OF THE THREAT BY JEZEBEL AGAINST HIS LIFE. WHAT KINDS OF THINGS DOES DEPRESSION DO TO A PERSON? HOW DOES IT CHANGE YOUR PERSPECTIVE? EXAMINATION (V.9-10) Then he came there to a cave and spent the night there; and behold, the word of the LORD came to him, and He said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” And he said, “I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of armies; for the sons of Israel have abandoned Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. And I alone am left; and they have sought to take my life.” Once Elijah arrived at Horeb, God speaks to him about his purpose. Elijah’s answer seems scripted. He’s had a lot of time to think about what he wants to say to the Lord. So much so that he repeats it word for word later in verse 14. Notice that Elijah says Israel has killed God’s prophets. But he seems to forget about the 450 prophets of Baal that he had killed. Elijah’s depression had only let him see the negative side of things and not the victories. God’s question is essentially a why question. Why are you here? In other words, why are you at Horeb? Horeb was where God called Moses, where he revealed himself to Israel and gave the Ten Commandments. Why are you in this spiritually significant place? Elijah is saying, “I’m all that’s left.” He is like Moses, seeking God’s presence when the nation has abandoned him. This encounter bears some resemblance to Exodus 33:18-22 where God revealed himself to Moses in the cleft of the rock. Moses had asked God, “Show me your glory.” Elijah is asking the Lord to show himself now, to what he believes is his last surviving servant. He has been faithful, like Moses, so God should reveal himself to him. But look at God's response. (V.11-12) So He said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the LORD.” And behold, the LORD was passing by! And a great and powerful wind was tearing out the mountains and breaking the rocks in pieces before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind. And after the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake, a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire, a sound of a gentle blowing. God’s response is for Elijah to stand on the mountain, presumably so God will reveal himself to Elijah. Then comes the powerful wind, the earthquake, and fire—but the Lord isn’t in any of these things. God is the creator of Earth, wind, and fire. And he uses these things, just as he used fire with Elijah and the false prophets. Just as he used the wind of the rain storm to blow rain on the earth. But these things are God’s works, not his word. There is a difference. Elijah recognizes the gentle blowing as a precursor to God revealing his word to Elijah. (V.13-14) When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. And behold, a voice came to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” Then he said, “I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of armies; for the sons of Israel have abandoned Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. And I alone am left; and they have sought to take my life.” Again the Lord asks Elijah why he is at Horeb and Elijah gives the same scripted response. Elijah is only focused on the negative. He seems to have forgotten that he held back the rain, provided food for the widow miraculously, raised the dead, called fire from heaven, and ran in supernatural strength. This is what depression does, it focuses us on the losses rather than the victories. Everything that Elijah says is true, except for one thing. He had been zealous. Israel had abandoned the covenant. They tore down his altars. They killed the Lord’s prophets. And Jezebel was seeking his life. But one thing was not true. “And I alone am left.” This is the moment when Elijah joins the pity party. All these things are against me. I’m the last faithful guy left. HAVE YOU EVER FELT LIKE THE LAST PERSON STANDING? WAS IT TRUE? Look at how God responds. (V.15) The LORD said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus; and when you have arrived, you shall anoint Hazael king over Aram. Notice what God didn’t say to Elijah. He didn’t say, yeah, you’ve had it bad. He didn’t say, yeah, you’ve been faithful. He didn’t say, yeah, you’re a standout guy, Elijah. But notice what he did say. God has him anoint a king of a gentile nation. Aram is, loosely, the modern nation of Syria. It has a long history. In fact, Damascus is the oldest inhabited city in the world. Aram had a complicated history with Israel. Sometimes an ally, sometimes an enemy. During the period of Hazael, Aram made regular attacks into Israel, with the prophet Elisha warning the Israelite king of what was coming. During his anointing, which was actually done by Elisha, it was revealed the violence that Hazael would do to Israel. (V.16) You shall also anoint Jehu the son of Nimshi king over Israel… Then he has him anoint a new king over Israel. Jehu was a violent man, as seen by how he took power in Israel. He executed God’s judgment against Ahab’s family and slaughtered the followers of Baal. Though he was a strong king, he was not a godly one. God commended him for carrying out his judgment of Ahab’s house and promised four generations of his family would sit on the throne. But he did not eliminate idol worship in Israel, but actually promoted it. Jehu lost Israelite territory to king Hazael of Aram in multiple skirmishes. (V.16) …and you shall anoint Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah as prophet in your place. Then he is to anoint a new prophet in his place. What’s interesting about Elisha is that he was the one who arranged for the anointing of Hazael and Jehu, rather than Elijah, even though Elijah was commanded to do it. Why it fell to Elisha, we do not know. In all of these things God is showing Elijah that his purposes are still on track. God has a plan for these people, Hazael, Jehu, and Elisha, and Elijah is part of that plan. (V.17) And it shall come about that the one who escapes from the sword of Hazael, Jehu shall put to death, and the one who escapes from the sword of Jehu, Elisha shall put to death. Remember from an earlier lesson that Elijah’s ministry is one of judgment. That is true in this passage. Part of God’s plan is judgment. In the future, Hazael would attack Israel, kill many of its people and seize territory. Judgment. In the future, Jehu would kill Ahab’s sons and Jezebel. Judgment. The same with Elisha, he would act in judgment. Then God gives Elijah one little piece of information to show him that his purposes cannot be thwarted. (V.18) Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal and every mouth that has not kissed him.” The reference to kissing Baal is not simply kissing an idol. Rather, it refers to someone bowing at the feat of a large idol and kissing the feat. It has an air of humiliation to it. Humbling oneself before the idol. Remarkably, there were only 7,000 in Israel who had not done this. There is a remnant of people that God has saved for himself. By saying he is leaving them he is saying he is securing them from spiritual harm. They will not fall away. They belong to him. WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED? · When we feel like we’re the last one left, God assures us there are others faithful to him. · God’s purposes cannot be thwarted, even though the nation abandons him. · God’s will someday judge the wicked but will preserve the righteous. · Just as Elijah’s ministry continued through Elisha, so too your influence can continue through those you impact. INTERPRETATION What is the author's big idea? There is always a remnant who follows the Lord, even when the Lord changes the course of things. We often are so focused on our own little world around us that we lose sight of the big spiritual picture. Sometimes we look at America as the last remnant of true Christianity left on earth. But that is not true. All over the world, hundreds of millions of Christian’s are serving God faithfully, even in oppressive cultures. In Iran, more than a million Christian’s serve God in that oppressive country. There are so many Christian’s in China that within ten years they will be the most Christian country on earth. 65% of Africa’s people claim Christ. And Jesus is appearing in dreams and visions to Muslims all over the Middle East and North Africa, leading thousands to faith in Christ. Roughly one third of all Christians in the Middle East have had a dream or vision of Jesus. We are not alone. God has saved a group of people’s for himself and we walk alongside them just as Elijah was not alone and walked with the 7,000 God had reserved for himself. APPLICATION Do you feel alone in your walk with God? Seek out other believers to share your burdens with. This speaks to the necessity of the church. There is no such thing as a Lone Ranger Christian. We are all part of the body of Christ and need one another. Seeking to stay in fellowship and partnering with other believers helps us draw strength and experience the goodness of God in relationships. Hebrews 10:24-25 says, “Let’s consider how to encourage one another in love and good deeds, not abandoning our own meeting together, as is the habit of some people, but encouraging one another.” When it looks like everything is against you that’s when it’s time to start trusting the Lord. Overwhelming earthly circumstances don’t overwhelm God. God is greater than our circumstances. The scripture says, “Greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world” (I John 4:4). You may be overwhelmed for a time, but time passes and things change, and God’s favor is renewed. Part of overcoming defeat is a new focus on doing God’s will. After being told he was not the only faithful believer left, God gave Elijah a new three-fold mission to carry out. Sometimes a new focus on the task at hand helps us renew our attitude. Lastly, notice the special gift God gave Elijah. A new relationship. He was to anoint Elisha in his place. As we’ll see in our next lesson, Elisha would become a faithful aid to Elijah, and a friend, serving him closely. One of the most important parts of defeating depression is to maintain relationships with others. Look for the special relationships God has given you to help you carry out his will and experience his goodness. Sometimes those blessings are just around the corner. In thinking about this we should notice that God gives Elijah the two things he needs most to combat his depression. A purpose and a partner. He is to anoint new kings and a prophet. And that prophet would become a trusted ally. When battling your own downturns, remember to hold onto the purpose God has given you and the partners, friendships, he has provided you. —– (1) J. Gary Millar, “1-2 Kings,” in 1 Samuel–2 Chronicles, ed. Iain M. Duguid, James M. Hamilton Jr., and Jay Sklar, ESV Expository Commentary (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2019), 3:675–676. (2) Paul R. House, 1, 2 Kings, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1995), 8:223.

