Hope for the Inadequate

In my last post, I posted a devotion on fear from the story of Gideon's call in Jdg. 6:1-16. In it, I pointed out that Gideon's encouragement comes from the fact that God is with him, which helps cast out the lesser fears of the Midianites or following God's call. Well, that devotion was a precursor to a sermon on the call of Gideon from Jdg. 6:11-16: "Hope for the Inadequate."

Do you sometimes feel like God is calling you to do something for which you know you are totally and completely inadequate? It could be parenthood (being a mom isn't for sissies, folks), it could be a job or change of jobs, it could be ministry or an office in the church, or anything else. Well, the story of Gideon's call (and all the other call narratives in Scripture as well) helps us to see that it is God's pattern to call the inadequate not the adequate (or those who think they are adequate), make them adequate by going with them, and gain the glory, which ultimately our greatest good (cf. this past post of a sermon on that subject).

So, if you want to learn more, you can listen to the sermon here or read the transcript here. I pray that it is a blessing to your soul and increases your joy in Christ.

By His Grace,
Taylor

Fear Not: Handling Fear with the Hope of the Gospel

Coming up in a couple of days is a post with a sermon I preached a few Sunday's ago from Jdg. 6:11-16, entitled "Hope for the Inadequate." It takes a look at God's call of Gideon, focusing particularly on how it gives hope to those who know they are completely inadequate to do the work God has called them to do. Now, when God has called us to do something, much of our feelings of inadequacy comes from fear, and Gideon and the Israelites in this story are filled with fear. So, today we are going to talk about fear, and in a couple of days the actual sermon will post, which focuses on hope. Before you keep reading, however, take a few minutes to go read Jdg. 6:1-16, because it is the context of what follows. ............... Have you read it? Okay, then keep reading here.

Fear is a powerful motivator in many ways. Larger fears or greater fears can often times override lesser fears, motivating us to do something we normally wouldn't have done. For example, in the story of Gideon, God's people are so afraid of the Midianites that they have resorted to living in caves. Now, I am not sure if you've ever slept in a cave, but it is not easy to do. It's kind of scary living in a cave. It's dark, damp, cold, and there are critters living there with you, usually the kinds you don't want to encounter. Yet, the fear of the Midianites overrode any fear the Israelites might have had of living in caves and drove them there.

Fear can also be paralyzing. God's people, in this story, are paralyzed. They can't gather together to go out to fight the Midianites. They're too terrified even to begin to fight back. Gideon is terrified too, and he does not want to be the one God calls to lead the Israelites against the Midianites. And, if you were facing hordes of war camels, you'd probably be paralyzed too. A camel was the most fearsome war animal of the time in the ancient near east. It's a one-ton beast whose shoulder meets you at eye level and who can run at speeds up to 40 mph. And, the rider or riders on a camel are sitting at about 7-8 feet above the ground, which means if you're on foot, you stand almost no chance. It would be like one of us going up against a tank with nothing but a 45 pistol--no chance whatsoever.

So, what's God's remedy for fear? In Gideon's case, and in ours as well, it's God's promise: "I will be with you." Courage is not the absence of fear, it's the drive to push past it because of something more compelling than the fear. For Christians, the promise "I will be with you," provides that compelling drive. Those words can override fear because inherent in them are two things about God:

Who God is: The encouragement of "I will be with you" is completely dependent on who the "I" is. When the "I" is God, there is a fear of God (in a biblical sense) that overrides the fear of the enemy, call, or task He has for us. I think we're often uncomfortable with the idea of fearing God because we don't understand it properly, but the fear of the Lord is certainly all over the Scriptures. It's everywhere in the NT and the OT. So, what is the proper understanding of the fear of the Lord that gives us courage to follow Him?

