Category: Every Day Bible

“If all the cathedrals on earth were gone, all the most glorious art were lost, and all of the world’s most valuable treasures were thrown out, Christians could and would still meet for worship around the Scriptures and Eucharist. To have church, all we need is Word and sacrament.”

(Tish Warren, Liturgy of the Ordinary)

One of the beautiful things about Christianity is its simple, unstoppable power. A virus and quarantine can’t stop the church from being the church. Power outages and downed trees don’t stop the church from being the church.

Never forget what Jesus said, “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell [Sheol—the grave] shall not prevail against it.” (Matthew 16:18)

When Jesus said these words, he was standing in Caesarea Philippi, not far from Mount Hermon, an area sometimes referred to as Bashan. It was known for terrifying giant clans—the Rephaim and Anakim associated with kings Sihon and Og (Deuteronomy 2:10-12, Joshua 12:1-5).

Ugaritic history tells us that the locals believed the giants were the spirits of these dead wicked kings. They believed this area was the portal to the underworld, or the gates of Sheol. Nearby is Dan, where Jeroboam built an altar to Baal.

There is even Jewish legend that this is where the Nephilim of Genesis 6 were born, and they were the ancestors of the demons (1 Enoch 15:1-12).

On top of all of that, Caesarea Philippi was dedicated to Zeus.

What I’m saying is – if you wanted a headquarters for the spooky, evil, and demonic, this region is it.

How powerful is it that Jesus stood in this place and says, more literally, “the gates of hell will not withstand my church.”

A lot of people predict doom and gloom for the church—but Jesus said the opposite. He said that no force dares stand in the way of God’s kingdom.

I don’t know about you, but that makes me feel pretty optimistic about the future of the church!

No one, anywhere, has enough time or resources to do all the things they would like to do. Everything we say “yes” to is an automatic “no” to something else.

In this week’s lesson from Matthew 13, I suggest that the biggest dangers to our spiritual health are starvation and neglect (rocky soil and thorny soil). Those dangers arise directly from our choices about what we say “yes” to and what we say “no” to.

The problem is most of us don’t make those choices on purpose. We don’t plan to nourish our souls, so when we get home after work, rather than taking a strategic action, we take an easy action, and we re-watch the same TV show that wasn’t that funny the first seven times we watched it.

Living in coram deo means being conscious of the fact that we are living in the presence of God.

How would our choices about using time look different if Jesus accompanied us on each task?

How would our attitudes about the mundane chores of life feel different if Jesus were scrubbing toilets next to us?

How would our response to temptation change if we knew that Jesus were really beside us, helping us in the struggle, holding us by his nail-pierced hand?

Living in coram deo has the power to change our lives!

We’ll still neglect to do some things, but that neglect will be strategic neglect. 

Read Psalm 90

• What metaphors does Psalm 90 use to illustrate the brevity of human life?
• What does it mean to “number our days”? How might we do that?
• How does numbering our days give us a heart of wisdom?

Read Ephesians 5:15-16

• Look in the verses before and after this section. What do you think it means to walk “wisely”?
• How would you define “making the best use of the time”?
• Does making the best use of time eliminate recreation and rest? Why or why not?

In light of these passages, Matthew 6:33, and this morning’s lesson…

What are some things that you have been neglecting that need some attention?

What is something in your life that you need to start neglecting in order to focus on something more important?

I’ve never thought that the phrase “Good fences make good neighbors” made a lot of sense. In my experience, the best neighbors make me thankful not to have a fence, and bad neighbors aren’t deterred by fences.

Despite that, there’s something incredibly useful and powerful about boundaries. I’ve always liked how Galatians 6:2, 5 balances life for us: “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ…Each will have to bear his own load.” It is appropriate for me to help someone in time of need. It is not appropriate for me to do all of their work for them.

If we don’t set boundaries intentionally, we’ll find that time, circumstances, and other people will set them for us. We might not like where they get set.

Brené Brown wrote, “Compassionate people ask for what they need. They say no when they need to, and when they say yes, they mean it. They’re compassionate because their boundaries keep them out of resentment.”

I had never thought about boundary-setting is compassionate before. It doesn’t just help me, it helps others. In fact, it sounds an awful lot like what Jesus said. “Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.” (Matthew 5:37)

This discussion guide accompanies the Sunday, April 26th sermon at Burns Church of Christ.

Life is an incredible teacher. Unfortunately, we’re not all great students!