Practical Application Choose one of the following: 1. Start a "Watchtower Practice" Identify one practice that helps you position yourself to hear from God (morning prayer, journaling, a weekly Sabbath, a physical place you can go, etc.) Commit to doing it at least 3 times this week 2. Write It Down Like God told Habakkuk to write down the vision, journal your current questions, complaints, or waiting-room situations Write down what you know to be true about God's character, even if you don't feel it right now 3. Practice "Yet" Worship Each day this week, identify something difficult in your life Follow it with "yet I will rejoice in the Lord because..." and list something true about God's character or faithfulness 4. Share Your Story Think of a time when you had to wait on God and He came through (even if differently than expected) Share this story with someone this week to encourage them in their waiting TRANSCRIPT: Well, hey there. We are back with the latest episode of the Nerd Out. My name is Lyall. I am Jack. We are looking at the book of Habakkuk today. Habakkuk. Depends on how you want to say it. Habakkuk. I've heard it both ways. Psych reference. Love it. Never even seen the show. That was for you. My heart is warm right now. Well, we're all warm. That's because there's still no air conditioning. Yes. And a fan that's just blowing, which is, you know, I will say pleasant enough for those of you who are not in the room. Uh, but it would be nicer to have air conditioning functioning again. Yeah. Sometime soon, Lord. Like, is this what French people feel like right now? Like the heat wave breaks across Europe? Oh, wait. I have seen commiserating with our Yeah, I heard Montana hit like a hundred. Wow. The uh two days ago I was like, "Good grief." That's true. Yeah. There's parts of the US, too, where they don't have cuz I know we did summer camps in San Diego a couple years. That's how we met was when you were youth pastor at Cassis and Yeah. our worship team from the church at the time. Air there. Nope. Yeah. It' get warm. And you're just like opening and hoping that a beach breeze would blow in and it did not always. Yeah, those were fun times. They were. So, good days. Cal Baptist University and Pointl as well. The first Cal Baptist is the one that had the best waffle makers. So,just the best breakfast in general of any camp I've ever been to. Actually, best food all around. It was really good. But anyway, still is really good. That's what I've heard. Yeah. Like cuz I know Zona Youth Camp is there and still say that their breakfast two three years ago. three years ago. Top notch for a camp experience. Top notch. To be honest, it's a student union for right university. But still, like you wouldn't expect that for the college kids to be that nice, that good. Yeah, if I was in college, I think I'd almost go there just because of the food and the class. And you're in California, so you're close to the beach. But there you go. Okay, rambling on. But rambling on. ll right, let's take a look at the book of Habakkuk. We're coming up to the end of our minor prophet series. We're nearing the final stretch, I should say. Yeah, we got your friend, our friend coming down in a couple weeks. Yep. Um Landon McDonald, pastor up at Mission Church in Gilbert. You don't want to miss that. That'll be the the last Sunday. Two weekends. 26th, I think. Yeah. 26th. So, he'll be down to us through Hagi. Yep. Mhm. So, yeah, it's been good. It's been encouraging to hear the feedback from uh many of you just how timely this has been. So, Mhm. I think for us, it's always cool just on the leadership side that you pray and you think things through and you try to kind of survey people and get an idea of where things are at and like what will serve people well. What do we need to do? And to see when you know like you feel like you've listened to the Lord, you do something and then to see it land. It shouldn't surprise us. It doesn't necessarily surprise us, but it is encouraging. Yeah. On our pers like just from our perspective to see how speaking to you all through it. It's been fun. Like I know you know you and I have taught maybe certain sermons out of passages. You did like we were just talking you did Habakkuk series 5 years ago. Yeah. Um so we jokingly said you know 30% of our people weren't even here. Um, and so it's been fun going back through a section, uh, what you call the crunchy chapters, crispy pages of the Bible, 3:58crispy pages of the Bible that most people skip over or don't drill down into enough because maybe they don't know the historical context, which can get confusing if if you don't study it enough, or you lose sight that it's poetry. Yeah. And so because it's written as poetry, there's stuff that just doesn't make sense. Yeah. So, Habakkuk, let's get to some takeaways and then we'll uh jump into I know there's a bit that you said you uh didn't have time for that we get through and then got a hand just a couple questions. Not not too many today. Yep. So, we'll see what happens here. We've got takeaways for you from Habakkuk. Number one says, "Bring your questions and complaints to God. He's not offended by them. Biblical faith is honest faith, not fake positivity." Takeaway number two says, "God is sovereign over history and our personal stories." Even when circumstances seem out of control, God is directing things toward his purposes. Number three says, "The righteous live by faith, not by sight." Faith means trusting God's character when we don't understand his ways. Number four, worship is the anchor in the waiting room. We don't worship our circumstances. we worship our God. Our last takeaway says, "God often does his best work in us during the waiting. The gap between promise and fulfillment isn't wasted time." Of course, that reminds me. I even mentioned it to you. It's a good summary. You didn't uh you didn't even use Andrew Murray, the famous quote from him of waiting uh no, what does he say? Um, waiting on God ascribes to God the glory of being all to us. Mhm. It's a famous one. Good one. First heard that when Louis Gigglio shared that when we went and saw him at Catalyst West when he spoke there. Gosh, that was I brought Chris Tomlin out and then Tomlin leads the song All to Us and debuts it and I'm just like this is one of my new favorite songs. It was just so good. That was eight years ago. Nine. Oh, might have been 10. M 13 years ago because that was after you. Really? Yeah, man. Cuz we went to passion. Okay. It was that many years ago and we were Yes. It was 16 years ago. Dang it. Anytime you feel like you're younger. So maybe you weren't at that and then you realized with me. I think I was there. I feel like you were. I'm pretty sure I was. Anyway, I remember going to Cat West a few different times. But anyway, yeah, moving on. We even when I was like Habakkuk was 5 years ago. What? That catalyst was 16 years ago. What? Cool. Now that we're old. All right, let's get a couple questions then we'll talk about uh what you trimmed and then we'll see if we have time for any more questions. Um, Habakkuk, he brings his raw complaints, his questions directly to God rather than walking away in disappointment. Uh, and this is a great question to start with. What prevents us from being that honest with God in our own waiting seasons? I don't know if it's a a hesitancy because we feel like maybe we can't be raw and real with God, which I still think is somewhat of our image management. like we're so bent in our culture uh of trying to manage our image that that maybe we feel like we have to manage it before God even though he sees us uh Ron real and knows everything about us and knows about our thought life that we don't even say out loud and like so I think there's a hesitation that maybe a sense of um the unhealthy side of shame of like I can't be raw or real with God or a religious this filter that says, "Hey, I've got to act like I have it more together than um to be this or if if I say too much, will God smite me or will his punishment?" It's like when you're a kid and you're irritated with your parents and you talk back a little bit and you're kind of like, "How far can I go with talking back? How how far can I push this?" Um, and yet and then maybe your parents have a temper that can flare up and and I've certainly had moments in my parenting journey where I have flared up and be like, "Whoa, okay, that's too far. Cross the line." Um, and now you're in timeout forever, whatever. But, um, I think God doesn't flare up. And that's our humanity. our the brokenness of our humanity is we can flare up in a way his anger can get aroused the scripture says um but even that's the the longsuffering of God doesn't want to get there wants his grace to be prominent and so I think in that sense the the beauty of Habakkuk is that uh I mean the great thing is this is in the canon of scripture these questions that he's asking weren't censored um like they weren't like okay that's too raw we can't have that in there um and we can't be real and the beauty I think is is understanding most of the minor prophets that we are looking at uh are speaking to God and speaking to the people on God's behalf but Habach really is only conversing with God um it's not like he was a prophet raised up to communicate okay here's God giving a message now go tell the people chapter 2. I was about to say, yeah, write it on the text. So that um so that people could see it but in understanding that even then it was to be written in such a way that um you may not fully understand it right now in this moment because this is a gap in the history. Babylon hasn't taken over Israel yet. They haven't been led off into captivity because that's still 15 years awayish. Um but yeah, so it it's that and that's we jokingly said, you know, Habakkuk goes up in this tower and he kind of has this emo moment of um sulking stubbornness, kind of the holy stubbornness, which I thought was a a great capturing of kind of probably what was in Habakkuk's mind and what's in your mind and my mind when we're going through the challenges we're going through and we're not happy about it and we're frustrated. and irritated and it's confusing and we don't understand and so we're letting God know and and I guess it's the invitation to know that we can be that real and that raw with God. It's interesting to make the So there's two people who really in scripture ask some pointed questions and God responds to both of them. Yeah. You've got Job, you've got Habakkuk, and maybe David in the Psalms, Job doesn't fully get the response from God that he wants. God just kind of steps in and in a very sarcastic manner, just reestablishes, here's who I am. Have you done this? Have you done this? Have you done this? But at least there's that hope that we can still bring our complaints to God in that way. God answers. And you see that in Habakkuk. And maybe the difference is Habakkuk goes straight to God, whereas Job is kind of griping with his friends. Mhm. And then there's like this back and forth. Yeah. You know, David at least he took it straight to God. And you see, you know, Nathan comes and the prophet speaks and responds, you know, God has heard your prayers. I just Yeah, it's interesting that and maybe drilling down on the idea you talked about with parents, you know, kids kind of like to test the boundaries. Maybe our limitation or the reason we don't go to God is we know that if we were to go to our boss at work and just fully vent, we may not have a job after that. Uh you know, if you go to your parents fully vent, you're going to be grounded for a while. Mhm. But is there something that may be helpful in us like to know that we can go to God and be real, but maybe we take like I think it's good that God is to be feared and we want to respect him. But doesn't it help us refine what we're saying to God if we think through what's going on and still find the respectful way to question God? Yes. I think and that's Solomon in Ecclesiastes is you know I forget the exact line but it's when you go to the temple um you know stay low and don't be quick um to rush in the sense of that that awe that fear that reverence that respect of who God is that that he is God and I'm not. Um, and so there is that remembrance, that understanding that God's big, I'm little. And so there is a healthy side to the fear and reverence of God uh that we are to maintain. And so that should maybe caution us to not be brazen uh against God. But I think it's the invitation that we can come to God with our questions, with our complaints, with our misunderstandings or our confusion that that he's the right place and right person to do this. This is 1 Peter 5:7. I can cast my anxieties upon him because he cares for me. And so I can bring my anxious thoughts. I can bring my confusing thoughts. I can bring my irritating thoughts um to the one that is big enough to maybe help me get a different perspective because that's what's going to unfold for Habakkuk is he's going to what he's praying for is revival. Um God bring revival and yet actually what's going to happen is destruction. um and a long timeout um basically for the people of God uh into captivity in 586 when Judah falls and Babylon captures it. So then they're led off into captivity. That's the story of Daniel. All this kind of stuff. So the remnant will come back and that's we've looked at that a few weeks ago. Um, but the reality is this is not an easy answer. And this is and that's kind of what God's telling him in his first response is, "Behold, I'm doing something in your day that you wouldn't believe me if I told you. I'm raising up the Babylonians." And and that sets um Habach off into like, "Wait a minute. Um, you're using a worse people, like the worst people on the planet right now um to bring judgment against us." And the people who we talked about the brutality last week in Nahim of the Assyrians and the Babylonians the and specifically the Caldanss put the brutality of the Assyrians to shame. Shame. Yeah. I mean the Caldanss were the most feared. I mean they were once the Assyrians kind of lost power of the whole region. M you know it was the Calaldanss who really established themselves as the dominant force for a short period of time. Yeah. It's true. God smashes them. Like he takes them out. Like when you look at history like it's interesting to see how often we can trace the work of God throughout Yeah. history and see his sovereignty in the midst of that uncertainty, which is what I call the Habakkuk sermon series 5 years ago, by the way. And there you go. Well, and the reality of okay, so the Babylonians are going to take over and then you got Nebuchadnezzar who goes wacko nuts, loses it, and then gets humbled to the way that uh actually comes to be looks like a believer in God in Yahweh. Um and then God begins to change that. So he begins to change a whole nation by So that's kind of the line in uh Habakkuk 2, I think it's verse three. Um where it's like, yeah, behold, uh the proud think they're going to get away with everything and there'll be a day of reckoning for them. And then but the righteous will live by faith. Um, and that's the main crux of what Habach gets to hear from God the second time of like, okay, uh, we're called to live by faith, which, uh, we didn't get a chance to camp on, so I don't know if we want to go there now, but, um, I was about to ask about that. Here to live by faith was so that that line from Habakkuk 2:4 uh, is called back in Galatians and Romans and Hebrews. uh the authors will call to that in the New Testament. It's also what Martin Luther in 1515 uh is so just a few years ago reading and dealing with the legalism of the Catholic Church and his upbringing and all that kind of stuff and realizing, hey, there's so much looks like corruption and pollution of the gospel in a way. And then he's reading through Romans trying to figure out Paul's take, reads Habakkuk, and then begins to say, "Okay, no, we got to live by faith." And that leads to 1517. And she nails the 95 thesis on October 31st in 1517 and the Reformation and the beginning of the Protestant church uh in a lot of ways. So all of that coming from Habakkuk 24. Um yeah, pretty crazy. like really the most important theological treatises in all of the New Testament. Like when you trace where it is in Romans and you look at where that's at in Hebrews. Oh yeah. In particular, those two in particular, like it's just who knew that this emo prophet who the only like he just starts out with a prayer session. Right. Right. And then suddenly God's like, "No, you're also going to be a prophet. Write this down. Make sure the people know about it." Mhm. And then so he does like who knew that that that one little verse would have so much theological richness that would be used to and call millions of people to follow Christ. I think um I have the quote from Martin