The Christian should always be looking at that

(The Christian's) whole out look upon everything that happens to (him) should be governed by three things: my realization of who i am, my consciousness of where i am going, and me knowledge of what awaits me when i get there. You will find this argument in many places in Scripture. The apostle Paul once put it like this, 'our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;while we look not at the things that are seen but at the things that are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.' (2 Corinthians 4:17-18) The Christian should always be looking at that.

Martin Lloyd-Jones, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, Vol 1, P 144

Christmas: Wake Up!

In the middle of winter, being woken up by the sun feels like a distant dream. At the moment i watch the day slowly dawn as i read the Bible in the morning, and, on very bad days, while i'm driving my wife to school sometime later that morning. But there's something wonderful about sunrise, something hope filled, something refreshing about seeing the sunrise, something significant.

And because the Gospel is true, we should expect everything in the natural world to be filled with significance. This was clearly Malachi's point of view, when he described the coming of Christ like the rising of the sun. And there's lots of ways that's true. The sun brings hope, healing, help, security and joy, just like Christ's coming does.

But i think there's something else that Christ being like the sun does as well. It wakes us up. Malachi ministered in such a depressing time in the history of Israel. Not as bad as the times of the Judges perhaps, and in some senses better than the exile itself, but not by much. The people had returned the the promised land, free from captivity. As good students of Moses, they'd have known what to expect next. A glorious temple and a glorious kingdom, and they got neither. The temple was ok, but nothing in comparison to the old one, and as for the kingdom, they'd gone from being a world power to a provincial backwater.

And worse, they were asleep spiritually. The people offered the blind and sick animals in sacrifice, and the priests let them. Few took God's Word seriously. Worship had become wearisome to the people. There were few who were faithful, few who heeded Malachi's call. They were asleep, and they needed the sun. And the sun is the prescription for all our ills. We need to stop chasing the darkness away and open the windows.

If we're asleep, our prescription is the same. If tithing seems like madness to us, we need to be woken up. We need to remember that we have no earthly city, we have to remember that what we earn belongs to God anyway, we have to remember that our faith is seen as we serve God not money. As the sun rises, we hold money cheaper.

If worship is a weariness, we need the sun to warm us up. We need to remember our riches in Christ, our salvation from sin, our union with the Son of God. We need the sun to warm us up until we sing. And worship isn't just singing. We need to be woken up so that we live our whole lives as if the Gospel is true. So that what we read in the Bible stays with us, and changes us. we ned to bathe in the sun until we sing.

If we struggle to take the Bible seriously, we need to open our eyes and be dazzled by the sun. We need to ask for help every morning to see what's really there. And just like an eye doctor is glorified when we ask for help to see the sun, so God the Father is glorified when we ask for help to see the Son. And those are the prayers He loves to answer.

This is the healing we need. To give, to sing, to see. We need to be weaned off the dark, cold air, which we're told to desire, which we're told is safe, and come out into the light. We need to leap like calfs, because the Son of God has come, and He shines on us in all His glory.

Like Elijah

I've come to love James' letter over the last couple of months. We've just finished fourteen weeks going through it in Teen Church at Trinity. It's part Sermon on the Mount, part Amos, part Isaiah, all Jesus. I suppose, since it's in the Bible, it would be. It's a letter that gets in your face and forces you to deal with things you'd rather not, it's a book to challenge, and to encourage.

Near the end of the letter, written to struggling, dispersed, Christians, James makes a startling comparison. An encouraging comparison. A provocative comparison. In his conclusion, as he challenges his readers to examine their faith, their prayers and their community involvement, he tells us in 5:17 that 'Elijah was a man with a nature like yours.'

Excuse me?

'Elijah was a man with a nature like yours.' In terms of provocation, and encouragement and startling the kids in the back row awake, he couldn't have chosen much better. Elijah was a man just like you. There is power in your faith, power in your prayers, just like there was for Elijah. He prayed that it wouldn't rain, and for forty months it didn't, and then he prayed that it would rain, and it did.

'Elijah was  man with a nature like yours.'  Elijah who fed the hungry and healed the sick and raised the dead. Elijah who faced down the prophets of Baal, Elijah, to whom and through whom God worked wonderful things. James doesn't tell us that 'a king who you can barely remember' had a nature like ours, or 'that minor prophet whose book you skip ober,' had a nature like yours. He says Elijah.

So stop wishing that you had faith like that man, and realise that through and in Christ you have something better. Your nature is just like his, and he longed to know what you. Stop assuming your prayers bounce off the ceiling, and pray in faith, knowing that Christ's name is the signature on your dirty cheque, and God is listening. Struggling, dispersed Christian; stop doubting the power of your prayers, and pray with faith.

Be encouraged, Elijah...Elijah! was a man with a nature like yours!

The Lord's Name (ii)

James closes this verse with a warning,’ so that you may not fall under condemnation.’ our words are sacred, what we say is serious. 

Jesus said the same thing in Matthew 5:37, ‘let anything you say be simply yes or no, anything else comes from evil.’ That word condemnation is used everywhere else in the Bible to talk about the condemnation of those who don’t believe in Jesus. that’s how significant your words are. Really, James says, if your words aren’t under Jesus control, it’s because your heart isn’t either. You words reveal what’s in your heart. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks, Luke 6:45 tells us. So what is the abundance of your heart? What flows out of your heart

James isn’t asking us if we’ve ever made a mistake, but he’s asking us about the theme of our lives. Is honest, truthful, God honouring talk the direction of your life and the desire of your heart? Is that what you’re known for? Is that what you want? To respect God’s name, to be known as someone whose yes means yes and who’s no means know. Someone who confesses Jesus with their tongue by guarding their mouth and watching what they say. One commentator said, ‘we ought to be so disposed in thought and speech that we neither think nor say anything concerning God and His mysteries without reverence and much serious that in estimating His works we conceive nothing but what is honorable to Him.’

