Almost Home - Homecoming 2021 - August 1, 2021

 

Mark 5:19 

 

And he did not permit him but said to him, “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” 

I.                        Introduction

 

First, I want to say welcome home to all of our visitors, friends, and family that have gathered here today to celebrate our Homecoming today. Before we begin today, I came across this from the copy of the Constitution and ByLaws of Mount Lebanon Baptist Church, Suches, Ga, as adopted on June 11, 1980. It reads as such:

Mount Lebanon Church was organized in 1870 by a small number of pioneer families. The first church meetings were held in homes and were led by the Reverend Jim Waters. The families decided that a church building was needed; therefore, the first Mount Lebanon Church building was raised from American Chestnut logs. This structure was constructed approximately 1/10th of a mile north-northeast of the present Mount Lebanon Church building. The log building burned sometime during its first 25 years of existence, and once again church members met in homes. Soon the members began to meet in a county school house adjacent to the site where the log church building had burned. 

 

In the late 1890s another church building was constructed near the Mount Lebanon Cemetery entrance directly across GA State Highway 180 from the present Mount Lebanon Church site. Church services were held in this plank building until 1922, when the congregation moved back to the county school house. Eventually this old plank structure fell into disrepair and was torn down. 

 

In 1928 Sally Abercrombie gave land to the church body for the purpose of constructing a new church building. Men of the church worked together to build a large church building ceiled with White Pine. This building was located only a few feet northeast of the present church building. Many worship services and large family gatherings were held in this building until the late 1950s. On May 11, 1958, ground was broken to erect the present church building, and the dedication service was held in 1960. From 1961 until early 1975 Mount Lebanon shared a pastor with Zion Baptist Church. Sunday morning services were held at Mount Lebanon on the 1st and 2nd Sundays and at Zion on the 3rd and 4th Sundays. Sunday night services were held at Zion on the 1st and 2nd Sundays and at Mount Lebanon on the 3rd and 4th Sundays. Mount Lebanon began a full-time ministry in May 1975. 

 

Today the church welcomes all to worship and prays that God will guide the church forward to do his work.

I thought that it would be interesting to hear the beginnings of our church today! I always find history amazingly interesting, and our history is unique. It is a story of people coming together to create a congregation, to serve God, and to glorify Him. 

I do think that it is important to note that our church is still the people in it, and the mission of our church is still to glorify God through all we do. Just as Jesus said in our verse I just read, we must go and tell people all what God has done for  us! We can look back on our history, and we can remember the great things that God has done for us. But even better than that is this: we can go and tell others about it, and look forward to seeing what God will do for us in the future! I’ve said this before, when we wake up in the morning, God has granted us another day to see what He will do in our lives, and we can know that He gives us the ability to do even more for Him every single day that we are on this planet. Let me tell you more about the verse we read today. 

  II.            A story for home

 

This story of the demon-possessed man in Gerasenes is a story that we see in the first three Gospels. It is shown in Matthew 8, and also in Luke 8. For the first time in Jesus’ earthly ministry he went to a place that was not particularly Jewish. He was going to where the Gentiles usually lived, on the other side of the Sea of Galilee. And it is interesting to me that in all three of the Gospels, all three writers point this out! You have to imagine a little bit here. These followers of Jesus, those that were his closest and most devoted students, were going on a trip to a place that they had likely only heard about. It must have been an odd thought to the disciples that Jesus would choose to go across the sea to this place. Certainly there must be a reason for Him to go. They had seen the miracles, they had followed Him through some sticky situations. And the trusted Jesus. But Jesus was getting them out of their comfort zone, I think. You know, it’s very easy to be at home, be that your home area, or even your home country. But to step out of it, into an area where you may feel like it is hostile towards you, or even an unclean area, you begin to feel a little bit of pressure. 

 

As they get there, they are greeted, in a way, by men with impure spirits in them. Matthew states that there are two of them, while Mark and Luke only talk about one who was speaking to Jesus. I think that it is important to note that the three writers of these Gospels had an idea of this demon-possessed man before they saw him. Was he a boogeyman to Jews across the sea? I’m sure they had heard stories of this demon possessed man. This was a unique man, though, and not in a good way. This man had lived in the tombs, a place that robbers and thieves often lived. He was so dangerous that many times, people had tried to bind him with ropes and then chains, but nothing held him. As the Bible says, “no one was strong enough to subdue him.” He would scream out day and night around the tombs, and cut himself with stones. He must have been a true terror to the people of this area. But something interesting happens: when he saw Jesus, he ran and fell onto his knees in front of the Son of God. He called him that! He asks “what do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?” You see, even the demons knew and know who Jesus is, and what sort of power that he has over them. As one commentary puts it, “although men do not recognize Jesus, the evil powers know him. He is the Son of the Most High God, that One who rules in unequalled sovereignty over all powers of the universe, both human and suprahuman.” He cries out at the top of his lungs “In God’s name, don’t torture me!!” Jesus had told him “Come out of this man, you impure spirit!”