Some people have 20 years of experience at work. Others have one year of experience, repeated twenty times.

What’s the difference? Mindset!

Are we people who seek out opportunities to learn and grow? Do we let our failures teach us and make us better? Or do we avoid taking chances that carry any risk of failure whatsoever.

In this week’s message, we focused on the idea that we can learn from times like this. We can learn from anything, if we’re willing to. One teacher told me that you can learn from any sermon—even if what you learn is, “This is an unhelpful way to explain this idea.”

We get excited when scientists make breakthroughs. We want to hear about a new drug that works wonders against disease. It’s far less exciting, but negative (or null) results are incredibly valuable, too. At the end of an unsuccessful trial, scientists need to share ideas about what doesn’t work in order to advance further research and prevent others from wasting time and resources going down a dead-end path.

The shorthand name for this idea—that we should look at life as an opportunity to learn from every moment—is called a growth mindset.

Growth mindset people believe that hard work, perseverance, and effort determine destiny far more than innate talent or blind luck. (The opposite of the growth mindset is the fixed mindset).

I think this idea finds a lot of support in scripture: that we should be people who learn and listen and grow and improve at every possible moment.

Read and discuss the following scriptures:

Proverbs 19:20

Proverbs 2:2

Matthew 11:15

Proverbs 19:27

Proverbs 25:12

Proverbs 18:2

Proverbs 12:1

Luke 17:5

1 Peter 2:2-3

Discuss:

How can you and your circle be intentional about developing a growth mindset?

If this mindset of curiosity and learning is so beneficial, what keeps us from it?

How can the growth mindset apply to your education or work?

How would a church led by people with this mindset look different than a church dominated by a fixed mindset?

For further study:

• Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck is the standard reading about this idea. It is applied to education, sports, business, health, and more.
• “The Power of Believing That You Can Improve” is Carol Dweck’s TED Talk that has been viewed more than 10 million times. It’s only 10 minutes and is a great intro to the topic.
• Cognitive Spiritual Development: a Christ-Centered Journey to Spiritual Self Esteem by Lonnie Jones is a religious application of Dweck’s Principles. Easy to read book.

This post carries the risk of being weird or self-promotional, but I’m going to chance it anyway.

If you’ve been missing being together with your church, I’ve put together a list of my favorite sermons from last year. These are all over the place. Some are topics, some are texts….

I don’t know about other preachers, but there are some sermons that I really enjoyed.

(There is an implication here….there are some that seemed like a good idea, until about 15 minutes into the sermon!)

Sometimes you run into an idea that’s beautiful or powerful and you just love sharing it. Other days – it’s a struggle. And of course, your mileage may vary. Some of the sermons I love the most leave Leslie scratching her head wondering why I rambled about that for half an hour!

So, without further ado, here are my five favorite sermon babies from 2019.

(If the files don’t play right in the browser – click the 3 dots on the right side and hit “Download.”)

A Gratitude Perspective
The gratitude perspective is powerful. The disciples had a choice – will we respond in joy, or will we respond in fear? Fear is easier for most of us – but joy is better.

The Lefty
Ehud and Eglon’s story is weird. Really weird. Why does the Bible take the time to tell us the story of a lefty and an obese king? In this Sunday night class, we learn that no matter how your story begins, it might just end very differently.

God’s Great Reversal
God has a way of taking the things as ugly, shameful, and useless, and using them to create the unimaginable. The Easter story is the greatest example of God’s Great Reversals.

Blessed Assurance
Do you know that you are right with God, or do you just hope to be? If you want Blessed Assurance, there are a few things you need to know…

Just Do It!
With no apologies to Nike, sometimes the message we need the most is simple. Just do it. Do what’s right, right now.

Honorable Mentions

If, somehow, you haven’t wised up yet, I’ve included two sermon series from last year that I really enjoyed. Remember, I’m not responsible if you listen while operating heavy machinery and you doze off… Please don’t mix with Benadryl!

A Christmas Carol Series

Somehow I had never read A Christmas Carol before 2019. I used some ideas from Dickens to prep for Christmas this year. You’ll probably like this series better if you are really familiar with the story.

1. Ghosts and Chains
2. Warnings from Above
3. The Making of a Scrooge
4. A New Creature

The Ten Commandments

My theme for 2019 was “Love God – Love Neighbor.” Jesus said you could summarize the entire law and prophets with this simple direction, so we looked at the ten commandments through the lens of how they teach us to love God and neighbor.