The devil is called the father of lies in John 8. Jesus said I am the truth. So which are you more like? Who are you following more closely? Constant lying, constantly taking the Lord’s name in vain is evidence that you’re not saved, that you’re failing this test. But Jesus came to save. That’s what His name means, more or less, God saves. And He is willing to save you from condemnation and forgive your dishouring words and dishonest talk. Let’s ask Him to together now.

The Lord's Name (i)

One Yale professor has said this, ‘in truth, there is probably no country in the Western world where people use God’s name quite as much, or quite as publically or for quite as many purposes as Americans do. The 3rd commandment not withstanding, few candidates for office are able to end their speeches without asking God to bless their audience or the nation or the great work their undertaking. Athletes thank God in television after the winning TD, politicians like to thank God, because He was on their side.’

So how do you use God’s name?

At the beginning of verse 12 James says ‘above all, brothers,’ above all! This seems to mean that james wants our attention of this if nothing else. It’s like an exam review, you can skip all the classwork, as long as you pay attention to the review, you’ll have it pretty good. This is the beginning of the end of the letter, and James is eager that we don’t miss what he wants to tell us about the Christian life. he wants our attention, he wants us to get it. Above all, of all the important things that James has shared, this is at the top, about all brothers, do what? Do not swear, either by Heaven or by Earth or any other oath.’

Do not swear. James isn’t talking about profanity here, that’s covered elsewhere, he’s talking about how we use the Lord’s name. do not swear by Heaven or by Earth. Don’t take the Lord’s name in vain. In the OT, ppl made oaths all the time. The spies made an oath not to kill Rahab after she helped them, David made an oath to do good to Jonathan’s family. But we don’t really do that any more. What do we do? We casually and frequently take God’s name in vain. Have you ever said ‘I swear to God?’ you've taken God’s name in vain. Have you ever said ‘oh my God?’ you’ve taken God’s name in vain. Have you ever used the name Jesus out of context? You’ve taken the Lord’s name in vain. Do not swear by God’s name is the restriction. When I was growing up I wasn’t even allowed to say ‘oh my gosh,’ because everyone knew what I meant. You might be thinking. We’’ I don’t mean anything by it.’ That’s exactly what James is addressing. We’re too casual, too lazy with our God talk to mean something by it. You don’t mean anything by using God’s name? That’s almost the very definition of taking God’s name in vain!

How do you use God’s name?

Maybe verbally you don’t have a problem with it, but non verbally you do. How do you non verbally take God’s name in vain? You goof off in worship. You don’t pay attention to the reading and preaching of His Word. You ignore the work that the Holy Spirit wants to do in your life. you say, ‘ God told me to,’ when the truth is, you wanted to. You try to pass off your will, your plans as God’s will and God’s plans. Don’t do this, James says, don’t swear by Heaven or by Earth, don’t use His name to justify your desires.

Instead, James instructs us, ‘but let your yes by yes and your no be no.’ just tell the truth! When you say yes, do it! When you say no, don’t do it! Make life simple for yourself by keeping your word. Sometimes the Bible is had to apply, and sometimes it’s really easy…this is one of those easy times. Let your yes mean yes and your no mean no.

I can’t be the only one that thinks the more someone insists on something the less likely it is to be true. You know what I mean, if someone keeps telling you something is true, they’re determined to convince you and wear you down about it, you’re a bit less likely to believe them right? Don’t be like that, let your yes mean yes, and your no mean know. If people trust you, if you’re of good character, you won’t need to ‘swear to God,’ or make an oath. People will know you’re telling the truth because you always do. Christians, more than anybody, should be known as truth tellers. Jesus said, I am the truth,’ right? Jesus is the truth, His people must be reliable and trustworthy in every area of life.

Are you? Do people trust your word? 

Depending on God (ii)

So the question becomes, ‘how?’ how can we depend on Jesus? what does that sort of life look like? James tells us in 4:15. ‘instead you ought to say, if the Lord wills we will live and do this or that.’ Again the sin issue here is not planning the future, it’s not planning a future with God at it’s centre. Instead of saying we will go here, we should say, if God wills it, we will go here. If God allows us we will go here, if God is for the idea, we will do it. We must learn to depend on God because our lives are in God’s hands. We only live physically because God wills it. God wills that our brain tells ou heart to pump blood around our body. God wills that we don’t fall down dead. And it’s only by God that we live spiritually. God gives us our salvation that He had bought, we don’t earn it, it’s from God.

Do you try to remember that on a daily basis? Do you try to remember that your life is wholly in God’s hands? Paul did regularly. In Acts 18:21 he writes, ‘I will return to you again, if the Lord wills.’ In 1 Corinthians 4:19 he writes, ‘I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills.’ He knew that His life was totally in God’s hands, and He depended on God because of it.