He asks the evil spirit it’s name: Legion, for we are many. The armies of evil powers were within this man, but the combined strength of these demons were not match for the power of Jesus! The demons plead with Jesus not to send them into the abyss, for they know that that is their ultimate destination as we know from the book of Revelation! They beg for all of them to be sent into a herd of pigs, which you know is the most unclean of animals for God’s people. But here’s an ironic twist: the herd of pigs go wild, being possessed by these demons, and they plunge off of a steep bank into the sea, and were all drowned. Even though they did not want to be plunged into the abyss like God promised that they would in the very end, they did anyway, because at that time, the prevailing thought was that the sea was the same as the abyss. 

 

And then something even more amazing happens. The man is completely normal now. He is healed from these demons. Can you imagine what joy this man had, to be within his own mind, without anyone else there? To be clean and purified? Those around Jesus and this man told the story of what had happened, and the people who came to see were afraid! We don’t know if they were afraid of what had happened to their pigs, but I think that they were much more afraid of the fact that Jesus had healed this man! They actually begged Jesus to leave their midst. But there is the man, and when Jesus and the disciples are departing, the man begs Jesus to let him come with them. He had been healed, so it would be natural for this man to want to follow and see what even greater things were in store. But Jesus tells him no. It’s not a harsh no, it’s not a rebuke like he does with the rich young ruler. It’s because Jesus knew that this man had to share his story at home. Jesus says in Mark 5:19  “Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” We should note that the word “your friends” here is really translated better to “your people”, in the same exact way that we would tell someone to tell ‘your friends’ back home what’s been done. Jesus doesn’t necessarily mean this man’s literal friends, but rather he is telling him to go back to his people. But this man does even better than that. He does go back to his home, but he doesn’t stop there. The Bible says that he goes to the Decopolis, which was a collection of 10 cities that lie east of Galilee and the Jordan River. He goes to places that are not fully controlled by Rome, and shares what God has done for him. Can you imagine, the man who was a myth to people, there in the flesh to tell the story of how he was saved? And I’m sure that this man continued to share his story with those he met, even until the end of his life. Because this man, this one who had thousands of demons inside of him, was never fully home until he went to Heaven to be with Jesus for all time. Jesus told him to go and tell the people of his home, but this man would never be truly home until he went to his Eternal Home.
 

III.            A true home - Revelation 21-22

When I say that the man was not truly home yet, it is because none of us are. None of us are truly home yet. When Mrs. Linda Stover had her funeral here recently, we said that she was finally at home and at rest. Randy Alcorn’s book on Heaven says this: “our love for home, our yearning for it, is a glimmer of our longing for our true home.” The home that we are promised is shown in Revelation 21 and 22. I won’t read all of this right now, but I urge you to go home and read about our Eternal Home. We know that this is our home because the Lord is in it. Revelation 21:22-27 says “And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light shall the nations walk; and the kings of the earth shall bring their glory into it, and its gates shall never be shut by day—and there shall be no night there; they shall bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. But nothing unclean shall enter it, nor any one who practices abomination or falsehood, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” Our new home will be filled with the Lord Most High, and there will be no more war, no more suffering, no more pain, no more death. Nothing unclean will be there, nor falsehoods. And who will be there? Only those whose names are written in the book of life. Our home waits for those who believe now, today! And how can we be certain of that? Because Jesus says to us in Revelation 22:6 “These words are trustworthy and true.” He tells us himself that what he says to us about our eternal home is true, and that we can look forward to that great and true Homecoming one day.

IV.            Almost Home

 

I’ll finish with this today: there is only one way to truly have the kind of Homecoming that Christ talks about in Revelation, and it is to believe in the sacrifice that He made for yours sins and for mine on the cross all those years ago, and to believe that He rose again from the grave! I am reminded of a song by the group MercyMe. It’s called “Almost Home”. This some came out of a conversation with one of lead singer Bart Millard’s friends who is in ministry. The pastor had been Millard’s youth minister ages ago, and confessed that he was feeling burnt out. As the pastor put it, “I think I was ready for the short game when I was a youth pastor dealing with issues, but this long game is wearing me out. I never dreamed that I would outlive some of my dearest friends and mentors and do their funerals.” Millard would later say, when talking about the inspiration of this song that “It was heartbreaking to hear and I realized one thing that we probably don’t address much is as we get older, we just get tired and exhausted fighting the good fight.” This song is MercyMe’s rallying cry to remind us to keep running the race, and to keep going, because we are almost home. Let me read you the lyrics:

Are you disappointed, Are you desperate for help

You know what it's like to be tired, And only a shell of yourself

Well you start to believe You don't have what it takes

'Cause it's all you can do Just to move much less finish the race

But don't forget what lies ahead

 

Almost home Brother it won't be long

Soon all your burdens will be gone

With all your strength Sister run wild, run free

Hold up your head Keep pressing on

We are almost home

 

Well this road will be hard But we win in the end

Simply because of Jesus in us It's not if but when

So take joy in the journey Even when it feels long

Oh find strength in each step Knowing heaven is cheering you on

 