Luther if you want me to read it. But so it's the verse Martin Luther read in 1515 that cracked open his theology. He writes in his journal. Uh this is the preface to the complete edition of Luther's Luton Latin writings. He writes this um I greatly long to understand Paul's epistle to the Romans. Nothing stood in the way that was uh that one expression the justice of God. Night and day I poured until I grasp the truth that the justice of God is that the righteous um by which through grace and sheer mercy God justifies us through faith. Thereupon I felt upon myself reborn and I'm gone through the open doors into paradise that it isn't about my works. Um it is about the faith. It's about what God has said, not necessarily what I say or what I do. I have participation. That's my role is to be a participant, but I'm not the solver of the reality of my salvation. I'm not the provider of my salvation. I'm not the one who can manufacture my salvation. It's God who did that and he established it. And so, right. Well, in that you talked and I love the quote, was it Oz Guinness? I think. Yeah. Yeah. Faith is not believing in spite of evidence, but obeying in spite of consequence. How's that definition changed the way that we approach living by faith? Well, it's certainly the call to say I'm going to choose to be obedient to God and who he is and what he says. um that I'm going to trust what he says and I'm going to trust the way he says to live um better than my feelings and better than maybe a cultural norm or a cultural narrative that's out there that seems like that'd be promising if I just try that. No, God said actually here's the best possible way to way to live and I'm going to now choose to actually walk in that in obedience. And when I mess up, I'll fess up and I'll get it right and I'll continue moving forward. And I think that's the premise of despite what the consequences might be, that I'm going to choose to live in obedience to that. Um, but curious your thoughts. Well, I just it's not about my thoughts. I didn't preach this one. It's yours. No, I mean I the way I'm thinking of or just kind of what was in my mind um is how during biblical times and really the first hundred or so years uh after the early churches being established we have so many stories of martyrs and like to me that's you people who were obeying in spite of consequence. Mhm. So in our day and age where we want to be faithful to God and we want people to you know and part of that is because we live in a country that has established freedom of religion. So which is a beautiful the idea of freedom of religion separation of church and state really is saying that our government cannot make an official national religion and as a result we have the freedom to worship however worship however we want. Mhm. Um even if we choose that we don't want to worship, right? You know, so like we want to see that protected. I think it should be protected. Absolutely. And for anyone of any religion. Yeah. But because of that, I think in some ways we think that we should be given the freedom to worship without any sort of consequence. And in this, you know, that you've got consequences sometimes that because I'm following after Christ, I'm going to choose to not do certain things and that's going to get me I'm going to be ostracized. Mhm. And that doesn't necessarily mean that I change how I treat people or change how I love people, but there are certain things that scripture calls sinful and certain things that God says we should as Christians not participate in. And sometimes there is consequence to that. Whether that be relational consequences, sometimes it can be job consequences or tension, financial consequences of all of these things. And it's like that's where the faith is revealed, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. Trust God to those lengths to Polycarp who gives up his life um as a martyr. And uh was he the one that was killed in the So he's the one that when they came to get him, he served them refreshments. Yeah, that's right. And his captors were weeping at the kindness and love that he showed them as they had to take him off to the execution. And then he was going to be burned to death. Mhm. Only he doesn't burn in the fire. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego moment. So, they have to literally kill him. Stab him. Yes. And then there's some pretty graphic descriptions of that um about the amount of blood that flowed. But yeah, it it that death spoke something to myriads of people. Yep. Yep. It's interesting to trace that and you can actually read the his epist I don't remember what they call it but basically in the apostolic father's Polycarp. Yeah. The martyrdom of Polycarp. Yeah. If you just Google Polycarp you'll be able to find quite a bit on him. I think there's a book called the book of martyrs. Yeah. Fox's book of martyrs. That's what it is. Fox's book of martyrs. um that I've skimmed I haven't read the whole entire thing, but skimmed portions and it's pretty um I think faith building uh to see this and it's actually you know we ended the sermon with Corey Tinboom's quote who if you don't know her uh she wrote the hiding place went through um they were hiding some of the Jews during the Holocaust movement and I think she ends up spending some time in a concentration camp and she has a conversation in the book with her dad um about hey I don't know if I have enough faith to withstand what I'm going to withstand um and her dad looks at her and she tells the story of hey when we get on a train when do I give you your ticket um and she said well you give it to me right before we get on the train when she was a kid uh and then you get on the train you hand it to the conductor and you're off and one and he said, "Listen, God gives the grace that we need in the moment that we're in. He gives us the ticket and if you need to be a martyr, he'll give you martyr's grace at the time of that. Uh persecution grace at the time of that. For some of you, perseverance grace at the time of where you're having to persevere through an ordeal that whether it's a health scare or a health crisis in your family. Uh whether it's a job loss, whether it's a different persevering scenario or season that you might be in that God's going to pour in the grace. He'll give you the ticket for that grace that you need in the moment that you're in. You don't get it necessarily ahead of time. Dad didn't give Corey the ticket a week ahead of time because she might lose it. You get it right then. Um, and I think that when you read the book uh the book of martyrs, you see these people who have incredible courage that probably seems superhuman uh in some ways. At least it would be for me sitting here in suburbia of 2026 and realizing I don't know if I could do that. Um but God poured in the grace that was needed in that moment. Uh and he'll do that for the moments that I have to walk through. He'll do that for the moments you have to walk through that you have to walk through. Um that we'll get the proportion amount of grace that we need uh for that season. Hence the righteous will live by faith. Yeah. And I think we forget Ephesians 28 and 9 when it talks about it's by grace you've been saved through faith. This is not from yourselves is the gift of God. Right. Not by works so that no one can. The gift of God we skip over. The gift of God is not grace. It's not salvation. It's faith. The gift that God gives his people is faith. Yep. And when we see that as the gift, of course, we would look back and be like, man, that's like supernatural. Yeah. It's meant to be. It's meant to point to the fact that it wasn't their human nature that enabled them to have that. It was walking in the spirit by the spirit through faith that gave them the grace for the moment that they needed. Yeah. Big. It's big. This is my favorite book, by the way, in the Old Testament, Habakkuk. Um, I love the arc of the story. So, you have a guy who goes from incredible internal tension and struggle and confusion and questions and complaints and he's irritated. Um, and he goes through and he gets a couple words from God and one of them seems even confusing. One of them seems like unrealistic like that can't happen and yet God's going to make it happen. And then the second one is like but I don't understand because it's like this gap between which we kind of talked about last night. But the idea of just maybe there's a time uh that this is not going to fulfillment from when the promise is given and fulfillment is there's a time gap and that's going to play out and he's probably not going to live long enough to see it and and so he's living in faith but then he goes through this perspective change where God gets a hold of his heart again while he's in the watchtower while he's kind of camped out going I'm waiting on God. God reforms his heart. So that verse two of chapter 3, you really could turn into a prayer for you when you're in a deep need season and you're waiting on God. Just make verse two your prayer and personalize it. And then he gets to the verse 17 through 19. It's like, okay, yet. And in fact, I think I don't know if it's Spurgeon or somebody that says yet is the three letter word that really sums up the entire book of Habakkuk. um that yet I will I will choose to worship God and so his whole perspective gets changed which is I know part of uh the beauty of what I know you love about um this book well but isn't like this is really uh it's interesting to see the legacy of David live on in Habakkuk really yes because you brought that up earlier you look at the psalms that David wrote the questions that he asked of God and it's the same pattern that David brings a real raw honest pray to God. And in his psalms of lament, they end with worship. Like it brings him back to a place of worship, recognizing God is still worthy of my worship regardless of my circumstances. So I'm going to choose to worship him even in the hard place, even in the difficult spot that I'm in because he's still good and he's still worthy of that. Yeah. Like just it's huge. And yeah, I mean I just the end of Habakkuk 3, I mean it spoke a lot to me just when I was in college, you know, to have my dad get diagnosed with cancer right before going to school. Um then I ended up taking a year off during my sophomore year to care for my dad at which, you know, during that part of the year he passed away and just dealing with the grief of that as I'm like entering my formative years of becoming a man, you know. Um, but I share the story because someone actually shared the that verse in a devotional a couple weeks ago before service. But that kind of became the life verse of that season for me that though the fig tree should not blossom nor fruit be on the vine. The produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food. There be no herd in the stall. The flock be cut off from the fold. And there be no herd in the stalls. Yet I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. I like there's one that's I will joy in the God of my salvation like he Yeah. Um, and I just thought about that when, you know, that was being shared and it was so meaningful that, you know, my best friend at the time, uh, in college ran track at U of A and he was a pretty highly rated recruit and his career just never he never reached the heights that they thought that he would because he kept having hamstring injuries. And, uh, it was just, it was really disappointing. And I just I still remember his senior year. He's kind of, it's his last meet. He was trying to get fit to like have a good race and I feel like he ran but it just it still wasn't what he wanted it to be and we're just kind of sitting and decompressing and processing everything and he's just like you know Habakkuk 3 like you shared that being your life verse and for me like I made verse 19 my life verse that he makes my feet like the deer he makes me tread on my high places. I'm thinking as a hurdler, yeah, that's for me. And I didn't realize God anchored me in these verses because I needed verses 17 and 18 more than I needed 19. Yeah. Like just how meaningful that like it's just interesting like that that's a brother for life. Like we had to grieve stuff together and and God gave us that for a season. And um yeah, it's just another question here kind of along these lines. Hines feet on Hines Places come from Mhm. Yeah. Habakkuk 3. Yes. Forget who wrote that. Yeah. I don't know. Anyway, very famous old classic Hines Feed in Hines places. Uh classic devotional type thing. But uh so you mentioned one line in there before we get to that. Uh maybe think of the Tim Killer quote uh walking through pain and suffering. This is from his book uh walking through pain and suffering. You do not have enough faith to generate joy in the dark, but you do have enough faith to get to God and he is the source of joy. Um, yeah. And so I think it's that invitation that Hippachic found that we can find in our seasons of being stuck in the waiting room or seasons of difficulty or deep need is okay, I can't generate joy in this moment. Um, but I can have enough faith to get me to God, which is what Habakkuk did. And God is the source of my joy. Um, and so I will I will worship the one who can be the source of my joy, the source of my comfort, the source of the wisdom I need, the source of uh the comfort I need, the source of the insight that I need going forward that I just got to get to the source and so God can provide enough faith for me to get to him which I think is the imitation of Habakkuk of why we can come to him and why we should go to him. So anyway, absolutely. Yeah. Well, I mean, in this we see uh and what you'd said this that God would rather hear an honest complaint than a fake prayer. So, where does that challenge maybe our understanding than of what acceptable prayer looks like to God? So, I took a lot of English classes in college for my communication major and and uh creative writing classes and speech classes and all that kind of stuff. And I've wrestled with that particular, okay, what is prayer? Um, and I actually think honest prayer does have words, but I think honest prayer is sometimes silence. And that's probably the contemplative in me that's been growing over the last decade. um that I think attention and searching and questioning and trying to understand I think all of that is prayer. Um and I think it's about a posture of the heart that's open toward God. Um, and that's why we made the phrase we uh used last night of I think it's people with immature faith rush ahead of God or they run away from God when things get difficult and they deconstruct and just give it up and Habakkuk could have done that um could have said God this isn't right uh and you shouldn't be doing it this way you should be doing it a different way and could have run away could have gone to the Baal temple down the Um but he didn't. Um he could have rushed ahead and tried to fix things on God's behalf. Instead, he just goes up at a watchtower and plants his feet and says, "I'm going to wait on God." And I don't know if there were a lot of words in those moments. I don't know how long he was up there. Um we don't know. But I think that's the beauty of what a moment of not a moment of silence like you know at a sports game where you take a moment of silence for someone but I think the practice of silence and solitude. Um gosh, I have had more deep interaction engagement with God in some of my silence and solitude that didn't have a lot of words to it that I think was uh a beneficial prayer session with very few words. Um and I think that's where Habach got his perspective changed and why we have verse or chapter 3 which is a psalm uh or a poem that that he that he sings. So you have a guy who is shouting in chapter one at God who turns into a singer to God in the arc of that. It's beautiful. Yeah. Yeah. I think that we almost treat prayer as this performative thing sometimes. Yes. Where we do feel like we need a creative writing class and we do need some English lessons to compose a brilliant prayer. Right. And yet if God just wants the honesty, if God already knows what's in my heart, I don't need to do the performative thing. I almost just need to. It's the taking the deep breath. Yep. When you're just too tired to care anymore and you just you let it go. Yep. You know, like I think that those are the prayer moments that have been meaningful that Yeah. I want to be respectful of God, but sometimes in your prayers, you might let slip a four-letter word. And I don't like I have I think God knows our heart enough to know that we're not trying to diminish his holiness in any way in those moments. God just he sees the struggle of the soul. Yeah. So how meaningful is it to just know that the Holy Spirit already intercedes for us with prayers that we don't even know we need words. So yeah, like we may just be groaning in weeping and crying and the Holy Spirit's already translating all of that for us anyway and praying that on our behalf. I think the beauty is often occasionally I will say uh not often but occasionally when I have let the rawness come out um I get a four-letter love a four-letter word in return and that's love um that you just begin to see and feel and sense literally almost the embrace of God. That's pretty cool. That's pretty cool when you have those moments. So, may you have more of those moments in your life, especially when you're going through uh the deep end kind of pain and that season of um what feels like confusion and you don't know if you're going to get out of it. there's someone there with you in the midst of it. That's what Habakkuk learns. So, yeah, it feels like a timely message for our church that we've got families who are dealing with relational fallout. Yep. We've got people who are walking through divorce that they didn't ask for. We've got people who are walking through job loss, health scares. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you just It's been a season of uncertainty. Yeah. You know, and you said this that God changed Habakkuk long before he changed the circumstances. Uh and so for those who might be in that season where they're hoping for the change of circumstances and yet maybe God's trying to bring some change of heart, like why do you think God often works this way? And what do you think he might be trying to develop in us in these waiting seasons? H I've never been a a steel worker. I'm a Steelers fan. And so, but the steel worker when they're fashioning steel and it's like red hot and they're pounding away at it, but they form it into some beautiful artistry and incredible work of art. And yet the process to get to that is like a beating. Um, and yet the beauty of what you behold after the fact is an incredible thing. So sometimes the reality is to get to the beautiful expression of a deepened character with God or a deeper walk with God, it takes going through the pounding. It's the entering into the fellowship of his sufferings that Paul talks about. Uh I want to experience the resurrection power of Jesus. But you don't rush to that like you don't just get that like injected into you. Uh you have to go through some of the fellowships of his sufferings that actually pours in the power. So you get the ticket uh to the grace and the power that you need the moment that you're in it. Uh you don't get that ahead of time. Um so but it is the beauty after the fact that is worth uh going through the difficulties or the tensions and the stretching that's taking place. Yeah. So, and it's easy when you're in the midst of that again to want to rush ahead of God and solve it, fix it, find the shortcut, or to give up, run away, and say, "This is too hard." Um, but you don't get to see the beauty of the artistry and the character development uh within your own soul and your own heart without waiting and going through the process. If you're in the process right now, may I just recommend press pause on this video and look up Bibo Norman. Be ebo. Such a southern good old southern boy name. BBO. Bibbo Norman. He has a song from the early 2000s, maybe even late 90s called The Hammer Holds. And it is so good. That's awesome. Bibbo Norman, The Hammer Holds. I'm going to Google it. You said that word, didn't. So, um, yeah, last question here and then we'll do the application and wrap it up here. So, going back to Corey Tinboom, uh, you mentioned her story, but you quoted her at the end of the sermon said, "Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God." Isn't that great? What is it that we know about God's character that helps us trust him with unknown futures? I think we were talking I think about this before we started recording that uh sometimes we're encouraged I know you are too when you see the work of God throughout history and so you see the past historical workings of God uh through obviously through the life of Jesus the early church um some of the martyrs of the faith the leaders of the early church into the third fourth fifth century, you get to Martin Luther and you get to like modern day like Billy Grahams and things like that. And so you just go, gosh, God's been on the move and active throughout history for a long time. Uh long before I got here and he'll be at work long after I'm gone. Um, and so I take solace and hope in that that um the reason I can trust my unknown moment of history to a known God is a he knows me. I can know him through faith in Jesus. I can look back and go, "Yeah, she's been active and present and responsive and helpful and enduring through so much." Yeah. Yeah. He's earned my trust uh because of the of the past and the validity of how he's been faithful. So, it's his faithfulness uh not mine. it's his faithfulness that I can trust and go, okay, then that person, it's the same way in any relationship that you have that when you have trustworthy people, um, then you're okay trusting them. When you don't have trustworthy people, you shouldn't trust them. And so, when God has proven his trustworthiness, his faithfulness, then I can trust my unknown future to that known God. It's what led Paul to write that he who began a good work in you will be faithful completed. Yeah. And he's shown that in the lives of many, many believers ever since those words were pinned. So, yep. All right. A couple thoughts on application, some suggestions, things that you can practice this week if you want to uh find some sort of a actual takeaway, something that you can apply to your life. So, uh number one is this. Start a watchtower practice. Identify one practice that helps you position yourself to hear from God. Whether that be your morning prayer, uh writing in your journal, uh taking a weekly day of Sabbath, uh maybe it's a physical place you can go. You can escape up to Mount Lemon and go for a hike and bring some food into a picnic. um start a watchtower practice and then commit to doing that practice at least three times this week and then use that time to intentionally sit in silence and just wait for God to speak. Just wait and listen, asking God to speak to you. Number two, maybe it's this for you. It's write it down like God told Habakkuk to write down the vision. Journal your current questions, complaints, or waiting room situations. After you've written out the situation and just vented what's going on, write down what you know to be true about God's character, even if you don't feel it right now in this moment. Number three, practice yet worship. So each day this week, identify something difficult in your life and follow it with yet I will jo. and list something true about God's character or faithfulness. That might be a good one to write down, but even just to speak that out loud. What's something difficult that took place during your day? Mention that to God. And yet, I'll rejoice in the Lord because fill in the blank. So, side note to that one, I almost I didn't have enough time to pull it off for this Sunday, but I almost tried to recreate the yield sign uh and just cross out the red and the and make it yellow and just put yet. Um kind of like the Yeti thing that you see of the Sasquatch Rockman. Um and but I couldn't get it here fast enough. So, I was like, man, I was going to hand it out to everybody because you know me and props, I like props. Anyway, but so maybe in your own hand scratching on a scratching note or on a sticky note, just put a a yet sign up on your mirror. That could every time you you're getting ready in the morning and you go, "Okay." Yep. Yet. Yeah. Then last one here, share your story. Think of a time when you had to wait on God and he came through, even if it was differently than you expected him to come through. and then share this story with someone this week to encourage them in their way. So there you have it. Takeaways nerding out over the book of Habakkuk. Thanks for joining us for that. We uh How many K's are inHabakkuk? Three Ks. Three Ks. One B. One B. One B. Three Ks. Yeah. Habakkuk There you go. Yeah. Maybe we don't end there, but you know that's strikeouts. We're talking strikeouts. Strikeouts. baseball season. Any who, hope you have a great week. Uh, next week we'll be back. Zephaniah, and then uh we've got Haggi and Zechariah. That's it. Three more books. We'll cover Malachi at a time to be determined and Jonah we cover. So, but yeah, down the road. Appreciate you all and uh yeah, hope you have a blessed week.

The Minor Prophets: Habakkuk As we continue our trek through The Minor Prophets. The book of Habakkuk is one where we find the permission to bring our questions to God. We’re to stay anchored and waiting on Him. His timetable and processes may not be the ones we want, but we’re reminded that His Sovereignty is ultimately in control and He is for our good. Habakkuk tells us the righteous are to live by faith. Faith is not the absence of doubt, but biblical faith is choosing to trust God over your own perceptions. Biblical faith says: I trust the God who is good, whether or not I can see what good He is up to in this moment. Faith invites us to anchor ourselves in worship in the midst of our “waiting room” seasons. The Minor Prophets Minor in length, not in message Three words sum up the message of all of The Minor Prophets: Return. Repent. Restore. Return to the Lord and His covenant. Repent of your sins. Experience restoration with God. he Book of Habakkuk 3 chapters (can be read in 6 minutes) Habakkuk begins in confusion and ends in renewed confidence. He starts with questions and finishes with worship. The Historical Situation: —612-605 B.C. -Babylon—one of history’s most brutal empires—is rising. -Habakkuk, a prophet whose name likely means “to embrace” or “wrestler”—takes his grief directly to God. The nation of Judah was spiritually declining after the reforms of King Josiah. Violence, corruption, injustice, and idolatry were spreading. Meanwhile, a new world power was emerging: Babylon. God's people were drifting, and the culture around them was becoming increasingly hostile to God's ways. He feels stuck ‘WAITING’ — but instead of abandoning God when he feels stuck in a season of waiting — he brings his anguish, his questioning, his complaints TO GOD! Habakkuk is known as the psalmist prophet Habakkuk doesn't primarily speak for God to the people. He speaks to God on behalf of the people. Habakkuk 1:1-5 NLT This is the message that the prophet Habakkuk received in a vision.How long, O LORD, must I call for help? But you do not listen! “Violence is everywhere!” I cry, but you do not come to save.Must I forever see these evil deeds? Why must I watch all this misery? Wherever I look, I see destruction and violence. I am surrounded by people who love to argue and fight.The law has become paralyzed, and there is no justice in the courts. The wicked far outnumber the righteous, so that justice has become perverted.The LORD replied, “Look around at the nations; look and be amazed! For I am doing something in your own day, something you wouldn’t believe even if someone told you about it. The book opens with what scholars call a “lament dialogue”—a genre present throughout the Psalms and the book of Job. ==Habakkuk is not having a crisis of faith. He is having Real faith talk with God. Dead religion talks about God or performs rituals for God. A living faith argues with God. Goes to God…converses with God - seeks God and LISTENS……listens & looks for His answers, his activity, his leadings… QUOTE: “Prayer is not overcoming God’s reluctance; it is laying hold of His highest willingness.” — Martin Luther Prayer is about engaging with God…relationally. Habakkuk does exactly that. He lays hold of God with both hands and will not let go until God speaks and engages back… God does speak—and His answer is almost worse than the silence. see V. 5-11 This sends Habakkuk into his second complaint (1:12–2:1). It is a longer, and a careful theologically sophisticated protest. He appeals to the character of God. And then, in one of Scripture’s most beautiful moments of holy stubbornness, Habakkuk says in 2:1 I will climb up to my watchtower and stand at my guard post. There I will wait to see what the Lord says and how he will answer my complaint. He changes his location…setting… *Mark Batterson (pastor / author) always says: “Change of pace + change of place = change of perspective” Habakkuk climbs the tower not to see more clearly in the darkness, but to position himself to receive new light from God. Habakkuk: is teaching us to Keep Trusting God Even When Life Doesn't Make Sense The Bible does not censor HABAKKUK’S questions. Biblical faith is not pretending everything is okay, when it’s not. Many people think faith means never questioning. Scripture teaches something different. The Psalms are filled with questions. Job asked questions. Jeremiah asked questions. — key Insight: One of the major themes of Habakkuk is God's sovereignty over history. The Lord is not merely reacting to world events. He is directing history toward His purposes. Truth is: God remains the King of Kings - The King over All even when earthly rulers appear all powerful. Immature FAITH runs away from God or rushes ahead of God Mature Faith learns to Wait on God… Habakkuk 2:1 I will climb up to my watchtower and stand at my guard post. There I will wait to see what the Lord says Habakkuk chooses to wait. Not quit. Not walk away. Not become cynical. But Wait on God. And it's in the waiting that God adjusts his perspective... Habakkuk 2:2-4 ESV And the LORD answered me: “Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it.For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.“Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith. Quote: “Waiting on God requires the willingness to bear uncertainty, to carry within oneself the unanswered question, lying in the darkness as a seed lies in the winter ground.” — Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction The wait—the time between promise and fulfillment—is not wasted time. The Righteous Shall Live by Faith (v. 4) But what did Habakkuk mean? The Hebrew word (faith) אמונה (emunahh) is richer than our English “faith.” It carries connotations of steadfastness, reliability, trustworthiness—almost the sense of “fidelity.” The righteous person is one who lives in a posture of settled trust in God’s character and word, especially when circumstances give no visible reason for trust. In Habakkuk’s context, this is revolutionary. The Babylonians are coming. Everything visible screams that God has lost, or does not care, or cannot be trusted. And into that darkness, God says: the one who is truly righteous does not live by what they see. They live by what I have said. 3 Things This Faith Is Not 1. Faith is not the absence of doubt. Habakkuk doubted fiercely. Faith is choosing to trust God’s word over your own perceptions. Doubt and faith are not opposites. Doubt says “I don’t understand you, God.” Unbelief says “I won’t trust you, God.” Habakkuk doubted. He did not unbelieve God… He still chose to TRUST GOD. 2. Biblical faith is not positive thinking or just pure positive thinking. ==Biblical faith says “I trust the God who is good, whether or not I can see what good He is doing.” 3. Faith is not a feeling. Nowhere does God tell Habakkuk, “Feel better about this.” Faith in Scripture is always an orientation of the will, not a condition of the emotions. You can be terrified and faithful at the same time. Quote: “Faith is not believing in spite of evidence. Faith is obeying in spite of consequence.” — Os Guinness, God in the Dark Then as Habakkuk begins to wrap up and move toward the end (ch. 3)…he invites us into the END OF THE MATTER - what we’re to do in the midst of our confusion at times, our lack of understanding, our questioning of God — WORSHIP anyway… Worship as an ANCHOR FOR LIFE Habakkuk 3:2 NLT I have heard all about you, Lord. I am filled with awe by your amazing works. In this time of our deep need, help us again as you did in years gone by. And in your anger, remember your mercy. Habakkuk 3:17-19 Even though the fig trees have no blossoms, and there are no grapes on the vines; even though the olive crop fails, and the fields lie empty and barren; even though the flocks die in the fields, and the cattle barns are empty, 18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation! 19 The Sovereign Lord is my strength! He makes me as surefooted as a deer, able to tread upon the heights. This may be one of the strongest statements of faith in Scripture. Though the fig tree does not bud... Though there are no grapes on the vines... Though the olive crop fails... Though there are no sheep... Though there are no cattle... Yet I will rejoice in the Lord. Notice he does not rejoice in circumstances. He rejoices in God. Takeaways for Modern day Disciples 1. Bring Your Questions to God God welcomes honest faith. You do not need to hide your doubts, fears, or confusion. Faith isn't pretending. Faith is bringing everything to Him. 2. Trust God's Character When You Cannot Understand His Ways Habakkuk doesn’t receive every answer to every question. But he learns something better. He learns God can be trusted. 3. ANCHOR your life in Worship Habakkuk's circumstances remained difficult. His confidence grew because his focus shifted from the problems - to the Lord. A Growing & Maturing faith says: "Even if I don't understand, I will trust." "Even if the answer is delayed, I will trust.” "Even if I must wait, I will trust." The invitation is to anchor your life in the God who remains faithful, sovereign, and good no matter what’s unfolding… He’s the same God yesterday, today and forever — even when we cannot yet see what He’s up to or understand fully all that He is doing… ==There’s a lot of things we can get caught up in while we’re in the "waiting room" seasons of life… We can become consumed by irritation or anger We can shipwrecked by disappointment and doubt Give ourselves over to distractions We can get lost in worry or fear We can pull back into isolation OR We can position ourselves to WORSHIP (while we wait on God) — we worship the ONE who is sovereign and supreme & grow our trust in Him. Quote: "Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God." -Corrie ten Boom