James says we will live and we will do. When we do, we do with God as the focus. All our activities and all our accomplishments are in God’s hands. Not yours. Not your parents. Not your teachers. God’s. Ephesians 2:10 says that God has prepared good works for us to walk in beforehand. And if we depend on God we are immortal until we are finished with those works. Paul had preached the Gospel to the ends of the Earth, and he died, Stephen preached the Gospel to the leading Jews, and he died.

Only as you depend on God will you life a live worth living, and doing things worth doing.  So are you depending on God? Or are you like the businessman in verse 13, distant from God and not relating anything you do to Him? Make your plans, make bold plans, challenging plans, exciting plans, but make sure you depend on God for the success of your plans. Make sure you depend on God as you make your plans.

And remember, as you live, work, rest and play, how secure you are. Isn’t it wonderful  to know that it’s God who governs our future not our enemies, not nature, not chance, not us, but our good, Heavenly Father. Why would we want to depend on anyone, or anything else?

Depending on God (i)

James writes in chapter 4:13 the phrase ‘come now,’ which means pay attention, or listen up. It’s the only time this phrase is used in the Bible, so we know he’s about to say something important. Who is he talking to? Remember his letter is written to Christians who live a long way from home, who are struggling to stay faithful to Jesus in a world that is against Him. Maybe that describes some of you. Maybe your Christian life started off great, but now it’s a struggle, maybe you’re more excited by the world than the Word. Well then James is the man for you! James is specifically addressing businessmen here, but the point stands for us all. These men are making a plan to travel, work and earn money. They’ve got the time worked out, they’ve got the place worked out, and they’ve got their work worked out. These guys are sorted. They are the classic, 21st century, secular American, relying on themselves. And this is the problem. James doesn’t tell us the problem is that they planned, but that they made no room for God in their plan. They never asked Him, they never looked to Him, they never thought about Him.

Maybe that’s our big problem. Not so much that we commit sin, that we get angry, and lazy, and lustful, and proud, but that we live our lives with so little dependence on God. We are so far from God just in the course of our normal day to day decision making that we hardly ever even think about Him. We’re like David, who despised the Word of the Lord when he sinned with Bathsheba. That wasn’t his intention, but he made decisions with no reference to God’s will, he didn’t depend on God, and Nathan told him that he had despised God.

Who do you depend on? James gives us three reasons why we shouldn’t depend on ourselves and one reason why we should depend on God.

Verse 14 tells us that depending on ourselves is foolish. James tells us that we are a vapour, a breath. We are morning mist that vanishes. We hate to think of this. We are men, we are the captains of our fate, we are in control right? We build cities and expect them to last forever, we build new philosophies and threaten anyone who disagrees. But we’re vapour. We’re fragile, our time is short, and life will go on without us. So depending on ourselves rather than God, the great rock solid reality of life, is foolish.

Verse 16 tells us that to rely on ourselves is boastful and arrogant. Those aren’t compliments. We may not walked around with our chests puffed out saying ‘I don’t need God,’ but if you never pray, if you never open the Bible, if you never ask for wisdom, you may as well be. Then James tells us that it’s even worse than boastful and arrogant, it’s evil. Evil. Evil to rely on yourself not God. That was the original evil, the original sin, Adam and Eve relied on their own judgment, their own eyes instead of the Lord. How often do you ask God for help? How often do you run your plans past Him?

Then we learn, from verse 17, the depending on ourselves and not God is sinful. Living life with no reference to God, even a life of church attendance and Bible reading and good grades in a Christian school, is sinful. You’ve probably worked it out, but James drives it home. You know the right thing to do, to listen to God, and look to God, and depend on God, and you don’t do it. That’s a sin. Jesus doesn’t take your lack of attention lightly. To not depend on Jesus is the biggest way you can insult Him. He doesn’t want to be your co-pilot, He’s in the driver’s seat and you’re in the sick bay. He’s flying the plane home through a storm while you hold on for dear life. don’t ignore Him, depend on Him.

The Turning Point

James 4:1-12 asks us what excites us. Out of his pastoral concern for the Christians spread far and wide from the spiritual home, James writes a letter with 12 tests, to help them examine their faith. What get's us excited? Today i'm excited about closing on our new home in a couple of weeks, less excited about packing up everything into boxes this weekend. But am i as excited about openin by Bible tomorrow as opening that front door at the end of the month?

James tells us that when we're excited about the world, more than Jesus our prayer life goes haywire. We don't get what we want, because we don't ask, and even when we do ask, we ask wrongly, 'to spend it on our passions.'

When we do this, we are cheating on God. That’s what verses 4 tells us. ‘you adulterous people.’ Isn’t that what adultery is? Going behind the back of the person you said you’d love and be faithful to? Using a spouse for what you can gain from them while you chase other loves? When we are friends with the world, when we use God to get what we want in the world, we are spiritual adulterers. That’s pretty shocking isn’t it? Well it gets even worse, James says that if we’re friends with the world, if we’re going behind God’s back and having a relationship with the world when we said we’d be faithful to Him, we are His enemies. His enemies. James doesn't pull any punches does he?

So what does God do to these enemies and adulterers? We think we know the answer don’t we? We think that He’d judge them, cast them off, throw them in the lake of fire. But what do verses 5 and 6 tell us? He yearns jealously over the spirit He has made to dwell within them. When God’s people are more excited about the world than they should be, God yearns for them. When you’re far from God, He wants you to come home, He is passionate about you. And He gives you more grace. Friends, there is always more grace. More grace in God than sin in you, and if you’re anything like me, there is a lot of sin in you!