We are almost home Brother it won't be long

Soon all your burdens will be gone With all your strength

Sister run wild, run free Hold up your head

Keep pressing on We are almost home

Almost home

Almost home

 

I know that the cross has brought heaven to us

But make no mistake there's still more to come

When our flesh and our bone are no longer between

Where we are right now and where we're meant to be

When all that's been lost has been made whole again

When these tears and this pain no longer exist

No more walking we're running as fast as we can

Consider this our second wind

 

Almost home Brother it won't be long

Soon all your burdens will be gone

With all your strength Sister run wild, run free

Hold up your head Keep pressing on

We are almost home

Almost home

Almost home

We are almost home

We are almost home, my friends. We hold our heads up high, we have hope in the Lord, and we will have our burdens lifted from this life. Let’s pray. 

 

Teacher Sunday - July 25, 2021

 

- Note: given at home because of Covid-19 spike

Before I get into our sermon today, I would like for us to note that it is the final Sunday before most of our teachers go back to school. I would like for us to recognize our teachers in the congregation. We would like to specifically pray for you today, and pray for the students of your schools as they come back in the coming weeks. Let’s pray. 

 

(Prayer by me for teachers and students)

 

Thank you so much for being such good stewards of the faith in the schools today. I know that there is a great deal of pressure to not show your faith within the school these days. But even if you cannot always share your faith with the students and your coworkers, I know that you show Christ to those around you in your deeds and actions. We thank you for this, and will continue to pray for you throughout the school year! 

 

2 Timothy 4:2 

 

Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 

 

I.                        Introduction

 

Now, I know that some of you know that I am married to a teacher. That much is plainly obvious considering how much we talk about education with y’all. But what you might not know is that I am the son of a teacher, and twice-over the grandson of teachers. Teaching runs in our family nearly as much as preaching does, which a lot of people would say is teaching, but in a different vein. We hear all sorts of jokes about education, as well. Now, teaching, as we know, is a serious matter, but with all things, there always seems to be a little humor in everyday life. Sometimes it will be a student’s answer. One time, one of my Mom’s friends had a student that was struggling the entire year with coming up with the right answers. The subject being taught was not a strong suit for this young lady, and over time, this young lady stopped raising her hand to voluntarily answer questions. She was not stupid by any stretch of the means, but besides struggling with the contect of the class, she didn’t help her case by being a daydreamer. Well, one day the teacher was asking a somewhat serious question about the history of something, and the young lady very adamantly raised her hand, shook it in the air. The teacher was very impressed, thinking that this was the breakthrough moment! Well, she called on the young lady, and before the teacher could say Yes or No, the young lady blurted out “I like blue!” Dumbfounded, the teacher goes, “well, that’s nice dear. Do you have any thoughts of the topic?” “no, ma’am. But I really like blue!”

Teachers struggle sometimes in the face of adversity, both from the pressure that they place upon themselves, but also from outside forces. I know that more than once, many of the teachers in this congregation today have been asked why they didn’t teach at a Christian school. ‘Why don’t you want to be around other Christians’, or ‘why do you want to be told what to teach’, or, my favorite, ‘you’re going to be forced to teach something you don’t believe in!’ I know that, at least from my wife’s and my Mom’s perspective, the answer has always been this: if we are not a light in the darkest of places for these kids, who is going to be? If we aren’t there to stand up for what the truth is, who will? If we aren’t there to teach Christian principles to these kids by showing them what it means to love them, who will do it? The message for teachers from this pulpit today is simple, and its one that we can take with us as we go into the world, even if we are not “teacher” in a school setting: we are to be teachers for Christ, because that’s what he called us to do. Let’s look at God’s word together.

    II.            Teaching is a gift from the spirit 

 

One of the gifts from the Holy Spirit is that of teaching. Look in Romans 12:7, which reads “if it is teaching, then teach”. This part of verse 7 is in relation to the spiritual gifts that the Holy Spirit gives to people when they become Christians. It is affirmed in 1 Corinthians 12:28, which says “And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues.” Paul then goes on to ask if everyone has these gifts, answering himself that we must earnestly desire higher gifts from the Holy Spirit, because when we do, there will be shown to us a still more excellent way. 

 

Teaching is a gift from the Holy Spirit. As one commentary put it, “a pastor is also a teacher, but a teacher is not necessarily a pastor.” Those that have the spiritual gift of teaching show a natural ability to do so, but also they commit themselves to studying and to developing their skill, much like any other spiritual gift. Those with this spiritual gift are able to take something difficult and communicate it to others so that they may understand it. In today’s society, we are used to having information given to us in a way that is easily digestible. I know that many of you teachers have taken years of study and practice to be able to do that with whatever you are teaching. I know that it has taken me a long time to be able to do so, and I still struggle with certain concepts on how to communicate them well to others. I’ll give you an example: most preachers would tell you that their best critic is their wives. This is not a put-down of the pastor’s wife by any stretch of the means. I remember asking Tasha a while back if I was getting any better at communicating my ideas. She said that when I was first preaching on a regular basis here at the church, it reminded her a lot of how she was when she first taught school. It wasn’t bad, but in the time that she continued to work, certain things began to be easier to work on, and certain ideas took a hold in her life and in her teaching. It was the practice of doing that made her better, but also the continued studying of her craft that made her a better teacher, and she told me that I was doing much of the same.