Dear Roger and Friends, I came across your website while searching for information on who wrote Esther. Some of what you wrote led me to believe you may be open to a particular theory. Given that the book of Esther is a firsthand account, and since it includes a significant amount of detail regarding the events, why haven’t theologians and Bible scholars postulated that Esther may be the author? Why wouldn’t a woman be considered as a potential contributor to some of the books of the Bible? Thank you! Jenna Dear Jenna, Thank you for giving so much thought to a biblical question that isn’t often addressed but does have great significance. Before we dig into the nitty gritty of the text, history, and culture surrounding Esther, please note that we do NOT know with certainty who wrote the book of Esther. It is anonymous. Because of that, we must hold our conclusions with humility. INTRODUCTION The book of Esther is a wild ride with profound application to our lives today. In Mike Cosper’s book Faith Among the Faithless, Cosper argues that in this tale of sex, ego, and revenge set in a pluralistic, pagan society is relevant for anyone living in the modern West. Like other authors, Cosper also challenges some of our Sunday School readings that ignore the challenges of Mordecai and Esther’s own complicity in moral compromises. Like us, Esther is a complicated woman who, while being a hero of the faith, is not sinless. Your suggestion that Esther herself may have written all or part of the book is certainly possible. Unlike some biblical books, the book of Esther never identifies its author. The most prominent authorship possibilities that scholars have proposed are: Mordecai (based partly on Esther 9:20, where Mordecai records events connected to Purim). A Jewish court official living in Persia. A later Jewish historian or compiler who had access to Persian records and eyewitness traditions. Or, (less commonly) Esther herself. Most conservative scholars today tend to favor an author who lived relatively close to the events and who had access to Persian court customs and records. Could Esther have been the author? It's possible, though there is no direct evidence. Arguments in favor: The events which involve her specifically are written with much more detail than those that don’t (contrasted with the events involving Mordecai). The book contains intimate details about Esther's experiences and the workings of the royal court. At places, the narrative even shares Esther’s emotions. Some scenes reflect the perspective of someone close to Esther. It would be a mistake to assume Esther could not read or write simply because she was a woman. The events of Esther take place in the Persian Empire, and Esther became a powerful queen. While literacy was not widespread in the ancient world, women in royal households often had access to education, scribes, and administrative resources that ordinary people did not possess. Therefore, Esther's literacy is entirely plausible, even if it cannot be proven. Ancient works were often based on eyewitness testimony, even when another person served as the final writer. Arguments against: The book frequently speaks about Esther in the third person. The narrative style feels more like a historical account than a personal memoir. References to official records (Esth. 2:23; 6:1; 10:2) suggest the author may have been compiling multiple sources. Esther contains information that Esther herself likely would not have known firsthand (for example, conversations, decisions, and events occurring outside her presence, as well as details extending beyond her personal experience). The evidence so far leaves us uncertain about the probability of Esther’s authorship. What about tone and the lack of God’s name? Some have said that the portions of the story that include her are written with a noticeable humility compared to those typically written by men, which often seem more authoritarian, or which may possess a greater amount of certainty in their tone. However, literary style is one of the more difficult forms of evidence to evaluate. Readers can perceive the same text quite differently. Some may detect a feminine voice, while others may simply see the humility and restraint characteristic of biblical narrative generally (consider Matthew and John’s frequent admission of the lack of the apostles’ faith in the gospels, for instance). For that reason, most scholars are hesitant to draw conclusions about authorship from tone alone. I am not persuaded that the absence of God's name points to female authorship. The omission of God's name is one of the most discussed features of Esther, and scholars have proposed many explanations. Some believe it highlights God's hidden providence working behind the scenes. Others suggest the author was writing for Jews living in exile within a Persian context. Whatever the explanation, the book consistently points to God's providential care even though His name never appears. Most scholars view this omission as a literary and theological choice rather than evidence regarding the author's gender. For those reasons, many scholars conclude that Esther's testimony likely stands behind portions of the book even if she was not the final author. What about the historicity of Esther? This is where the debate becomes more significant. Critical scholars have sometimes questioned Esther's historicity because: Esther is not mentioned in surviving Persian records. The book contains dramatic reversals and literary features that resemble a novella. Some details cannot be independently verified. Conservative scholars generally respond that: Our surviving Persian records are fragmentary and omit countless historical figures. The book demonstrates remarkable familiarity with Persian customs, court procedures, and geography. Many details once questioned have proven consistent with what we know about the Persian Empire. The author repeatedly appeals to official records and archives, suggesting an intention to write history rather than fiction. Most evangelical scholars, therefore, view Esther as a fundamentally historical account, even while recognizing its sophisticated literary artistry. In other words, a book can be carefully structured, beautifully written, and theologically purposeful while still describing real events. Could women have contributed to biblical authorship? There are four notable possibilities of books with female authorship in the Bible: Esther, Ruth, Song of Songs, and Hebrews. Half of the verses of Song of Songs are spoken by a female, and some scholars have argued that the imagery centers on a woman’s perspective of romance and desire. While Samuel is traditionally ascribed authorship of Ruth, the book is anonymous, and some literary scholars argue that the intimate focus on female survival, mother-in-law dynamics, and domestic life indicates it may have been written or originally passed down by a woman. Hebrews is also anonymous. Scholars have suggested that the author could be Apollos, Barnabas, Paul, Luke, or Priscilla and Aquilla (although the masculine singular verb in Hebrews 11:32 makes it less likely). As for women contributing to Scripture more broadly, it is important to remember that women played a significant role in the transmission of biblical revelation even when they were not the final writers of biblical books. Miriam, Deborah, Hannah, Mary, and others composed songs, prayers, and prophetic declarations that are preserved in Scripture. Luke's infancy and childhood narratives may well reflect traditions that originated with Mary herself. Mary Magdalene was the first person to see and proclaim the risen Savior. Christians should not assume that women were absent from the process by which God gave his Word to his people. Concluding thoughts The book of Esther never tells us who wrote it, so we cannot be certain. My own view is that the final book likely incorporates eyewitness testimony from people such as Esther and Mordecai, while neither of them probably served as the final author. The detailed knowledge of court life certainly suggests access to people who were close to the events. It does not seem probable to me that Esther was the book’s final author, but neither should the possibility be dismissed out of hand. As Christians, we do not need to choose between inspiration and the use of sources. Throughout Scripture, God often worked through human authors who used records, traditions, eyewitness accounts, and earlier writings. The doctrine of inspiration applies to the final text God gave his people. Regarding historicity, I believe Esther records real events. While some scholars view it as historical fiction or a novella, the book displays extensive knowledge of Persian culture and repeatedly refers to official records. For these reasons, I find the traditional view that Esther is a historical account written from reliable sources to be the most convincing perspective. Ultimately, the most important point is not identifying the precise human author but recognizing God's providence in preserving this account. The book's message remains the same: even when God seems absent, He is actively at work to preserve his people and accomplish his purposes. Well Jenna, we hope that this gives you some helpful truth and opinions to chew on as you continue to consider the role of Ester—and many other women—in the authorship of the Bible. Be encouraged! God accomplishes His will through His people, every time. John Beeson Brie Barrier Wetherbee

Dancing with the Baptists A Time to Dance Ecclesiastes 3 and selected scriptures S-1722 In marriage and in life, timing is everything. To the best of our ability, we’d like to demonstrate this concept for you this morning. We would have liked to call this sermon dancing with the stars, but when you see our skill level, we resorted to calling this “Dancing with the Baptists.” Many of us are living our relationships out of sync. Many couples live their married lives fighting for control. It might look something like this” Tango-“My way, we’ll do it my way….””No, my way we’ll do it my way.” Some of us live our relationships like a sleepy two-step. We never work on our marriage, we never spice it up, or try to grow. I call this the “Middle School Sway.” Two-step-(snoring) “Only You” Often, we just spend our time stepping on each other’s toes. Nagging, griping, snipping and arguing. It might look something like this:’ (Stepping on each other’s toes “These boots are made for walking.” After a while, we just give up trying to get along, and basically live under the same roof, doing our own thing. We ignore each other. Dancing apart-60’s style to “Twist and Shout.” When we live in sync-we feel the rhythm of our partner. We agree to move as one according to a plan, and we enjoy the feeling of holding each other closely. (Dance a typical ballroom dance.) Learning to dance together is hard work. But it can bring such joy and fulfillment to our lives. Let’s take just a moment this morning and talk about how we can learn to live in sync. When We Think About Marriage, Solomon Did Not Dance Well. His Timing Was Off. He wrote Song of Solomon in his early years as a love letter to his first wife. By mid life Solomon was enjoying a great relationship with his wife. Proverbs 5:15-18: Drink water from your own cistern, running water from your own well. May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth. This is the way God planned it: “One woman for one man for a lifetime.” Proverbs 18:22: “He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favor from the LORD.” But, sometime thereafter he stopped dancing with his wife. He began dancing with every woman at the party He never had a satisfying relationship with women again! ECCLESIASTES 2:8-9: I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired men and women singers, and a harem as well — the delights of the heart of man. Harem was the key: No longer dancing with God’s plan for their marriage—too many women! Listen to this sad statement: ECCLESIASTES 7:28: while I was still searching but not finding — I found one [upright] man among a thousand, but not one [upright] woman among them all. He danced with one too many. He lost the wife of his youth—and his love for any. In his dealings with women, Solomon changed from a lover to a loser—no woman in her right mind would want him as a husband as he got older. Solomon reminds me of the husband who came home drunk every night and fell into bed fully clothed, passed out, and snored loudly all night long. His wife was losing much sleep because of his snoring. She went to her doctor and said, “Doc, I can’t take it any longer. How can I make him stop snoring? The doctor said that the answer was so simple that he wouldn’t even charge her. The next time her husband passed out and started to snore, she was to take a ribbon and tie it around his nose, and the snoring would stop. That night her husband came in fell on the bed, fully dressed, passed out and snored. The wife got up, pulled a blue ribbon from her dresser, and tied it around his nose. Sure enough, the snoring stopped and she got a restful night’s sleep. Next morning, the wife, fully refreshed, was preparing breakfast. She asked her husband, as he was awakening, “Honey, where were you last night? The husband, still fully clothed, looked in the mirror, saw the blue ribbon around his nose, and replied, “I don’t know but wherever I was, I won first prize.” In truth, Solomon lost his most precious prize: he lost the wife of his youth. After all his escapades, here is Solomon’s conclusion. ECCLESIASTES 9:9: “Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love ….” Ecclesiastes 3:1 is an overview of the poem and calls attention to the stages of life. ECCLESIASTES 3: 1: There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: A time to be born, a time to die. In the stages of a relationship, there are beauties and blessings no matter what your stage of life. In marriage, God intended for every day of our lives to be sweeter. In the honeymoon stage, my stomach got butterflies when he looked at me. Every time the phone rang, I wished it were his voice. I thought he was the sexiest man alive. Now I know better! Then came the kiddie years. What joy holding those babies together was for us. We remember all the birthday parties. Bronwyn was born in November, so we’d buy the leftover Halloween costumes (the non-scary ones) and have a dress-up party complete with chubby bunnies and sack races. Roger called those years the golden years. I called them the lead years. My favorite stage was the teenage years with our girls. Here's our favorite river-fatting trip with our teenagers. In the middle years we've had some great fun while the kids are grown. We loved backpacking through Europe, hopping trains and climbing Alps. Now we finish each other's sentences, and order the same thing at restaurants. Here's a photo of teaching in Turkey last month. We do more things together now than we ever have. Graph of Marial Happiness. Important to know where we are on the graph. "A time to be born--and a time to die." And that moment of separation is hard. STORY: Paul's wife in hospital. I just want to die.....and see Paul.....: Julie and I plan to meet each other at the Eastern Gate in heaven. This Passage Is Hebrew Poetry. Approach Its Shades Or Meanings—Nuances and hues: Antithetical Hebrew Poetry: contrasts opposites Let’s look at it today from a relationship and marriage perspective. A MARRIAGE IS A RELATIONSHIP WHICH IS CULTIVATED OVER TIME. A time to plant and a time to uproot A time to tear down and a time to build, A time to keep and a time to throw away A time to scatter stones and a time to gather them Marriage is not like building a house. It is more like nurturing a tree. It needs water, fertilizer and sun. HOW HAVE WE CULTIVATED OUR RELATIONSHIP? Spiritual preparation. Some of the things that deepened our love were studying Proverbs and Romans together - even when we were apart, we would keep our Bible study going by letters. Roger and I started pastoring our first church before we married when he was 20 and I was 18. There is not a time in our lives that we were not in ministry together- and we are so grateful. We have carefully based our marriage on Biblical principles. 