God's grace is the turning point in this passage, as it's the turning point in your life.

This is the grace that gives us an excitement about the things of God. It makes us excited to open our Bibles, excited to be at church, excited to share our faith. Three times in these verses James tell us that being passionate about God makes us humble. Humility is what happens when we know that God is God and we are not, and that we are helpless without Him. We know that our hands are empty. And because we know that we show our humility by submitting to God. By obeying Him, by asking for His help, by accepting that at all times, in all seasons and in all ways He knows best. If you’re humble you’re submitting. If you have a hard time following God and submitting to God, you need to pray for that humility.

And what does a life full of humble submissive excitement look like? An endless string of mission adventures and angelic visions? No, says James, in verses 11-12 it looks like loving your brother and listening to the Bible. Much more mundane, much more Christlike!

Children of the Light (iii)

I love the start of verse 9, ‘God hath not appointed us to wrath.’ If you have faith in Jesus Christ this morning, if you’re in the day, not the night, then God has not appointed you to wrath! That should  stun us, it should amaze us, it should knock the wind out of us. We should stand on our heads for joy because we...sinners like you and me, after all we’ve said, and all we’ve done, and all we’ve thought, we will not face the wrath of God that we deserve.

We’ve wasted our Father’s substance in the far city, and we come dragging our heels home, expecting the worst, and He comes out of the house running, and gives us new clothes, and new shoes, and calls for a feast. If we have faith in Christ, a different nature, different behavior, we are appointed to obtain salvation through Jesus Christ who died for us. As Christians we need to come back to this truth early and often. There ought never to be a day when we don’t thank Jesus for dying on the cross for our sins, and walking out of the tomb three days later. We should never lose sight of the glorious Gospel. Not ever.

And one day, the end of verse 10 promises us, we’ll live together with Him. We’ll live in Heaven. No sorrow, no tears, no sickness, no regrets, no misunderstandings, no nighttime, drunkenness, no sin. Just Jesus, and Him forever.

That last verse tells us to comfort and encourage each other with the truth of Heaven. We’ve all heard the knock on Christians that what we believe is just ‘pie in the sky when you die,’ we’re too heavenly minded to be of any earthly use. Well, if your mind is not fixed on Heaven, you won’t be any use on Earth. The hope of Heaven is our comfort at the graveside, at the hospital bed. It makes the good days sweeter and the bad days bearable. The hope of Heaven gives us our new nature, and makes sense of our different behavior.

So how about you this morning? Do you recognize yourself in the description of people who live in the day? Are you awake, or have you dozed off? Are you sober, or getting drunk on worldly pleasures? Do you feel like you’re wondering around lost, or is the Word guiding your way? Maybe you need to get saved, or maybe you need to start living like you are saved once more. Whatever you need, you need Jesus, because He has it. Let’s go to Him now.

Children of the Light (ii)

Secondly, Paul tells us that if we live in the day, we behave differently. Christianity isn’t just doing things differently, but it’s not less than that. John MacArthur says that being a Christian involves a radical moral change. We behave differently. Look at verses 6-8 with me.

What’s Paul saying? Don’t sleep, watch. Don’t doze off at your post, like the disciples in Gethsemene, but watch. Look out for the dawn, look out for the second coming. Don’t be caught off guard, don’t sleep, watch. Don’t be lulled away by the devil’s lullaby that the world sings. Stay awake! And be sober. Is your life sober? Not just in terms of alcohol, but in terms of it’s direction?

Verse 7 tells us that it’s people who live in darkness who sleep and get drunk, but we watch, and we’re sober. The core of our life’s behavior is watchful and sober. We’re watchful over our spending, because God gives us money so that we can show that we love God more than money. We’re watchful over how we spend our time, because life is short and eternity is long. We’re watchful over our viewing habits, because the devil can use anything to inflame our lusts. We’re watchful over our kids, because God didn’t give teenagers common sense, He gave them parents.

A sober person is self controlled, balanced, calm and steady. They have the right priorities.

But we’re not alone in this fight for spiritual sobriety. We’re armed, we’ve been given protection. Look at verse 8 with me. We have a breastplate and a helmet. We have faith, love and hope. The breastplate goes over our hearts. What’s in the heart of our new behavior? Faith and love. Faith in God, and love to man. Faith that no matter what happens, God is good, and God is in control. We didn’t use to behave like that when we were in the dark, we used to behave like we were God, like we were in control, like we were all that mattered, but now, our hearts have faith in God. And our hearts have love to man. Jesus told us that people would know we love Him because we love each other.  This is daytime behavior, loving people. In the darkness we love people because of what they can do for us. We love people who we think are worth loving. But in the light, we serve all, we love all, we help all.

And we have a helmet to guard our heads, to guard our thoughts. It’s a helmet of hope. This helmet gives us hope when everyone around us is losing theirs. It means we know how the world will turn out, we know how the story ends.

Is your behavior watchful and sober? Are your hearts filled with love and faith? Your mind with hope? Do you have a new nature, a new behavior.

If you can answer those questions yes, then verses 9-11 tells us that we have a different destiny. 

Children of the Light (i)

I have a terrible confession to make. I’m one of those morning people. Maybe you’ve seen our kind on the way to work, at the drive though line, dropping your kids off at school It’s 730 and we’re smiling, the sun isn’t up yet, and we’re cheerful. What can i say? On behalf of all morning people, we’re sorry, and we’re trying to do better.