One of the old quotes about teaching is actually a misquotation by George Bernard Shaw, stating “those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach.” I know that is an irritation for teachers everywhere, and it truly discounts what we know about teaching as a gift from the Holy Spirit. Jesus, as we know, was perhaps the greatest teacher of all time. The Sermon on the Mount is the foundational teaching of Christianity, but that was not his only teaching. He taught in the Temple during the week of his death. He was found by Mary and Joseph teaching in the synagogue when he was 12. Jesus taught all over the place! But beyond this, Jesus taught with the command of someone who also does. Interestingly enough, it was the Greek philosopher Aristotle that stated “those who know, do. Those who understand, teach.” Jesus knows all things, and we know that He has always been there from the beginning of everything. But because he understands all, he can also teach us. 

 

What God allows us to do with a spiritual gift of teaching is to USE it. I know that there are some of you sitting here today that are thinking to yourselves “I’d never be able to get up in front of everyone and talk about something!” Now tell me, if we were out on the porch and we started talking about something that you are passionate about, would you be able to do it? Would you be able to tell me and a bunch of other folks about how you first started whatever you do and how you grew and how you learned in it? And furthermore, if someone showed an interest in that particular subject and wanted to know more, don’t you think that you could teach them how to do it the way that you know how? THAT is the spiritual gift of teaching! When we study our Bibles, when we take time to pray, and when we take time to listen to the Holy Spirit, we will learn from it, and in turn we’ll be able to share what we have learned from those experiences to teach others about the way of the Lord. And we have to work at it to make sure that we are truly using that gift to its full advantage. 

 

 III.            We are all teachers

 

Matthew 28:18-20 reads this: “Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” We have a command from the Lord to go and teach others about Him. As I was studying this week, I came across a passage in the Holman Bible Dictionary that said this: “Jesus is pictured as teaching large crowds. While Jesus was much more than a teacher, he was recognized as a teacher by his contemporaries. He was A God-sent teacher who taught with an authority and challenge which held his audiences captive. As risen Lord, Jesus commissioned his followers to carry their evangelism and teaching ministries into all the world. As seen in Acts, teaching became an important work in the early church in Jerusalem.” 

 

It is interesting to me that, when you read about education in Biblical times that education was most certainly not for all people. That’s what so different about Christianity compared to even the Roman way of life at the time. I know that there have been people in my life who have asked me, “Matt, you’re very smart, how can you believe in Jesus Christ?” And something I almost always say to them is this: the way of Jesus is learning more and more every day. Jesus reveals to us through the Holy Spirit so much knowledge and understanding that it is almost unfathomable. But here is the turn on this. We are to share that knowledge and understanding with others. Go and make disciples, Jesus says! In other words, teach them how to live like I have lived, and teach them the ways that they will go so they will not depart from it. That is what we are called to do. 

IV.            Conclusion

 

Today, as we conclude, I want you to take a moment to reflect upon the teachers that have influenced your life the most. I think back to my kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Judy Buck. Mrs. Judy would eventually become a principal over in Gainesville, as well as serve as the vice principal at Oconee County High School. But I don’t think that there was a kid in her class, or at any of her schools, that didn’t love Mrs. Judy, even begrudgingly. She was the kind of teacher that you could tell wanted to show the love of Christ to others. When there was a kid stranded at the high school, she took them home. When there was a child in her kindergarten class that got skint up on the playground, she made sure that we got cleaned up. And she taught us the fundamentals of reading, writing, and mathematics, giving my classmates and I a love of learning that has stayed with us throughout our lives. There were other teachers, of course, including my own mother and father. How could you not learn from them? Besides being my parents, Dad was my pastor for the longest time, and Mom helped me, and still helps me, with learning new things! And it is always done with a compassion that speaks volumes of their passion and love for Jesus Christ.

And that is our takeaway today: when we love Jesus enough, we want to share Him with others, and to teach others about Him. We want to share what we have learned from Him and teach it so that others can do the same. And we can, if we are willing. Thank you teachers for always being there for us, and for showing Christ’s hands even in the schools. Let’s pray. 

 

Vision - July 18, 2021

 Proverbs 29:18 (KJV)

Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.

1. Introduction

Giotto, a famous painter and architect of the early 14th century, once did a particular fresco on the walls of the Basilica in Assisi. The subject matter was the death of St. Francis, who founded the Order of Franciscan Monks (the ones with the funny haircuts). The fresco, though, shows all of the brothers of St. Francis mourning as the saint passes away. Some are watching his changing from life to death, others are examining his ‘stigmata’, or wounds that were supposedly supernaturally on his skin like the wounds that Christ had on the cross. But only one man is looking towards the sky, seeing the vision of comfort that Francis had as he lay dying. The man shields his eyes, for he is the only one besides Francis who sees the vision that is being given for comfort. 