Jesus tells us in Mt. 10 to fear God rather than men because man can only harm the body but God can destroy the body and soul in hell. And, then right after that, He gives us the proper perspective on that fear of God: while God is the God who can destroy body and soul in hell, He is also the God who loves His children so much so that He knows the number of hairs on their heads, and then Jesus says, "Fear not..." That is a good example of the types of fear we see in the Bible. The Scriptures use "fear" in two ways--there's the fear that can make you run in terror or the fear that can make you stand in awe. We see them both in Mt. 10 subtly, and we see them both explicitly in other places like Ex. 20:20. There, Moses says, "Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin." So, Moses tells us that we are not to be afraid of God in the sense that makes use run the other way in terror (as if we were an enemy of God), but we are to have the fear of God that fills us with awe and reverence for Him, so that we love Him and desire to obey Him.

In the Bible, the fear of God is based on our love and reverence for Him (Ps. 33:18; 130:3-4). If you have a fear of God that comes from the knowledge that He is the forgiver of sins, then you have the right kind of fear--a fear that captivates you because of a God who is just, holy, and could punish you but who also forgives sinners like you and me. God's love and the fear and reverence of Him that comes from that love drives out the wrong kind of fear (1 Jn. 4:18). That is what drives out the fear of this world when God calls us to do His work. And, this love is from both sides: we love Him, so we will want to face our fears for His sake; He loves us, so we will be confident in His protection and promises. In The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Mr. Tumnis says to Lucy about Aslan, "He isn't safe, but He's good." When a lion loves you enough to die for you, His roar will strike you with awe and reverence, but it will not cause you to run like it does to the enemies of the lion. When we are afraid, we need to hear not the battle cries of our enemies but the roar of the Lion of Judah. God showed Gideon this when fire consumed the sacrifice Gideon offered and not Gideon himself. Gideon was not consumed but loved, because later on Christ would cover his sins, and we are not consumed but loved for the same reason.

Who God is not: The thing about God that are inherent in the words "I will be with you," is who God isn't. Gideon had the intellectual knowledge of the stories of the exodus. Yet, he and the other Israelites were still syncretists--worshipers of Baal and God. That syncretism was exactly what had been getting the Israelites into trouble during their whole history. They were trying to hedge their bets with a false god who supposedly controlled the fertility of their crops (i.e. Baal) and still get the protection and provision of Yahweh--the true God of the Bible. But, God's people cannot have it both ways, and they were thinking they could. "Yahweh would redeem you, but when it comes to fertility, Baal is your man," is what they thought. Pagan gods may accept that--may accept serving multiple gods at once--but Yahweh will not have that, because He is that kind of God. He's not like the pagan gods of Israel's time or our time. He demands exclusive worship. And, of course, this is true love from Him, because the moment you have another god, you're depending on something that will fail you, and God will not let you do that. He's not that kind of God. This is why the very first job for Gideon was not rescuing the people but getting rid of Baal in their midst.

The God of the Bible who is not like the pagan gods requires fidelity only to Him, but that fidelity comes with the knowledge that He will care for His people and redeem them from their enemies. It's like a marriage. What kind of husband wouldn't get jealous and angry if his wife tried to have a second husband? Why kind of wife wouldn't do the same if her husband tried to have a second wife? If they had no problem with their spouse entertaining other intimate relationships, then we'd probably question how much they really love that spouse. We'd also question their desire to care for that spouse above all others (for they don't mind infidelity from the spouse, they'd likely engage in it themselves). So, it is with us. If God didn't require our exclusive worship and love--setting aside all false gods--then we'd have reason to wonder if He really loves us and really will be faithful to His promises to care for us. But, our God is not like the pagan gods (who were as fickle as the most unreliable human). He requires fidelity, and that comes from an intense love and care for His people--intense enough to send His own Son to die for us.

When we have that kind of God and that kind of love and when we live in awe and reverence of that kind of God, our fear (in the biblical sense) of Him will cast out the lesser fears of enemies or fulfilling the call He has given us. It did it for Gideon and God's people (eventually), and it will for us. As God says in Is. 43:5, "Fear not, for I am with you."

By His Grace,
Taylor

Hope for a New Year

So, in the week leading up to this past New Year's Eve, many people were making resolutions, as they do, of course, every year. And, of course, since Jan. 1, 2015, the number of broken resolutions has been growing steadily. This year I got a little curious about the resolutions people were making, so I went to Twitter and searched #NewYearsResolution, and, as you might imagine, a bunch of tweets came up. Most were about the standard resolution stuff—losing weight, eating healthier, stopping doing _____, travel to _____, change my life, etc.—but there were also many tweets that reflected a loss of hope for many individuals—people who have made many, many resolutions and know they never stick to them.