I love the mornings. Especially this time of the year when the sun is slowly coming up, and the colours are slowly changing. God is good to give us a world where we don’t just flick a switch and get daylight, but where changes comes slowly, and beautifully.

And we live in a world with lots of different shades don’t we? Different shades of political affiliation, hard Republican to hard Democrat and everywhere in between. We live in a world with different shades of sporting support, whether it’s red, or dark blue or purple and gold. We live in a world of varying shades of religious belief, from the atheist who claims to hate God, even though he doesn’t believe in him, to the pantheist, the polytheist, all the way to those of us here this morning, and all around the world who worship Jesus.

That example is an interesting one isn’t it? In 2014 we love to see religious belief as a spectrum, as a group of people on different paths up the same mountain. This is my truth, tell me yours. But the Bible makes clear than when it comes to Jesus there is  no grey, there is no spectrum, there is only black and white. There is only day and night. You’re either living in the daylight, or your living in the night-time. Psalm 107 describes people’s salvation as being brought out of darkness, Isaiah 9:2 tells us that when Jesus comes the people living in darkness will see a great light, In Luke 1:79 we’re told that Jesus has come to rescue those who sit in darkness. Jesus Himself said in John 8:12 ‘i am the light of the world.’

And we recognize these categories from our own experiences of life don’t we? We turn on the news and we see darkness abroad. Our brothers and sisters killed for their faith, whole countries torn apart by war. We see it on our own streets, it’s hard to watch the local news without hearing of another shooting, another break in. And most of all, we see it in our own hearts. When we’re lazy in BIble reading, when we’re slow in speaking for Jesus, when we skip church, we see this darkness in our hearts.

We’re either in the light, or we’re in darkness. On the last day, those two categories are all that will matter. Are you in the darkness, or are you in the light? Are you a sheep or a goat? That was part of the reason behind Paul writing this letter to the Thessalonians. He’d only been with them a short time, and they wanted some assurance from him that they hadn’t missed the day of the Lord, and that when it came, they were going to be ok. And we should want the same assurance ourselves shouldn’t we? We should want to know, more than anything else, that we live in the day, not in the night.

Paul gives us three ways we can know here.

First of all, in verses 4 and 5, we see that if we live in the day, we have a new nature. Read those with me. Christians aren’t people who just do things differently, Christians are different. Verse 4 tells us that we’re not in darkness. In the dark you stumble over things that would be harmless in the light, in the dark you don’t know where you’re going, you don’t know whose around you. In the dark you’re lost. Isn’t that a picture of us before our salvation. Enslaved to sin without even knowing it? Wandering around aimlessly, blindly, with no direction. We’re not in darkness anymore, so we desire to honour God, particularly when it comes to thinking about Christ’s return. If you’re in the dark, verse 4 tells us, that day will overtake you like a thief. Thieves work by surprise don’t they? They never send a note telling you they’re on their way! If we live in the dark, we’re not ready for Jesus to come back. He will surprise us, and there will be nothing we can do about it.

But, as verse 5 tells us, we are children of light. What a lovely phrase! We’re children, so we depend on the good care of our loving Father, and we’re in the light. We know where we’re going because the Bible lights our way. In our hearts there is no longer the darkness of sin, but the light of a new creation. Jesus has come and we see Him, and we love Him. He’s no longer boring or irrelevant, He’s beautiful to us, He’s life. We hang on His every word, we long to think His thoughts after Him, to follow His commands. We have been changed inside! CSL says that we believe in Jesus in the same way we believe in the noonday sun, not just because we see it, but because by it we see everything else. Is that your nature, your daytime nature, that you see everything by Christ?

Use Consistency When You Speak

Be consistent when you speak. That’s the message of James 3:9-12. This kind of question really gets under our skin doesn’t it? Are we consistent in the words we use? Do we have a way of talking with our friends and a way of talking with our parents and teachers? Do we have our church conversation and our home conversation? Do we talk about people behind their back? Do we put people down with our words? Are we consistent?

Verse 9 says Christians use their tongues to bless God their Father. Is that true of you? Are you using the tongue God gave you for the reason He gave it to you? Are you praising God when you talk? Are you taking opportunities with your mouth, with your words to praise the God who made you? James just assumes that this is what Christians do. Are you talking about what you’ve read in the Bible or what God is doing in your life? are you sharing prayer requests and taking the requests of others seriously? Does your heart overflow with a pleasing theme? JE said that during the revival at Northampton in the Great Awakening all the conversation in the town was about God’s work. Is that true for you?

The rest of verse 9 tells us the problem. With our tongues we bless God, and with it we curse those made in God’s image. Curse would include things like talking about people behind their back, spreading gossip about them, insulting them and putting them down. You all know how that feels from both sides. Is your tongue consistent or is it deceitful and hypocritical? For James it’s unthinkable that someone who is saved would curse a someone. As unthinkable as a fresh spring producing salt water, or olives growing on a fig tree, or figs on a grapevine. He says these things ought not be so, they’re not part of the natural order, Christians should be consistent in their speech. He’s not saying that if you get mad at someone and blurt something out that you regret right away you’re not saved, he’s saying that if you are always curing people around you, made in the image of God, you’re failing the speech test.