Vision is important. When asked what of the basic five senses of the body that would be hardest to lose, most people would likely say vision. It impacts how we literally view the world. It impacts how we perceive daytime and nighttime. People who are blind have a particular disorder for sleep where they have a difficult time discerning what time of the day it is, and how to cope with their sleep schedule. But also, not having a Godly vision is as important to our lives. When we do not focus on what God wants us to do in our lives, we are losing focus of the vision that he has in our lives. Today I want to share some thoughts that I have on this using our verse as our starting point. 

2. Vision does not come where there is poor leadership

The first thing we must realize is that vision does not come where there is poor leadership. Leadership is something that I am extremely passionate about. It’s something that I could talk for hours on end on how to be a good leader, and how to learn to lead. And this statement is absolutely true. 

How many times have you been in a job where you had someone leading you that did it VERY poorly? I’ve had a few places where I’ve worked that were like that. It seemed like every day was a drudgery, and you never quite knew what you were supposed to be doing. You knew what the job was, but perhaps you didn’t know WHY you were supposed to be doing it a certain way. This is what I mean when I say that vision cannot come from poor leadership. One of the other translations of this verse reads, instead of vision, when people don’t follow God’s way. So, think of it this way: when people don’t follow God’s way, then they will perish. God’s vision, not only in the literal sense, but in the supernatural sense, for our lives is perfect. He gives us a way to live our lives, but also gives us purpose in it to do His work. When we don’t do it, then we will have frustration, disappointment, and heartache in our lives. But take this a step further: if we don’t follow God’s vision for ALL of our lives, which is to trust Jesus Christ as our personal savior and be saved from sin and the death that is the sentence for that rebellion, then we truly are truly doomed to perish. 

God’s leadership is always perfect. When I was in seminary, I took a course that analyzed the leadership qualities of various Biblical figures. Some of you may know what I am talking about, because I used some of these figures in our Wednesday devotionals a few weeks ago. In short, there are many different types of leadership styles that are in the world. But the perfection of all of these leadership styles is given in Jesus Christ. Whenever Jesus had a situation come up, he would adapt to it without ever losing his vision that God had given to Him for his earthly ministry. Jesus knew exactly why he had been sent to earth: to die for the sins of man. And to establish his church through the people around him so that people would know what they must do to be saved when Jesus’ earthly ministry was done. It is through Jesus’ leadership that we know what OUR vision is even to this day! And it was done because there was great leadership by the greatest leader ever. 

3. Vision does not come when doubt prevails

We also have to know that vision does not come when doubt prevails. Do you remember last week that we talked about wisdom, and the only proviso in James was that we cannot doubt that God will give it to us? The same thing applies here today. Jesus himself talked about the vision that God has for us, in a way. In Matthew 21, the day after the triumphant entry into Jerusalem, Jesus is heading back to the city and spots a fig tree. We know that he tries to find some of the late fruit that the tree produces, curses it when he does not find anything on it, and it withers right then. And not to chase a rabbit here, but some of you might have wondered when I preached on that a while back what that cursing of the fig tree meant. Think of the way that Jesus was dealing with the Pharisees and Sadducees during this week. They paraded as religious, but there was no fruit of God with them. Just as we know from John 15:2, branches that produce no fruit are cut off. Jesus was making a point that those who did not have God first in their lives were doomed to be cut off from the Father, and that they would wither and die a spiritual death. 

But I want us to focus mostly on what Jesus says to his disciples when they marvel at the fact that they saw the bush wither in front of their eyes. Jesus answers them in verse 21-22 saying “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.” Jesus gives two points here. He says that we must have faith. This is obvious. We cannot do anything without Christ in our lives, and we most certainly will not be privy to God’s vision without being connected to Him. But the second part is this: we cannot doubt that God will do what he says he will do. 

I had a conversation with a friend this week about this topic. I have a friend who is, in certain ways, a young Christian. One of the things that he has to work on continually is that he will doubt that God will do what He says He will do for this man. Now, I know that some of you will think poorly perhaps of this person, but do we not also doubt sometimes, or have doubted in our lives when we were younger that God would do what He said He would do? But here is something we can grasp onto when we have doubts: look at what God has done for you, especially repeatedly in your life. Jude 1:22 exhorts Christians to “have mercy on those who doubt”. We can have mercy on those people because they are struggling with that doubt, but we do know that with doubt we cannot fully see the vision of God. 

4. Vision does not come to an unconcerned heart

We have to know, too, that vision does not come when we do not have a concern in our hearts for others. It is plain as day to me that Jesus Christ had a concern for others during his earthly ministry. Why else would he have gone out of his way to heal, to teach, and to do all that he did? I know that may sound a bit elementary to some of you, but have you ever stopped to think that Jesus did not have to do any of that to show his concern to the people on this Earth? Did you ever stop to think that the reason that He did that was because he wanted us to do the same? 