Now, you may not be into New Year's resolutions (like me), but when we Christians come up on mile markers in life like a new year, it's not uncommon for us to reflect on the previous year and maybe even feel a little twinge of that loss of hope—I want to change, but I never stick to it. Sometimes I think about how I'm still struggling with the same sins that plagued me a year ago or two years ago. Sometimes I wonder if I'm increasing in personal holiness and growing in the likeness of Christ at all. Now, that may be partially because I'm the kind of person who tends to focus more on the negative, and you may be a more positive thinking person. But, even so, I'd venture the guess that all of us would like to grow more in Christ and get over certain sins faster or altogether. Paul expressed the common human experience when he said, "For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate…. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?" We know God's moral will for our lives and then we see what we're doing and how we've been doing it for a long time, and it's easy to think, "Is there any point? Is there any hope?"

Well, Ro. 4:13-25 is a passage that talks about the true hope of the gospel, even when it seems hopeless, and I had the blessing of being able to preach a sermon on that passage a couple of Sunday's ago. If you are interested in hearing more, you can listen to the sermon here or read the transcript here. I pray that it is a blessing to your soul and increases your joy in Christ.

By His Grace,
Taylor

Good News of Great Joy for All Peoples

So, I am little late on getting this sermon up. It is actually a Christmas sermon, of sorts, for it was preached on Dec. 21, 2014 and certainly has an advent theme. But, just a few hours after I preached it, my family and I left to drive to Atlanta for some time with our families there, and I have not had time to post it since. However, even though it is a "Christmas sermon," it the subject matter from God's Word applies to our lives at all times of the year, so hopefully it can still be helpful to you.

What is the center of your life? That is an important question because the answer tells you what your life revolves around and a little about your goal in life. We might also ask, "What is the center of history?" And, without going into the longer explanation that the sermon presents, the center of history is the advent of Christ. The calendars of the world revolve around the advent of Christ, and every person in the world dates their life, in their day-to-day existence, with reference to the birth of Christ. That tells us what history revolves around, and it tells us that goal of history as well: the second advent of Christ.

Well, Ps. 117, which is the text for the sermon, is the exact center of Scripture, which is entirely appropriate (maybe even providential) because in a nutshell, this psalm describes what the Scriptures revolve around—the firm foundation of Jesus Christ—and they describe God’s ultimate goal: all His people from all tribes and nations praising Him for His steadfast love and faithfulness.

So, if you want to find out more, you can listen to the sermon here or read the transcript here. I pray that it will be a blessing to your soul and increase your joy in Christ.

By His Grace,
Taylor

The Lowly Shepherds

This is a little late being posted because I wrote it back on Dec. 19, 2014 and sent it out to my congregation as a devotional before the sermon I preached on Dec. 21, 2014. But, better late than never, and while it has a kind of Christmas theme to it, I think the content will still be applicable no matter what time of year it is. My congregation's advent reading for Sunday Dec. 21, 2014 was from Luke 2, which is related tangentially to the sermon topic (the sermon will be posted in a couple of days), so I figured a devotional from that text would be fitting and (hopefully) helpful. The devotional focuses particularly on the classic Christmas story of the shepherds--Luke 2:8-20:

⁸ And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. ⁹ And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. ¹⁰ And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. ¹¹ For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. ¹² And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” ¹³ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,
¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest,
    and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”
¹⁵ When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” ¹⁶ And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. ¹⁷ And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. ¹⁸ And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. ¹⁹ But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. ²⁰ And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

Have you ever seen a nativity play? Have you or your kids ever been in one? Which role did you or they want to play? Well, the girls, I am sure, wanted Mary, and the boys, wanted Joseph. But, if you couldn't get Joseph, as a boy, the wise men were usually the next best thing. And then, if you were really unlucky, you had to be a shepherd, which probably meant kneeling with a bathrobe on and a hand towel tied over your head. The shepherds often times get relegated to the lowest part of the pecking order of the nativity scenes and plays we see/perform. In fact, I have often wondered why Luke, the doctor, would choose the write about the shepherds. It seemed to me that surely Luke would have chosen to write about the wise men, the intellectuals like him. Why the lowly shepherds? I think we often think that the shepherds were just lucky, unimportant guests at the party. Well, those kinds of thoughts are a mistake that God and Luke do not make.