We all need help here don’t we? We all need help to speak cautiously and consistently. We all need forgiveness. We’ve all said things today, probably, that we wish we’d never said. We’d said things to family members and close friends we regret, things that we wish we could take back. Maybe this message makes you never want to speak again. Although in some ways that would solve the problem it’s not very practical! I hope that seeing the importance and danger of your words drives you to prayer. Using your tongues to ask God for help. I hope it provokes you to ask God to give you encouraging words, helpful words and uplifting words. I hope it makes you seek God’s mercy. Only Jesus Christ never uttered a careless word, but only Jesus died for all the words you wish you’d never said. There is hope only in Christ for our words to be cautious and consistent, let us go to Him, now, and often. 

Use Caution When You Speak

I am more deadly than the screaming shell from the howitzer, I win without killing. I tear down homes, break hearts, wreck lives. I travel on the wings of the wind. No innocence is strong enough to intimidate me, no purity pure enough to daunt me. I have no regard for truth, no respect for justice, no mercy for the defenseless. My victims are as numerous as the sands of the sea, and often as innocent. I never forget, and seldom forgive. My name is gossip.

Our words are important aren’t they? In a unique way, what we say is who we are. We can’t shove back words in our mouths, once we’ve said them, they’re said forever, and we can’t unsay them. What we say is who we are. This James’s next test in his letter to the dispersed Christians, the Christians who were struggling, who were attracted to worldliness, who were tempted by riches. How do you speak? James mentions the tongue in every chapter, it’s an important issue for him. And in the rest of the Bible. Matt 12:34 Jesus tells us that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. Psalm 45:1 tells us that our hearts overflow with a pleasing theme when we’re close to God.

So how do you speak?

James 3:1-8 tell us to speak with caution. Caution means being alert and aware around danger. First of all we should be cautious with our words, because, as verse one tells us, those who preach or teach will be judged with greater strictness.  The more you speak the more you are accountable for. This makes sense. Those who teach the Bible have a huge spiritual influence, for good or for evil. Those who teach lead people, and thye lead people either well or poorly. Either closer to God or further away from Him. What a power words have over others that they can decide where they spend eternity! No wonder there is a greater strictness in judgment. A hundred atheists can’t match the damage of one poor Bible teacher. So use caution when you speak.

The second reason we find in verses 2-7, is that the tongue has a huge influence over us, and over others. James says if we’re able to tame the tongue, we’re able to keep our whole body under control. The tongue is small but has a great power over us. Our words shape us, our words express who we are. The tongue is like a rudder on a ship. Now in James’s time they didn’t have the great ocean liners that we have, but Acts tells us that Paul travelled to Rome on a ship with 276 people on it, so they weren’t all small sail boats. And what controls these huge ships? Tiny rudders. And what controls you? Not your hands or your eyes or your feet, your tongue. So be careful what you say, and don’t boast. Next James tells us that the tongue is like a single spark that burns down a forest. One person starts a rumor or tells a lie, and before you know it everyone’s talking about. Everyone’s mouth is burning with the lie you’ve told. James tells us these lies are set on fire by Hell. Use caution when you speak because the tongue can easily be used as the devil’s tool. Like a rudder on a boat, a spark in a forest and a wild animal on the rampage, the tongue has a huge influence, so use caution.

And use caution because the tongue is full of deadly poison. 

James really doesn’t mess around with his words does he? He’s not coddling his listeners or protecting their feelings. Every kind of animal has been tamed, but who can tame the evil of the tongue? Not Peter who told Jesus to stop talking about the cross, not Paul, who insulted a High Priest when he was on trial. And not you. If you were carrying a vial of deadly poison around with you you’d be careful. You wouldn’t drop it, or spill it or hurt anyone with it. Well, guess what, James says you do. So use caution when you speak.

Growth and Growth.

Eleven men on a Galilean hillside, listening to their leader. Go and tell all the world, i have all authority, and i'll be with you. All the doubts and worries of the last few days seem like a dream...He's alive, and He's coming with us. It's all going to be ok.

Why did Jesus choose just twelve? You know He could have efficiently disciples a thousand times that number. Why twelve when one was a betrayer? Why not disciple all of Israel, and send them out? Now you're a light to the nations.

The church always works when it's the shepherd boy agains the giant. The church is Ruth, starving and looking for mercy, the church is Esther, casting herself on the mercy of the king, the church is Jeremiah preaching from the sewer, the church is the unpopular kids at Corinth High School. And in that way, the church thrives. Jesus loses about twenty thousand followers in a day in John 6, and then turns to His guys and asks if they're leaving too. He doesn't count gain and loss like we do, His ushers aren't in the balcony counting because the Kingdom of God is not a matter of flesh and blood.

The Kingdom advances as Bibles are opened in caves in northern Iraq. Demons flee as the Gospel is proclaimed from makeshift pulpits in primary schools in southern England. The sick are healed as 'thus saith the Lord,' rings out from a multi million dollar campus in Texas.

Trendy music isn't growing the Church. Neither a light show, or the best kids work in town, or the greatest summer camps, or the newest programs, or the biggest offerings. Those things might grow a church, but not the Church.

The Church grows as one man finds other faithful men to find other faithful men. It always has. Not the rich and the famous, but the poor, the weak, the needy. Men like you and me.

Fighting Sin with Truth and Beauty

James was writing to help Christians fight a deadly infection. These Jewish Christians, far from home in the dispersion were slipping far from Christ. They were favouring the rich, they were growing lazy in their love, they were trying to mix Jesus with the world.

We know that our faith, or our love, for the Lord is growing cold when the fight against sin becomes weak. We no longer fight sin with the intensity that is willing to cut off our right hand, we make our peace with it instead. James wants his readers, and us, to fight sin with truth and beauty.