80% of people who live together before marriage get a divorce. 60% of people who get married by a justice of the peace get a divorce. 40% of those who are married in the church get a divorce. For those who read their Bible together every day the divorce rate is 1 in 1051. God has a marriage plan carefully outlined in Scriptures: It begins in Genesis two where God says, “It is not good for man to be alone, I will make a partner for him…. All the way to Revelation 5 where Jesus Christ demonstrates what an ideal husband might look like! Ephesians 5: I want to love Julie as Christ loved His church. He gave His life for the church. He took a towel and washed their feet. Two weeks after marriage. Thursday afternoon off. Deciding what to do together when the phone rang: My Dad, “Let’s go play golf.” We played together every Thursday and Saturday. “OK, I’ll meet you in 20 minutes.” Turned around and tears were streaming down Julie’s cheeks. Learned a powerful lesson of love that day. Called my dad, “Sorry, not today. Let’s plan for another day this week. My goal is to meet her needs first. I am not free to do my own thing until I know that her needs are met. If relationships are not carefully cultivated, they sour over time. The first year the husband says, “Honey, I worried about my little baby girl. You’ve got a bad sniffle. I want to put you in the hospital for a complete check-up. I know hospital food is lousy, so I’ll arrange for Macaroni Grill to send your meals up.” The second year: “listen, honey, I don’t like the sound of that cough. I’ve called Dr. Miller and he’s going to rush right over.” Third year: “Maybe you’d better lie down, honey. I’ll make some soup.” Fourth year: “Look, dear. Be sensible. After you’ve fed the kids and washed the dishes, you’d better hit the sack.” Fifth year: “Why don’t you just gargle, or something instead of just sitting around barking like a seal. And stop sneezing. What do you want to do, give me pneumonia?” MARRIAGE IS DEVELOPING SENSITIVITY TO OTHERS A time to weep and a time to laugh A time to mourn and a time to dance A time to embrace and a time to refrain A time to be silent and a time to speak Guys need to be sensitive. There is a time to b silent and a time to speak. I wanted to compliment my wife when she came home from the beauty shop, so I said, "Hey Babe, what's up with your hair." I met a pastor-husband last week who gave his wife a bathroom scale and a set of hand weights for her birthday. I think he had a death wish. Notice that men and women are different. Men and women go on an overnight retreat. They’re so very different. What is the first question men ask when they arrive? “What for dinner? Is it meat?” What is the first question women want answered? “Where is the bathroom.” Dr. Willard Harley has written a fascinating book entitled His Needs/Her Needs. Five Major Needs of Woman Five Major Needs of Men 1. Affection 1. Sexual Fulfillment 2. Conversation 2. Recreational Companionship 3. Honesty and Openness 3. An attractive spouse 4. Financial support 4. Domestic support 5. Family Commitment 5. Admiration Not one of the top five is the same. Let's just take the top two of the women's needs and the top one of the man's needs. A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing. Solomon is talking about the different wiring men and women have. Men and women approach sex in a very different way. Embracing and Refraining—This is the first woman in the Bible who said, “I have a headache.” Wives, we need to be sensitive to the sexual needs of our husbands, but hubbies, here’s a word for you. Solomon describes his lovemaking in the Song of Solomon: Several times he says, “Do not stir up love until it pleases.” Then he spends three chapters complimenting and praising her. He is not in a hurry. Unfortunately, too many husbands today practice drive-by sex—“bodda bing, bodda boom. Then he follows it up with: “Honey, is there any more Rocky Road in the fridge? Ladies, we’re not much better. Think about how we keep—or don’t keep romance alive by our choice of night wear. The first five years, you’re ordering those tiny fur and sequined little numbers from Victoria’s Secret. The second ten years you the after Christmas sales and buy P.J.’s with flannel and flowers, complete with the smell of baby poo and formula. The next ten years you wear the U of A jersey you found on the clearance rack at Walmart. And finally, you put on your husband’s holey undershirts just before they become dust rags. Not Solomon—after three chapters of describing to her his love and her beauty. He begins to undress her in chapter four and she’s wearing the right stuff. In the area of sex, this can help keep the romance alive. Sensitivity means that we have cultivated the art of reading the feelings and emotions of people around us. Behaviors—Feelings—Needs Ephesians 4:29-30: “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs , that it may benefit those who listen.” Behaviors—Feelings—Needs Julie has carefully cultivated the skill of losing everything of importance at one time or other in her life—some things multiple times. This is behavior! I remember one time that her keys were at Burger King, her cell phone was at Albertsons and her purse was in Houston. I hated this useless behavior. I used to get so angry at her. Then I began to look a little deeper. Physically we discovered that she was bipolar and it was causing all sorts of difficulties in her life. He mind was going so fast that it was head to focus on any one thing. It is hard to keep up with a purse when your mind is thinking about 10 to 15 different things all at the same time. How is she feeling? miserable, incompetent, criticized, condemned, unloved, worthless? She needed Love, attention, understanding, acceptance. I stopped yelling at her behavior and began focusing on her feelings and needs. She needed my support—not my raised voice. When you think about the things that irritate you about your spouse-the things you’d like to change, the dirty socks, the morning breath, the shopping sprees, remember this word from Solomon: “Enjoy your wife while you have her, for life is a mist.” Jim McClure told me a story about Donna just after she died. He said, “early in our marriage, I heard God say very clearly, “Cherish her while you have her. She won’t be with you forever.” I am going to take a moment and do something I hope you’ll do this Valentine’s Day—tell your spouse how much you love her! I loved you at first sight. You burst through the church door thirty minutes late, went right to the piano and sang like an angel, then turned and sat down. I knew in my soul our hearts would grow old together---forever. I love your open heart and revelation of the Lord Jesus inside. I knew in that moment we were on the same page and could be one for all time. I love your spiritual soul… your servant’s heart … the care you give me, our girls and their husbands, for other all around and for the soul of our church. The truth is, I love the essence of who you are—your wisdom, faithfulness, support, sensitivity, strength, grace, mercy, encouragement and compassion. I love to sit in our blue chairs and share our hearts, and look into your eyes, and smell your perfume and hold your hand. I love your lips turned up in a smile and your voice as you sing with the skill and grace of an angel. I love that we share our hurts and fears and hopes and dreams as very best friends. I love you for sharing those moments of quiet peace when nothing more needs be said. I love you for holding me so close that I will never forget the feeling of embracing the one person with whom I have shared my very soul. I love you for the closeness of intimacy that we share with each other alone. I love you for choosing me to be the one you meet at the Eastern Gate. I really do love you.

TRANSCRIPT: Everyone loves a great reveal. [music] If you saw it, you likely haven't forgotten the penultimate scene in the Sixth Sense [music] when everything you thought you understood was suddenly turned upside down or the final scene in the Usual Suspects when the mystery of Keyser Soze turns out to be right in front of you the whole time . [music] Genesis 3 contains one of the most devastating reveals in all of scripture. As the passage unfolds, Moses [music] forces us to reread the whole scene with new eyes. Hi, my name is John Beeson. Welcome to the Bee Hive. [music] The scene opens with a serpent. Now, the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord had made. Our eyes follow the serpent [music] as he approaches Eve and begins to question the word and character of God. He said to the woman, "Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat of any tree of [music] the garden?'" And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, [music] neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'" At this point, we scratch our heads. Is that what God said? It doesn't sound quite right. We do a double take back to God's command to Adam. [music] The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, "You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but [music] of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, you shall not eat. For in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die." Notice that God gave this command to Adam before Eve was formed. So, [music] when Eve fails to identify the tree clearly as the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and adds the phrase, "Neither shall you touch it," we ought to ask, "why does [music] Eve make this addition?" Was Eve trying to strengthen the command by adding an extra layer of protection? Or did Adam add that extra restriction when he communicated God's command to Eve? The text does not explicitly tell us, [music] but the addition matters. Something has already begun to shift in God's instructions as if they're open to human modification. The serpent sees the opening he needs. Eve's response reveals a possible fracture in her trust of God's goodness. And the serpent presses in. But [music] the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be open, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." So when the woman saw that the tree was good for good, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its [music] fruit and ate. As the scene unfolds, we cry out like an audience watching a horror movie. Don't open that door. Don't listen to the serpent. Don't [music] eat the fruit. But she does. The serpent directly contradicts what God said. [music] Then he ironically promises the couple that they will be like God even though God had already made them in His own image. In the image of God, He created him. Male and female He created them. [music] We might expect the scene to fade to black. Instead, the camera widens. [music] The tight shot on the woman and the serpent pulls back. And with that widening comes the greatest reveal. Adam has been with her all along. And she also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate. This isn't a rhetorical flourish. This is the great reveal that changes the way we read [music] the entire story. Adam stood by as Eve misstated the commandment. He stood by as the serpent twisted the truth about God's character. The one entrusted with the Word of God failed to speak the Word [music] of God. The one entrusted to care for his bride failed to protect her. Adam stood by as Eve took the fruit, as he himself also took the fruit. The couple went beyond a mere act of disobedience to an act of treachery by rebelling against their divine king while obeying the creature over which their king gave them authority. Adam's passivity continues to mount. The text continues, [music] "Then the eyes of both were open. Then they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together [music] and made themselves loin cloths. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. [music] Ashamed, Adam and Eve hid their bodies. Then they hid from [music] God." Sin always promises freedom, but it produces shame, fear, hiding, and separation from the presence of the Lord. God comes looking for Adam [music] first. But the Lord God called the man and said to him, "Where are you?" And he said, "I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid [music] myself." He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?" The man said, "The woman who you gave to be with me, she gave me the fruit of [music] the tree and I ate." Since God is omniscient, He already knows exactly where Adam is. His first question to Adam is perhaps [music] meant relationally to extend compassion to the one he knows is sitting in shame and fear. [music] Adam likewise responds emotionally and not locationally. Even in his rebellion and hiding, God's first response to Adam is to pursue him and express care for his well-being. [music] And yet, Adam refuses to take responsibility for his failure. Instead, he passive aggressively shifts [music] the blame onto Eve and ultimately onto God, the woman whom you gave to be with me. But God approached Adam first, not Eve. We may be tempted to think that Eve's sin was first and greater. But that is not how God looks at it. Scripture places covenantal responsibility on Adam. [music] Paul explains the devastating consequence. Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin. And so death spread to all [music] men. Sin entered the world through on man, Adam. Death came through sin. Adam's failure was not small. His silence was not neutral His passivity was a form of rebellion. Passivity is a sin for men and women alike. But Genesis 1 through 3 shows that it is a particularly destructive sin in [music] men because God calls men to responsibility, protection, leadership, and sacrificial [music] love. Adam was placed in the garden to work it and keep it. He was entrusted with God's word. He was given responsibility before he was given a wife. Yet the moment came to speak, to guard, to lead, and he stood [music] silently by. And husbands are specifically called not to selfishness, control, laziness, or appeasement, but to Christlike sacrificial love. Paul says, "Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her." For years, I was a [music] passive husband. I believed the lie, "Happy wife, happy life." I appeased and placated my wife, Angel. I didn't prioritize my time with her. I didn't protect her heart from the pain of ministry. I was not fiscally responsible. [music] I tried to compensate for my lack of emotional and spiritual leadership by mollifying her with things. [music] Our finances were a disaster. We regularly spent more than we made. Credit card debt mounted. I was present, but I was not leading. I was married, but I was not [music] faithfully carrying the responsibility God had given me as her husband. That [music] is the danger of passivity. It can appear gentle, agreeable, or easygoing. But beneath the surface, [music] passivity often refuses the weight of love. It avoids hard conversations. It delays obedience. It hides behind comfort. It lets others carry burdens God has assigned to us. In Genesis 3, before Eve clutched the fruit, Adam watched in silence. Beware the sin of passivity. [music] It is not a lesser sin. It was the first human failure, and its cost is incalculable. But thanks be to God. Adam's failure is not the final word. Where the first Adam failed, Christ, the second Adam, obeyed. Where Adam was silent in the garden, Jesus submitted to the Father in another garden. [music] Where Adam's sin brought death, Christ's obedience brings life. Therefore, Paul says, [music] "As one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to V life and justification and life for all men." For, as by the one [music] man's disobedience, the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience, that many will be made righteous. The hope for passive men and women i not self-improvement. [music] It is repentance and renewal in Christ. Jesus does not merely expose our failure. He redeems us from it. [music] He calls us out of hiding. He forgives our sin. And teaches us to walk in faithful obedience.