Look for a moment at Matthew 25:31-40. I’ll let you read that while I talk, but Jesus talks about here where he will establish his Kingdom, and will tell those who have always walked in His ways, which is to care for others in both the spiritual and physical ways. He says that the righteous, or as the Amplified Bible translation puts it so well, the “just AND upright” ask him, when have we seen you sick, hungry, or hurting? And Jesus replies in verse 40 “truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” 

Now, what does this have to do with the vision that God has for our lives? The vision that God has for us in our lives, just as he did in the times of Proverbs, is to live more like Him each and every day. And since we know that Christ came to show us the way to live our lives, we know that we must do just as he did. Just like the verse says, no vision, the people perish! And that applies to our lives as well. 

5. Vision does not come to a self-satisfied life

One of the phrases that my brother uses often when talking about leadership in a church is that no one should get too comfortable in it. This is not to say that we shouldn’t be comfortable in life, or that it is a sin when things are easy in our lives. But rather, his point that he made to me was that when we get self-satisfied, we tend to shy away from the vision that God has for our lives. It is a phrase from him that has challenged me almost daily to never be satisfied completely with myself, or my walk with the Lord. 

Let’s look at it this way: there are so many verses in the Bible that talk about how we should hunger for God in our lives. Jesus said himself in Matthew 5:6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” That satisfaction is in the same vein as the water that will cause the end of thirst, the food that will cause the end of hunger, and the salvation that will save us from death. When we hunger for righteousness, when we hunger for what God has for us in our lives, and when we hunger to do His will, we will truly be satisfied! 

One other verse comes to mind as well. This somewhat goes hand in hand with our previous thought of having an unconcerned heart. Philippians 2:3-4 says “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourself, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.” In other words, we are not to be satisfied with ourselves. One of the greatest things that Jesus had against the Saducces and Pharisees was that they were greatly satisfied with themselves. They had attained a great rank, and it made them feel as if they had “arrived”. They felt like the work to get to their position was plenty, and that the basic work to help others was beneath them. When we are satisfied with ourselves too much, we truly miss out on the vision and then the blessings that God has for us! 

6. Vision does not come when God’s Word is forgotten

One final point is that vision cannot come when we forget God’s word. Now, I know that our VBS workers will know this very well, but how many of you know the Pledge to the Bible? There is two parts of this that I want to tell you about. First, did you know that that pledge is based partially off of Psalm 119, verses 11 and 105? Verse 11 reads “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you” and verse 105 reads “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.” Now, this will be familiar to you if you have ever done the pledge to the Bible. But what you may not know is that this pledge was originated by a Georgian named Dr. Homer Grice. He was called from his church in Washington, Georgia to lead the Southern Baptist Convention’s Vacation Bible school movement. He took those two verses and created the pledge to the Bible in 1925, and it has become the standard pledge to the Bible across denominations. Why did that happen? Because Dr. Grice took God’s vision and did truly make it a light unto his feet and a light unto his path, and hid the words of God in his heart so that he might not sin against God. 

God’s word, as we know from Hebrews, is living and active. That verse is Hebrews 4:12, and it reads “for the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” What a verse, right?! Now, we have been talking about vision, and we have been talking a lot about how it affects us when we are following God in our walk. But when it comes to belief, it is the Word that leads us. Look at the end of that verse. The writer of Hebrews states that the Word is discerning and knows the intentions of the heart of mankind. Why is that? Because the word is alive! The word is living! It is not just some nebulous thing, it is embodied into a living, breathing person, and that person is Jesus Christ. John 1:1, one of my favorite verses in the Bible, states “in the beginning was the Word, and Word was with God, and the Word was God.” What is the Word? Jesus Christ! And because we know that Jesus Christ is alive today, we know that the Word is worth our time, our effort, and is essential to knowing the vision for what God wants in our lives. 

7. Conclusion

I’ll finish with this today. Often I have thought about what the vision for our church is. I’ve been asked numerous times about it. It was a question that deacons asked me before I became your pastor. It’s something that weighs heavily upon me to stick to it. What I think our vision is for our church, what I have prayed for, and what I feel God has revealed to me is this: our church must continue to grow closer to God, continue to grow in His word, and to do so in deed and by the words we speak. This is not something I say as something that is coming from me particularly. And I do know that it sounds vague. Perhaps it is too vague, but it gives us the opportunity as a church to define exactly what our vision is as a congregation and as members of the body of Christ. Vision only comes from the Lord, and it only comes when we are truly following Him. It comes when we are not jealous of our neighbors. It comes when we are reading and truly putting the Bible into our hearts and into action every single day. God’s vision comes to us from the Lord himself, and He will continue to guide us as we do our best to take up that cross daily and follow Him. Let’s pray. 

True Wisdom - 7/11/21 - Proverbs 28:26

 Proverbs 28:26

The one who trusts himself is a fool, but one who walks in wisdom will be safe. 