Fight sin with truth. Remember that sin leads to death. This is message in verse 14. First we're lured away by our own desire. Something or someone looks good, are desire is inflamed. Desire leads to sin. We go and get want we want. We gossip. We lust. We covet. And these things, when they're grown, bring forth death. Gossip kills. Lust kills. Coveting kills. Why? Because sin kills. James pleads with his hearers to remember this truth and to know that sin is not something to play with, not something to laugh about, not something to imitate, but something to flee from. We sin because we believe the lie that sin is harmless, so remember the truth that sin will lead to death.

And we sin because we think it will make us happy, something that James fights in the next paragraph. He wants us to know that every good gift, and every perfect gift comes from above. God is committed to our happiness, there is no shadow of turning with Him. He made us for Him, He made us for this happy holiness, and will never turn away from this plan. So what makes you happy? Not sin. Not sin! But God. The Bible never says 'just say no,' it says 'say yes to what is better.' Say yes to Jesus. He is the holder of all the good in the universe, He has pleasures forever at His right hand. Not just fleeting, sickly happiness, but joy, beautiful joy, forever. We sin because we think it will make us happy, so remember that every good thing comes from God, and from His hand alone.

Fight sin today with truth and beauty.

Jesus is the Barley Harvest

How can you not love the book of Ruth? This is the small package good things come in. It has everything. Romance, intrigue, drama, history, a possibly loopy mother-in-law.

But perhaps one of the reasons we love Ruth so much is that the characters are so human. Boaz is passed the first flush or youth, and so doesn't approach Ruth when he perhaps would have as a younger man. Ruth is an outsider, who grows from timid farm help to a proposing lover. Perhaps no one's humanity is so raw as Naomi's in the first six verses.

There's no food in Bethlehem, no crops coming though. The city is filled with sin. It's not a place to bring up two young boys. She trusts Elimelech, she loves him. Our God is King, he's always telling her, so maybe the move to Moab won't be that bad. She pushes the worries about where they'll worship, and who the boys will marry to the back of her minds and they pack up and leave the Promised Land.

But it didn't work out. There's food in Moab sure, but not much else. The people are wicked here, in a different way to her friends in Bethlehem. Sure, their religion was pretty empty, but it had a heart. She doesn't know what to make of chemosh, or his rituals or his followers.

And then, Elimelech is sick, and there's no one to help. He dies in her arms as she wipes his brow. There's no going home now, better to make a life of it here, and let the boys marry those Moabite girls they've been talking to. It seemed like things were going to turn out ok, but now she'll never forget that day. The noise, the blood, the screams of the Moabite widows, bent over the broken bodies of their lifeless husbands.

We need Naomi in the Bible because she knows life as we know it. Sometimes life is brutal for no good reason. But more than that, we need Naomi, because of what she hears in verse 6. The rebellion at home is over, the Lord has visited His people and given them food. The rains have come, and crop is growing. There will be a barley harvest, she can glean, she can eat. She's bitter, but she has hope, more than she knows.

And we, like her, have more hope than we know. Jesus is the barley harvest. Jesus is the sweet good news from a far country. Jesus is our hope. Jesus who was plunged into a brutality more focused and less deserved than we'll ever know, and came out the other side. Jesus is the hope humming along in the background while the noise of the world tries to drown Him out. Because Jesus lives, so will we, because Jesus lives, we can face tomorrow. Jesus is the anvil, His enemies the hammer, smashing themselves to ruin.

Jesus is the promise of good, and the promise of better to come.
Jesus is the good. Jesus is the better to come.
Jesus is the barley harvest who draws us home. Come to Him.

Don't Waste Your Summer

Summer's here. I'm writing this on the Saturday morning after TCS graduation ceremony, which means, if you go to Trinity at least, summer is officially here.

I can't tell you that i'm not excited. I love summers in North Carolina. Growing up in a country that often skipped that season makes you all the more glad for a summer that starts in mid-May and runs through mid-September. Marrying a teacher makes you even more glad. I'll be a while before i set my alarm for 5.15 am again. So of course i'm excited about that.

I love summer because i get quantity time with my wife, because i get to travel, this year to Chicago and Provo. I love summer because it's an opportunity to breathe, and relax, and enjoy.

But summer has it's dangers too. Summer can shrivel your soul. Don't let it.

The routine of the school year, though tiring, is a great help. You're used to getting up five days a week, so getting up on Sunday is less of a chore. You're used to working and reading, so time in the Bible seems less of an issue. But what can happen in the summer? Nights get later, and temptations get greater.

Summer will shrivel your soul if you let it. And i'm not talking about gross sin, or even consistent bad decisions about how to spend your time, or with whom to spend your time, i'm talking about the passion of your heart in the summer.

How hard to be stirred by the Word of God on a Sunday morning if you went to be at 3am. How hard to make it back to church on a Sunday night when it's sunny, in the mid 80s and the grill is firing. These aren't things we need to deal with in December.

Summer exists to give us a taste of Heaven. Summer is a Facebook message from your long distance girlfriend. When i visited the States before i moved here, i didn't Facebook Rachel anymore, we held hands and went to Bojangles. I didn't let the message distract me from the messenger.