Also, when we hear the ten commandments, we tend to find the ways that other people violate them. I tried to pay particular attention to the way that I would violate them. That seems way more helpful to me…

• Law and Love
• Before the Law, God…
• The First: No Other Gods
• The Second: No Graven Images
• The Third: Don’t Misuse His Name
• The Fourth: Honor the Sabbath
• The Fifth: Honor Your Parents (a dialogue with Andy Scott)
• The Sixth: Don’t Murder
• The Seventh: Don’t Cheat
• The Eighth: Don’t Steal
• The Ninth: Don’t Bear False Witness
• The Tenth: Don’t Covet
• I Fought the Law…and the Law Won

This year’s materials are available over at the church website and our youtube page.

In this morning’s lesson, I wanted to show you just how prevalent and powerful God’s grace is in the story of scripture. I hope that helps us appreciate our total dependence on his kindness. I want you to see just how solid of a foundation this idea has in scripture. I could print a list for you, but you’ll “get it” better if you do some digging to find the answers, so I’ve prepared two exercises for you.

If it’s easier for you, you can download a printable pdf or word doc here:

Exercise 1: What Grace Does

I’ve listed most of the passages in the New Testament where grace acts. In these passages, God’s kindness does something. Look at each passage and make note of what grace can do. When you are finished, read over your list and see just how active of a force God’s grace is in our lives.

Passage                        Grace’s action

Romans 3:24               Grace justifies us

Romans 4:16              

Romans 5:2                

Romans 5:20              

Romans 5:21              

Romans 16:20            

1 Corinthians 15:10   

2 Corinthians 4:15     

2 Corinthians 12:9     

Ephesians 1:7             

Ephesians 2:5             

Ephesians 2:8             

Titus 2:11                   

Titus 3:7                     

Hebrews 2:9              

Hebrews 4:16            

Hebrews 13:9            

Acts 11:23                  

Acts 15:11                  

Exercise #2: Seeing Grace in the Old Testament

Most people are not well-trained to see God’s grace in the Old Testament. They think of the stories of God’s wrath and judgment—which are certainly there—and miss the acts of his kindness. It is true that the Old Testament doesn’t use the word “grace” as often as the New Testament. The New Testament even says in John 1:17 “the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”

It would be a mistake, though, to believe that grace and truth are missing from the Old Testament. After all, wasn’t Jesus who embodies grace also the pre-existent one who was God and who was with God? (see just a few verses earlier in John 1:1-3).

Beyond that, you can read of “God, who saved us, and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began…”  (2 Timothy 1:9) God’s gracious character exists before he created the world in Genesis 1.

So here’s your exercise: find 3 examples of God’s grace in the Old Testament.

I’ll give you a few hints: the Hebrew word hen (חֵן) is usually translated as “favor.” It is the nearest equivalent to the New Testament’s charis (χάρις) “grace.” Don’t just look for the word, look for the idea! Look for stories where God shows kindness for no other reason than that God is kind. Look for his unmerited favor, his unnecessary mercy, his generosity. Look for evidence that God’s relationship with mankind isn’t transactional or quid pro quo, it is an outpouring of generosity before, during, and after any human response. Locate five stories where God is truly gracious.

Here are three to get you warmed up:

1. God’s promise to Abram. In Genesis 12 God blesses Abram and makes him an incredible promise. He promises to make a great nation of the barren old couple. He promises to bless those who bless him. He promises an unimaginable legacy. Nothing Abram did merited this. In fact, Abram goes on to act inconsistently with this promise on more than one occasion (lying about his wife, sleeping with her servant, etc.), but nothing derails God from keeping his promise. God is kind to Abraham because of who God is.
2. The book of Deuteronomy. Yes, the bulk of the book is filled with law, but the law is given in the context of God’s grace. Deuteronomy 1-4 are an account of how God has graciously blessed Israel. The laws are designed to reflect that blessing. Even in the section where Moses outlines the consequences of breaking the law (chapters 27-30), you see promises of restoration after repentance and hope after failure. (Check out Deuteronomy 7:7 and 9:5 as reminders of why God did what he did.)
3. Ezekiel and Israel. Ezekiel 16 uses a parable to demonstrate Israel’s depravity, but while talking about how bad Israel has gotten, Ezekiel actually highlights how merciful God has been. God poured his love out on Israel when she had nothing to offer. He made her into something beautiful. She rejected him and caused great suffering, but God didn’t give up. He brings her back.

What three examples of God’s grace can you find?