1. Introduction

We have a little bit of time these next few weeks to slow down a bit, at least so it seems! VBS is now behind us, and the waning days of summer are happening. I know that this time of the year, I usually am trying to get caught up with my reading and trying to make good memories with the kids before they go back to school. One of the things that I have been doing is re-reading the Proverbs. Of course, many of you know that Proverbs is part of the wisdom literature that comes from the Bible, but it also gives us many of our sayings that people who do not go to church actually know as well. Things like Proverbs 3:5, which is “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” Or Proverbs 27:17, which is “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.”  Or, one of my favorite because of how exactly Jewish it is, Proverbs 17:22, which says “A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.” Proverbs are wonderful sayings that were collected over the generations. As one Bible commentary put it, “It is reasonable to assume that such sayings originated and circulated among the ordinary people.” 

Think about some of the sayings we know as colloquialisms in Southern society. Things like “that dog’ll hunt.” Or “that person’s wetter than a wet hen!” Or the ever wonderful “bless your heart”, which of course does not mean bless your heart in most cases! These are the sayings that we know from over the generations. And they almost always have a teaching moment attached to them in some way or fashion. I will say that we are only going to touch on one today, and then one more next week, but we will occasionally come back to the Proverbs. You can mine the meanings from these Proverbs your entire life, and always come up with something that will help you in whatever situation you have in your life! 

This week, we focus in on a Proverb that gives a couplet that describes perfectly the state of mankind. When we think we know what we are doing on our own, and we rely on our own wisdom and understanding without stating that it’s from the Lord first and foremost, we are a foolish person! But there’s more to this verse that I’d like to share with you today. 

2. The Folly of Trusting One’s Own Heart

Have you ever had a friend who told you “just trust me!” Now, you may be thinking of one of two kinds of people. The first one is the one that you can completely trust without a shadow of a doubt that they will not lead you astray. They are trustworthy, they are dependable, and when they say ‘trust me’, you know that they are to be trusted! But then there’s the other one who says “just trust me!” I had a friend growing up, in fact he is the one that my Joshua is named after. Now, growing up, Josh Reeves would be one of the latter more often than not. He would say ‘trust me!’ And then we would inevitably get into lots of trouble. Memorable trouble, but trouble nonetheless! Now, this is not to say that he was foolish, at least when we both grew up quite a bit. When he would say ‘trust me’ later in life, I most certainly did! But in our early lives, we often try to lean on our own understanding to try to lead the way. I know that I’ve said this before in my sermons, but before I completely dedicated myself to Jesus Christ, I tried to outrun my calling. This is a prime example of how it is complete folly to trust your own heart instead of trusting in what God has for you. 

Let me give you another example. When my kids have a birthday coming up, they will always ask for a million things. They are not thinking of the big picture, wanting just small little piddly things rather than what is in store for them when they have their actual birthday. Usually we get them something that they have really wanted and really will use over the entire year. But that’s how we are, isn’t it? When we try to do everything on our own instead of trusting God, and trusting in His plan for us, we are just following our own emotions and thoughts without care or worry as to what God wants us to be doing.  Our heart, without following the will of God in our lives, will lead us astray. Why is that? Because our heart is polluted with sin, and because of that, we will always try to choose what is best for us, even though it usually isn’t. When we are in sin, or have backslided into a sinful nature, we will always choose what is the worst for ourselves. 

3. The Folly of Missing God’s Wisdom

Let’s look at this another way. Look at the verse one more time. It talks about the one who trust himself is a fool, but one who walks in wisdom will be safe. Now, what is wisdom? Wisdom is defined as having experience, knowledge, and good judgement. We know that the book of Proverbs is a book of wisdom. It shows the knowledge, experience, and good judgement of the people of Israel and of God himself. And that’s the real answer here. True wisdom comes from God, and from God alone. We can learn on our own, gaining experience. We can attain knowledge. Anyone can do that. But good judgement? How do we attain that? It comes from asking the Lord for it. 

We have two very clear examples of asking for wisdom in the Bible. The first that I will touch on comes from 1 Kings 3. I won’t quote the entire first 15 verses of this chapter, but make a note of it and go read it for yourself this week and see what you make of it. To set the scene, Solomon had just been made king, had made peace with Egypt by marrying Pharaoh’s daughter, and he made a thousand offerings on the altar of the Lord. The Lord appeared to Solomon during a dream, and he told Solomon that he could ask anything that he wanted of the Lord. Solomon acknowledged that it was God that had placed his father, David, and then himself on the throne, and that he lacked a knowledge for ruling his people. As he stated in verse 7, “I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties.” He then asks the Lord for discerning heart to govern God’s people and to distinguish right and wrong. God was so pleased with Solomon that he not only granted him that wisdom to govern his people, he granted him long life and riches even though he had not asked for it. What Solomon did after this, I think, is just as important to the story. Solomon continued to walk in wisdom with the Lord. He had gone to Gibeon to offer sacrifices, but when he returned to Jerusalem, he stood before the ark of the covenant and sacrificed offering and fellowship offerings to show that he was still humble before the Lord. He was not missing out on God’s wisdom because he had not only asked for that wisdom, but he continued to humble himself before the Lord! And we still know Solomon as the wisest ruler of all time. In 1 Kings 4:34, it reads “from all nations people came to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, sent by the kings of the world, who had heard of his wisdom.” 