Have you every wondered what Joseph and Mary thought when the shepherds showed up? They knew what the angel had told them about Jesus, but they had to wonder, "What brought you here? How did you know?" The shepherds just showed up at the gate to the stable. And, they could have asked the same question of the wise men, who were the "academics" in their time. Now, we know the wise men probably did not arrive at the same time as the shepherds. It was perhaps years later. But, let's imagine the nativity scenes, as we often see them in plays or we put on our mantles, are correct and they all made it there at once. Perhaps the wise men had a proud response to how they knew and said that they had been directed by a very careful reading of ancient prophecy and vigilant watching the stars, as only an academic could have done. Then, they might have turned to the shepherds and said, perhaps looking down their noses a bit, "And, how did you know about this?" And, I image that a cheeky shepherd might have answered, "Yeah, we may not be too bright and able to read prophecy or watch the stars, but we had an angel appear to us; then an army of angels singing to us, and we saw the glory of the LORD surrounding us. You saw a star. God sent us a special host of heavenly messengers."

This is one of the great paradoxes of Christmas: the most marginalized of those in the nativity had the most spectacular display of divine power. And, as most of you probably know, shepherds were the lowest of the low in this society. They could not even testify in court because it was believed de jure that they could never be trusted. Yet, the glorious birth announcement comes to shepherds who had done nothing to qualify for it, and they probably knew that they could do nothing to qualify, as they were the lowest of society. God shows us His grace even in the announcement. The Savior doesn't despise the shepherds, which means He doesn't despise the likes of me or you. He was born even for the likes of us.

But, let's think a little more about this story. Now, if you were a shepherd and you had seen a host of angels announcing the birth the Savior who is the Messiah foretold in the Old Testament, where would you think you would find that baby? You would probably think, like the wise men, that he must be royally-born and that He'd be in a palace. The wise men knew the star announced the birth of someone really important--a king--and they went looking in the place important people go first: the palace. But, what do the angels say to the shepherds? "And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger."

Have you ever thought about how that is a really weird sign? If the one born is the Savior and Messiah/Christ, how is Him being born in a manger--in the food trough of animals--a sign? Well, consider this. If you were a shepherd--the lowliest of society--and the angel told you He was in the palace, would you have gone to see Him? I doubt it, because you'd know a shepherd would never be let into the palace! That Savior would be off limits to anyone but the highest ranking people in the world. They would have said, "He's not for the likes of us." But, He was placed in a food trough, and that was a sign for the shepherds and us that the Savior has come for the least in the world. There is no one so far gone or so low that they could say, "I know He could save others, but He can't save me." He is so gentle, meek, and lowly that there is no obstacle in Him to prevent anyone from having Him as their Savior. He is the God of gods, the Messiah, the heir to King David's eternal throne--i.e. qualified to save the greatest--and He was born and laid in a manger--i.e. qualified to save the lowliest. The only obstacle is our sinful rebellion. The obstacle is found in us, not in Him.

Let's consider one more part of this story. There is something else odd in the birth announcement, in v. 11. Does that phrase "unto you is born" seem a little odd? Wouldn't you expect it to say, "unto Mary" or "unto Joseph"? The shepherds probably were good Jews and knew the Messiah was coming, but there is all the difference in the world between knowing that is true and believing that is for you. That little phrase was another way the angels showed them that the Savior can be theirs. He was born for them. He was born unto us, and even the birth announcement tells us that.

The glory, meaning, or "magic" of Christmas is not in the presents or good will that travels around this time of year, though those things in themselves can be great. The glory is, paradoxically, that Jesus humbled Himself to the level of a servant, was announced to lowly shepherds, and drew the shepherds to Himself so that we could know we could come too and tell others that He is a Savior qualified to save the greatest to the lowliest.

By His Grace,
Taylor