II Kings 13:14-21 When Elisha became sick with the illness of which he was to die, Joash the king of Israel came down to him, and wept over him and said, “My father, my father, the chariots of Israel and its horsemen!” And Elisha said to him, “Take a bow and arrows.” So he took a bow and arrows. Then Elisha said to the king of Israel, “Lay your hand on the bow.” And he laid his hand on it, then Elisha put his hands on the king’s hands. And he said, “Open the window toward the east,” and he opened it. Then Elisha said, “Shoot!” So he shot. And he said, “The LORD’S arrow of victory, and the arrow of victory over Aram; for you will defeat the Arameans at Aphek until you have put an end to them.” Then he said, “Take the arrows,” and he took them. And he said to the king of Israel, “Strike the ground,” and he struck it three times and stopped. Then the man of God became angry at him and said, “You should have struck five or six times, then you would have struck Aram until you put an end to it. But now you shall strike Aram only three times.” And Elisha died, and they buried him. Now the marauding bands of the Moabites would invade the land in the spring of the year. And as they were burying a man, behold, they saw a marauding band; and they threw the man into the grave of Elisha. And when the man touched the bones of Elisha, he revived and stood up on his feet. BACKGROUND A lot of time has lapsed since our last study in the life of Elisha. Let’s review a quick summary of all that took place in Israel and Judah leading up to Elisha’s death. Summary of 2 Kings 7–13:13 Major Events in Elisha’s Ministry Before His Death These chapters record some of the most dramatic miracles, political upheavals, and prophetic acts in Elisha’s ministry. They show God’s power over famine, war, disease, kings, and nations, while demonstrating both His judgment and mercy toward Israel. The Siege of Samaria Ends Miraculously (2 Kings 7) The kingdom of Israel was suffering under a severe siege by Aram (Syria). Food became so scarce that famine reached horrific levels. Elisha prophesied that within twenty-four hours, food would become plentiful and inexpensive. An officer of the king doubted the prophecy. That night, God caused the Aramean army to hear the sound of chariots and horses. Believing they were being attacked, they fled in panic, leaving behind their camp, supplies, and wealth. Four lepers discovered the deserted camp and brought the good news to Samaria. The prophecy was fulfilled exactly, and the skeptical officer was trampled to death at the city gate, seeing the blessing but never enjoying it. Key lesson: God’s promises are certain even when circumstances seem impossible. The Shunammite Woman Restored (2 Kings 8:1–6) Elisha warned the Shunammite woman whose son had been raised from the dead to leave Israel because of an approaching seven-year famine. After returning years later, she appealed to the king for the restoration of her property. At the very moment she arrived, Gehazi was telling the king about Elisha’s miracles, including the raising of her son. The king restored all her land and income. Key lesson: God’s providence works behind the scenes to care for His faithful people. Elisha Predicts Hazael’s Rise to Power (2 Kings 8:7–15) Elisha traveled to Damascus, where King Ben-Hadad of Aram was ill. Hazael was sent to ask whether the king would recover. Elisha foretold that Hazael would become king and would bring terrible suffering upon Israel. He wept because he foresaw the destruction Hazael would cause. Hazael then murdered Ben-Hadad and seized the throne. Key lesson: God knows future events and remains sovereign even over wicked rulers. Wicked Kings in Judah (2 Kings 8:16–29) Jehoram and later Ahaziah ruled Judah. Through marriage alliances with Ahab’s family, they adopted many of the sinful practices of Israel. This set the stage for God’s coming judgment on the house of Ahab. Jehu Anointed King of Israel (2 Kings 9) Elisha sent a young prophet to anoint Jehu as king and to commission him to destroy the house of Ahab. Jehu immediately led a revolt. He killed King Joram of Israel, King Ahaziah of Judah, and Queen Jezebel. Jezebel’s death fulfilled Elijah’s earlier prophecy that dogs would devour her body. Key lesson: God’s judgment may be delayed, but it is never forgotten. The Destruction of Ahab’s Dynasty (2 Kings 10) Jehu continued his purge by executing Ahab’s seventy sons, many officials and supporters of Ahab, and the worshipers of Baal throughout Israel. He destroyed Baal’s temple and temporarily removed Baal worship from Israel. However, Jehu failed to abandon the golden calf worship established by Jeroboam. Because of his partial obedience, God promised four generations of descendants on Israel’s throne, but Israel continued to decline spiritually. Key lesson: Partial obedience is still disobedience. Athaliah Usurps Judah’s Throne (2 Kings 11) After her son Ahaziah died, Athaliah attempted to destroy the royal family and seize power. A young prince named Joash was hidden in the Temple for six years by the priest Jehoiada and his wife. When Joash was seven years old, Jehoiada organized a coup, crowned him king, and executed Athaliah. The people renewed their covenant with God and destroyed Baal worship in Judah. Key lesson: God faithfully preserves the Davidic line through which the Messiah would eventually come. Joash Repairs the Temple (2 Kings 12) Under the guidance of Jehoiada, King Joash initiated major repairs to the Temple in Jerusalem. After Jehoiada’s death, however, Joash drifted spiritually and later compromised with foreign powers. Key lesson: Spiritual leadership greatly influences national faithfulness. Now we come to the end of Elisha’s life and his final acts of prophecy. EXAMINATION (V.14) When Elisha became sick with the illness of which he was to die, Joash the king of Israel came down to him, and wept over him and said, “My father, my father, the chariots of Israel and its horsemen!” Elisha was likely around 80 when he died. He led a full life of ministry, working with the various kings of Israel, as he did here with Joash. Elisha’s ministry was one of saving, blessing, and influence for the kingdom of God. This was unlike Elijah’s ministry, which was mainly judgment. There were two previous times that we heard this phrase, the chariots of Israel and its horsemen used about someone. The first time was when Elijah was being taken to heaven. Elisha looked up and cried out the chariots of Israel and its horsemen. The second time was when the army of Aram came to capture Elisha at his home in Dothan. Elisha prayed for his servant’s eyes to be opened, and his servant saw the chariots of Israel and its horsemen all around the city to protect Elisha. Now, King Joash uses this phrase to identify Elisha. He is acknowledging that Elisha is a true prophet of God, even though he himself preferred the worship of Jeroboam’s calves. We should note here that King Joash, because of this incident with Elisha, seemed to have some type of rudimentary faith in God. This is because he honored Elisha with the special phrase, the chariot of Israel and its horsemen. In addition, kings did not normally visit and wait on prophets. It was usually the other way around. But here, King Joash comes to Elisha to wait and mourn over him. So, he had some tenderness in his heart for the old prophet. King Joash was really not a true worshiper of God, but he had something in him that acknowledged God because of this. As such, Elisha honored him by prophesying in his favor, even on his deathbed. It seems that God will be with us when we are with him, even a little. (V.15-17) Elisha said to him, “Take a bow and arrows.” So he took a bow and arrows. Then Elisha said to the king of Israel, “Lay your hand on the bow.” And he laid his hand on it, then Elisha put his hands on the king’s hands. And he said, “Open the window toward the east,” and he opened it. Then Elisha said, “Shoot!” So he shot. And he said, “The LORD’S arrow of victory, and the arrow of victory over Aram; for you will defeat the Arameans at Aphek until you have put an end to them.” Elisha often used symbolic acts to drive home his prophesies. He used a common stick to cause the axe head to float. He used flour to heal the poisoned stew. He used salt to heal a city’s water source, and so on. Again, he uses symbolism to prophesy on the king’s behalf. The arrows, weapons of war, were used symbolically to proclaim victory by Israel over Aram. Because Elisha put his hands on the king’s hands, he was showing that the victory would be of God’s making. His hand would be with Israel. We see this reflected later in the chapter when it says, “The LORD was gracious to them and had compassion on them and turned to them because of His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and He was unwilling to eliminate them or cast them away from His presence until now” (II Kings 13:23). God would be with Israel because he loved them. (V.18-19) Then he said, “Take the arrows,” and he took them. And he said to the king of Israel, “Strike the ground,” and he struck it three times and stopped. Then the man of God became angry at him and said, “You should have struck five or six times, then you would have struck Aram until you put an end to it. But now you shall strike Aram only three times.” The prophet was angry with King Joash because he didn’t take the symbolism far enough. This meant their victory over Aram would not be complete. They would only defeat them three times. This was fulfilled in verse 25. (V.20-21) And Elisha died, and they buried him. Now the marauding bands of the Moabites would invade the land in the spring of the year. And as they were burying a man, behold, they saw a marauding band; and they threw the man into the grave of Elisha. And when the man touched the bones of Elisha, he revived and stood up on his feet. This account takes place one to two years after Elisha’s death, as only his bones were left. Elisha was probably buried in an open grave, like a cave or other such hole where his bones would have been exposed. There is an esoteric practice that is used by some of the prosperity gospel movement based upon this passage. It is called grave sucking. The idea is for a person who wants to be filled with the Holy Spirit to lie upon the grave of a person who was a godly man or woman, and therefore the spiritual blessings of that person and the filling of their spirit would be imparted to them as they lie upon their grave. This is nothing more than a cultic practice and has nothing to do with true Christianity. This passage was not meant to be prescriptive as to getting the blessings of a dead person. Simply, it was descriptive, showing that the power of Elisha’s ministry continued even after the grave. What does this short account represent? It represents Israel’s condition before the Lord. Like the dead man, Israel was dead in its sin and idol worship. But, if it heeded the ministry of Elisha, it could be spiritually revived. The same is true with us. Ephesians 2:1 says we are dead in our trespasses and sins. Only contact with the Lord Jesus can revive us from being spiritually dead to being spiritually alive to God. WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED? Even on his deathbed, Elisha was serving in his ministry, prophesying to the king of Israel. King Joash honored Elisha, though he did not follow the Lord fully. Elijah prophesied favorably for King Joash and his defeat against Aram. The power of Elisha’s ministry continued even in death. INTERPRETATION What is the author’s big idea? God will be with you when you are with him. Because Joash was friendly toward Elisha, God was with him in good favor. This was not the normal way it was with most of the kings of Israel. Elisha showed the king that God would be with him in war against Aram. He showed him that he would defeat them three times on his behalf. And he was even with Elisha in the grave when he revived a dead man. The scripture says, “For the eyes of the LORD roam throughout the earth, so that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely his” (II Chronicles 16:9). When we devote ourselves fully to the Lord, then the Lord is with us. But if we mix our worship of God with worship of other things or other people, then our relationship with God is limited. God cannot look upon sin. If we consider sin in our hearts, the scripture says the Lord will not hear us (Psalm 66:18). APPLICATION As we come to the end of our study of the lives of Elijah and Elisha, this is the most appropriate thing to give consideration to. Are we fully devoted to the Lord in every way? Is Jesus Christ the supreme chief affection of our lives? This is our sole application point for this study, as it is the most important question that we can ask ourselves. Is Jesus Christ the supreme affection of my life? What is it that you value in your life? When you think of the things that are important to you, what stands out as the most important thing of all? Is it a job? Is it a relationship with someone? Is it your status in life? What is it? The most important thing in our life should be our relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Everything else in life that we have or experience is temporary. Someday we will die, and it will all be left behind. We cannot take it with us. However, we take our relationship with God with us to the grave and beyond. If we will be with God now, we will be with God for eternity. Matthew 10:37-39 tells us the cost we must count if we want a true relationship with God. Jesus said, “The one who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and the one who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And the one who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. The one who has found his life will lose it, and the one who has lost his life on My account will find it.” What, or who, is the supreme affection of your life? Make Jesus Christ your complete and total priority in everything, and God will be with you as he was with Elisha and all the prophets and apostles of God. Consider praying this prayer as we close this study: “God, I thank you that you have made me, and all humanity, the supreme affection of your life. You gave up everything for us through Jesus Christ. Lord, how can I surrender every part of my life to you that I might make you my supreme affection also? Help me to live for you in everything that I do. Help me to evaluate every part of my life, as to whether or not it is submitted to you and under your leadership. I thank you for what you’re doing in my life. I thank you for calling me to you, for forgiving me, for giving me your salvation, and your Holy Spirit. I love you, Lord. Help me to love you more. Amen.”