We have a second time that we are to ask for wisdom, and it comes from James 1:5-6. James was likely the apostle James, the half brother of Jesus himself. In these verses, James wrote “if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.”  Now, to fully understand this statement made by James, we have to understand just a little bit about Roman and Greek culture of the time. Long story short, they believed that wisdom was ethical, scientific, or philosophical knowledge that was accumulated through human reason. There was no way that it could be learned from a supernatural force such as God himself. In fact, they believed that there as no way that wisdom could be transferred to humanity but through reason itself. But this stands in contrast to what we know from the Bible, and especially what we know about the Holy Spirit. As one commentator put it, “James considers wisdom to be a supreme and direct gift from God to the Christian and uses it naturally as an example of what men should pray for.” But there is one caveat to this, and it applies directly to what this point is that I am trying to make. The only thing that we cannot have in our hearts when we ask for wisdom is doubt that God will give it. When Solomon asked for wisdom to rule his people, he asked for it knowing that God would fulfill that promise to him, and showed his resolution towards that knowledge by continuing to offer his sacrifices to God and to humble himself before the Lord Most High. And that is the same as what James is stating here. When we ask for wisdom from God, we ask for it fully, and without doubt in our lives. If we do ask with doubt, or if we attempt to find wisdom on our own through reasoning, we are bound to fail. That is why God shows us how we can have wisdom through Him, and not through our own experiences, or knowledge, or even through our own judgement.  

4. The Folly of Missing God’s Deliverance

And judgement. We have a judgement on our lives when we sin, unless we are saved through the blood of the perfect sacrifice. When we trust ourselves, we are foolish. There are so many in the world that will say “Oh, there’s lots of ways to get to heaven.” Well, Jesus himself said in John 14:6 that “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Now, I’ve said this to people before when encountering this type of logic, when they say that there are many ways to heaven and I counter with this verse. I say that either Jesus was a lunatic for saying this, or either he was completely and utterly truthful, and was saying that there is only one way to get to Heaven. And I also talk about what Jesus has done for me in my life, and what he has delivered me from, and how he has proved to me how he is the only way, and the only truth that matters, and the only life that we can live, for without that life, we are condemned to death. 

We touched a little on the truth part of that verse last week, didn’t we? But we could easily substitute the word “wisdom” for truth and it means the same thing. Our verse from Proverbs says that one who walks in wisdom will be safe. We know that there are many verses that tell us to walk with the Spirit. 2 Corinthians 5:7, “For we walk by faith, not by sight.” Galatians 5:16, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” Even in the Old Testament, Isaiah 40:31, “But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” On and on and on in the Bible, when we walk in the faith, we walk with God. When we walk in wisdom, we will be safe! But those who do not walk in wisdom, who do not walk with the Lord, who do not walk in the Spirit are damned to Hell if they do not start walking on the straight and narrow path. Who will tell them? Who? And when? Is it just the preacher’s job to do it? Well, it’s part of his job, but it’s the job of the people who make up the body of Christ, too! It’s OUR task daily, to take up the cross and follow Christ. It is to take up the hard things, and to walk with Christ to a place where our old selves have died, and we are hungry to tell others about what Jesus Christ has done for us! If we don’t walk in wisdom, we walk in a folly of missing God’s deliverance for our lives. And when we don’t share that with others, we have the follow of having others around us miss God’s deliverance as well. 

5. Conclusion

Wisdom can only come from the Lord. And what we can learn from this particular proverb, from so long ago, is that we cannot trust ourselves to provide that wisdom. Only God can provide it to us. I want to share two short passages that I came across this week that impacted my thinking greatly on this.

The first is a quote from Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln was not known as a great church-goer, even during his days in the White House. But every single day, Lincoln would start his day by taking his Bible in his hands, reading it for quite a while, and praying. He is quoted as having said “I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My wisdom, and that of all about me, seemed insufficient for the day.” The great emancipator, perhaps the greatest, or second greatest president in our country’s history, felt that his personal wisdom was lacking, and could only find the perfect wisdom from on High.

The second story comes from Edmund P. Clowney, who was a theologian-in-residence at a large Presbyterian church in California, as well as being an assistant professor for many years in one of the Presbyterian colleges in that state. He stated this in Christianity today in 1995, stating: 

“God's wisdom is not first counsel on how to practice family values or to use common sense. It is the wisdom of His plan of grace, the wisdom of the Cross. That wisdom is foolishness to the calculations of prudence. Wise living is sacrificial living, giving up what it cannot keep to gain what it cannot lose [to quote Jim Elliot]. It is a thank-offering of praise, enabled by the mercy of God that has united us to Christ in His death and resurrection.”

In other words, what Clowney was stating was that wisdom from the Lord is not something that we can earn, just like our salvation. It is freely given to us, just like when we are saved from our sin. But all it takes it to ask of it from the Lord, and to ask humbly. And to ask for it without worry and without doubt. Won’t you ask for it today? Let’s pray.