Grace and Caution – Matthew 18:10-14 Hook: I never had a sister and I was never given a daughter, but I have been blessed with a wonderful granddaughter. She is a bundle of energy and like her grandpa Gary she has a delightful sense of humor, but she lives in Kansas City and that is a long way from Tucson. When she was four years old, and it was time for her baby brother to be born, I went to Kansas City to babysit her while her mom was giving birth at the hospital. Normally, she is a very independent girl, but at the age of 4 my little granddaughter stubbornly refused to be potty-trained. So after, I changed a smelly diaper, and while her mother was still at the hospital, I decided I should take this diaper outside to the trash can because I didn’t want to stink up the house. And, while I was outside my sweet little granddaughter thought it would be very funny to lock me out of the house. Only it was in January, 32 degrees outside, dark, lightly snowing and I was not dressed for cold weather. Did I mention I am a native Tucsonan and I hate the cold? When I asked her to unlock the front door she just giggled at me through the side window. I didn’t have keys for the house nor did I even have my cell phone to call her daddy. So, I walked over to the next door neighbor’s house, rang the doorbell, and asked them if I could use their phone to call 911. The operator very graciously sent the fire department to the house and one of the younger fire men climbed the fence, and went through an unlocked back window. It was all fun and games for my granddaughter until she saw this stranger climbing in the back window and then she became very frightened. Bursting into tears, she ran out the front door straight into my arms for comfort and protection. Having grandchildren is one of greatest blessings God has ever given me, but children are often a challenge for us, especially when we desire to love them well. Why does God value children? In today’s passage we are learning about valuing children. Scholars believe these verses, also apply to the importance of cherishing new believers, or those who are spiritually disconnected. Most translations start this section of scripture with the subheading “the Parable of the Lost Sheep”. But, when we read these verses in context we will see Jesus is continuing his message on the high worth God places on children (Matthew 18:1-9). Matthew 18:10-14 10) “See to it that you don’t despise one of these little ones, because I tell you that in heaven their angels continually view the face of my Father in heaven. 12) What do you think? If someone has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, won’t he leave the ninety-nine on the hillside and go search for the stray? 13) And if he finds it, truly I tell you he rejoices over that sheep more than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray. 14) In the same way it is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones perish.” CSB Matthew 18:10 is a transitional verse that could be taught with the passage above or it could go with today’s verses. The Greek word we translate “despise” in English in verse 10, is the compound Greek word “kataphroneo”, which literally means to “think down”. Much is often lost in translation when you are trying to find the perfect English word to describe a thought from another language. In English the word “despise” is a stronger emotion than to simply dislike or hate someone. It implies we are making a moral judgement or expressing a profound aversion for a person. In Greek “kata” is a simple word which means down, but there are 16 different biblical Greek words in my Greek dictionary that can be translated “to think”. So, what is the distinction of “phroneo”? “Phroneo” means to be “minded in a certain way” for example: in speaking of a person we could say, “His thinking was progressive or her thinking was conservative”, this is what it means to be minded in a certain way. Jesus wasn’t cautioning us to not look down on little ones or to not act down, but he was warning us to not think down. Why is this important? The way we think is the biggest contributor to our future behavior. If we want to change our actions the most important thing we have control over is our thinking because behavior follows thinking. All of us were created in God’s image, so it is important we be mindful of this. God is calling us to value all people no matter their status in life. At the time of this teaching children were not highly valued in this society, but Jesus is showing us God looks at them differently. We won’t despise children, if we can remember that their guardian angels are continually viewing their Father in heaven. I am going to continue to use the English word despise in our lesson, but remember that we are not talking about a heart problem like we might think of “despise” in English. Here the Bible is cautioning us of a minded way of thinking where children simple aren’t valued. In the second half of verse 10 Jesus is referencing the unseen world. Sometimes Jesus pulls back the curtains on heaven with his teaching and this is an example of him doing just that. What does Jesus say about the angels who guard children? “Their angels continually view the face of my Father in heaven.” Why would this caution keep us from thinking down on children? These angels are attentive to God’s throne, to his face, to his instructions, and to his will. It would be unwise for us to find ourselves in opposition to the guardian angels who protect these little ones. How could this truth sober us when we are tempted to judge them? When people are tired or whiny we may be frustrated by their behavior, but we should never despise them. We should never think less of someone who is acting out and doesn’t know what to do. Despising children is a line God does not want us to cross. There is more insight we can explore from this phrase, “Their angels continually view my Father in heaven.” We know throughout the scriptures that angels have a different station or calling in God’s big plan. People cannot look on God. Moses was told if he looked on God’s face he would die (Exodus 33:20-23). The disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration bowed their heads to the ground when God the father spoke from a bright cloud (Matthew 17:1-13). Angels are vastly different than us, if they can continually look at the face of the father. If we could see what angels see, we would not need faith to trust God. We won’t despise children, if we can embrace God’s missionary heart. In the verses above specifically in Matthew 18:2 Jesus chose a child to illustrate the importance of humility in the kingdom of heaven. Now in Matthew 18:11 he uses a good shepherd to illustrate just how important the lost are to Jesus. Sheep as animals are notorious for wandering away from their flock in search of a sweet patch of grass. They will wander down onto a cliff without realizing they can’t climbed back out after they have eaten their fill. The good shepherd searches and listens for their cries so he can reach over the edge of the cliff, hook them with his staff and pull them up to safety. When I had the privilege of visiting Israel I was surprised by the lack of vegetation on the hills surrounding Jerusalem. In the month of April the hills and valleys were bare earth, stripped of grass, waiting on the rains. This land appeared to be over grazed by the Bedouin sheep herders who were still roaming the hills Abraham did in the book of Genesis. I learned in Israel that a desert shepherd must constantly chase the grass lands to find food for their sheep, and they often forced to spend the night out in the open to guard them (Luke 2:8). If in our mind we picture the green hills of Ireland when we think of a shepherd’s job, we have not understood what Jesus is describing here. The parable of the good shepherd is a picture of God’s sacrificial protection. Jesus chose this parable because he is not willing that any should perish. If we can embrace God’s heart of mercy we will be, so blessed. He wants all the spiritually disconnected to be rescued. This will lead us to sacrifices of our time, our money, and our preferences. What are some sacrifices we might make to advance God’s kingdom? I have never served on a finance committee writing a church’s budget, but my husband did many times. If he were still alive he would tell us that children and youth ministries are expensive for a church. Yet, what happens when a church refuses to fund ministries to reach children or youth? That church will eventually age out and close its doors. Children and youth ministries are a necessity if a church wants to survive. Embracing the missionary heart of God calls for an intentionality in our planning, if we want to pursue being a multigenerational church. We won’t despise children, if we can remember their guardian angels are continually viewing their Father in heaven and if we can embrace God’s missionary heart. What might change if we applied these two principles? Jesus wants us to be minded in a certain way because how we reason, will influence our behavior toward children. Jesus wants to revolutionize our thinking. Especially, our view of little ones.

Why your brain -- and God -- won't settle for a screen A recent survey found that nearly 40% of teenagers have now turned to an AI chatbot for emotional support or companionship. Not for homework help. Not for trivia. For comfort. For someone — something — to talk to when the day fell apart. I don't think that statistic should surprise us, and I don't think it should just alarm us either. It should make us curious. Because underneath it is a question every counselor eventually has to sit with: what is the human brain actually looking for when it reaches for connection, and can a device ever give it that? What the Brain Is Actually Asking For Attachment isn't a preference. It's architecture. From the moment we're born, our nervous system is scanning for a face — a real one, with a pulse behind it — that can regulate our distress simply by being present to it. This isn't sentiment; it's neurobiology. Dr. Daniel Siegel, a pioneer in interpersonal neurobiology, has spent decades documenting how the brain becomes integrated — coherent, resilient, capable of managing its own states — only through consistent attunement with another mind. Not information. Attunement. Dr. Curt Thompson, whose work sits close to my own clinical framework, puts it plainly in Anatomy of the Soul: we are wired for story, and we only become fully known — fully ourselves — when another attuned mind meets us in that story. Knowing requires a knower. A language model can produce a remarkably fluent simulation of empathy. It cannot know you. There is no mind on the other side of the screen to be attuned in the first place. This is where Jim Wilder's research becomes so useful clinically. Wilder's concept of joy-strength describes how secure identity is built through repeated, embodied, face-to-face exchanges — a look, a tone, a shared moment of delight that tells the brain I see you and I'm glad you exist. That circuitry doesn't fire from text on a screen. It requires a face. A body. Someone who can actually be glad. And Dr. Caroline Leaf's work on neuroplasticity adds the harder edge to this conversation: what we repeatedly attend to physically reshapes neural pathways. Hours spent in disembodied, parasocial exchange — whether with an algorithm-fed feed or an AI companion — aren't neutral. They're training the brain toward a counterfeit of connection, and away from the capacity for the real thing. Dan Allender's work on story and formation rounds this out. We don't just need facts about ourselves; we need someone else to help narrate our story back to us with care. That's a relational act. It cannot be outsourced to a system built to predict the next likely word. So here is the uncomfortable clinical truth: a chatbot can hold your attention. It cannot hold you. If you recognize this pattern in your own life or in someone you love, it may be worth exploring what's underneath it. Learn more about how I work with attachment and trauma → Why This Isn't Just a Psychological Problem This is where I want to be honest about something the mental health field often won't say out loud: this isn't only a wiring problem. It's a worship problem. Scripture doesn't treat divided affection as a minor inefficiency. It treats it as the central danger of the human heart. In Exodus 34:14, God says of Himself, "for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God." That word in Hebrew, qanna, isn't insecurity. It's the same intensity used to describe covenant marriage — the jealousy of a spouse who has given everything and will not quietly accept being replaced by something that costs the other person nothing. James makes the connection explicit: "You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? … the spirit he caused to dwell in us envies intensely" (James 4:4-5). James isn't only talking about moral compromise. He's naming a pattern as old as the second commandment — that human beings will always attach themselves to something, and left unexamined, that something tends to be whatever demands the least of us and asks nothing back. An idol never asks you to be known. That's exactly why it's easier to love. Deuteronomy 6:5 commands love of God with heart, soul, and strength — the physical, embodied, neurological substrate of a person. Attachment was never meant to be an abstraction. It was designed to be embodied, costly, and mutual, because that is the only kind of attachment that can actually regulate a nervous system or heal a story. And when the noise of a scrolling feed or a synthetic companion has done its damage, Hebrews 13:5 says something a screen never can: "I will never leave you nor forsake you." Consistency isn't a feature update. It's a covenant. What Chaotic Brains Actually Need I've spent sixteen years sitting across from people whose internal worlds are genuinely chaotic — complex trauma, dissociative patterns, attachment wounds laid down before language even existed for them. What I've watched heal those systems, again and again, is never information. It's the slow, unglamorous, repeated experience of being met by someone real who doesn't leave. That's the work. Not a feed that keeps you scrolling. Not a chatbot that never tires of you because it was never capable of tiring in the first place. A consistent, embodied, covenant-minded presence — someone trained to sit inside the chaos without flinching, and to keep showing up the next week, and the next. That's what a neurotheological approach to counseling actually offers: the neuroscience that explains why embodied relationship heals, held together with a Biblical framework that explains why you were built to need it in the first place. God didn't design you for a device. He designed you for Himself first, and for real people second — and the two were always meant to work together, not compete. If your nervous system is exhausted from chasing connection that was never going to reciprocate, that exhaustion isn't a character flaw. It's your design working exactly as it should — telling you the truth about what you actually need.