Don't let summer distract you from Jesus. Use the time summer gives you to pray, to read, to think and to share. use the beauty of a slow summer sunset to think on the beauty of the Gospel. use the freedom to serve. Go on a mission trip, be faithful to church, call your youth pastor and take him out to lunch. Make sure your affections are higher for your Saviour than for the beach. Make sure you priorities are knowing God better, rather than working on your jump shot. Love the messenger, not the message.

Make sure summer sustains your soul, don't let it shrivel your soul.

Thinking Out Loud

Sanctification is the fancy word for Christian growth.

Growing as a Christian is simply loving Jesus more, quite apart from effort.

Loving Jesus more and more necessarily issues in serving Him, because our desires are changing.

Of course, this looks like 'justification by effort', and 'law keeping', but from the inside, we know it's not.

Serving Jesus looks like serving people, His people and other people, because we are loved, not to earn that love.

Loving Jesus looks like wanting to spend tome with Him, reading the Bible and praying.

Loving Jesus looks like wanting to be like Him, because we want to be near the Ones we love.

These desires are given by the Holy Spirit, not human effort, we can't work our way up to Heaven.

The Holy Spirit, whose influence grows as we love Jesus more, and who shows us more of Jesus to love, therefore gives us the power, and the inclination to obey and love the Word of God.

'In the beginning was the Word...and the Word was God.'

So sanctification, obedience, is all of God, from beginning to end.

The Dangers and Delights of Leadership and Life (1 Timothy 4)

Ordinary life has dangers and delights, and the Christian life is no different. Remember, 1st Timothy, a letter written to a young church leader by his mentor, shows us what a Christian life looks like. It shows us what church life, church leadership and the church order look like. Last week we were reminded of the churches message that it’s all about Jesus. Today, Paul gives timothy some more specific instructions, and we see what a Gospel shaped life looks like. We see what a difference trusting in God and believing the Gospel makes.

First of all Paul warns Timothy about some of the dangers of a Gospel shaped life. We might now think that being a Christian and danger should go hand in hand. If we read our Bibles, go to church and keep out of trouble we’ll be OK right? Wrong! Almost the first thing that happened to Jesus, even before he started His ministry was being tempted by a tireless, arrogant Satan. If it can happen to Jesus, it can happen to you as well. Verse one tells us what the danger is, ‘the Spirit expressly says that in the later times, some will depart from the faith.’ Wow! God the Holy Spirit has made it clear that some people who came to church, read their Bibles and sung in the choir will depart the faith, in the later times, which is now. When we see or hear of a family member or friend leaving the faith, we should say, ‘there but for the grace of God go i.’ The way is narrow that leads to salvation, and some people will depart from it. This is not something to be relaxed or causal about. Some people will leave the faith.

Paul shows us how these people depart from the faith in the next couple of verses. Look at the second half of verse 1 through verse 2. The teaching that leads people away from the faith comes straight from hell. It’s not interesting or fun, or progressive, it’s deadly. It’s the deception, and deceit and doctrine of demons. It comes through human mouths, through seared consciences. The devil isn’t literally preaching the prosperity Gospel, or the self esteem Gospel, or teaching what’s contrary to the Bible, but it’s his doctrine. Be careful that you don’t depart from the faith, because this is the only place you’ll go.

People also depart from the faith by rejecting revelation that comes from God. We see that in verses 3 and 4. People in Ephesus at the time were forbidding marriage and requiring abstinence from certain foods. These two false teachings were a problem thought the first couple of centuries of the church. How does Paul deal with these objections to food and sex? He tells Timothy that everything created by God is good, just like Genesis tells us, and that it is made holy if it’s received with thanksgiving and prayer.

The Gospel shaped life is dangerous, because many things will try and lead you astray, luckily Paul doesn’t leave it there, but goes onto tell Timothy how to protect himself from these dangers. These are some specific instructions for Timothy, but they set a great example for us as well. Let’s read all of verses 5-16 together, and see the delights of the Gospel shaped life.  What do we see? As Gospel shaped life must live, as well as believe. Our lives must match our lips.
First Paul focuses on what Timothy needs to say. He says ‘put these things before the brothers and sisters.’ Keep reminding the people in your church about Jesus. Keep preaching the Gospel. Don’t get distracted by social issues, or by what’s popular, or by what draws a crowd. Preach the Gospel Timothy! It’s only the Gospel that produces a Gospel shaped life. So, Timothy, everything I’ve just shared, put before people. This is a pastor’s job, to make sure people have opportunity to respond to the Gospel.

He says command and teach these things in verse 11. This is the essence of a pulpit ministry, commanding people where the scripture commands, and teaching where the Scripture teaches. In the Christian life there are things to do, and things to learn. Timothy is to keep on pointing those things out to his church. And his church is to do and to listen.

These two commands are simply summed up, preach the Gospel! Keep people on the narrow way, don’t let them be deceived.

Paul gives Timothy two things he must do as well. We needs to be an example. In verse 12 Paul calls Timothy young, he was probably in his mid thirties, and we often use this verse to stop older people looking down on us. But the responsibility is in the opposite direction. Paul tells Timothy, just because you’re young is no excuse. Set an example in speech, in conduct, in love and in faith. Verse 7 tells Timothy to train for godliness. In this culture physical training was a part of everyone’s daily life. Paul says this is fine. There’s nothing wrong with going to the gym and working out, as long as you’re training harder for godliness.

Verse 15 and 16 is the root of all this sort of life. Quite simply as a fish is in water and a bird is in the air, Timothy and you and I must be in these things. We must be in the Bible, we must be in the delights and aware of the dangers of a Gospel life. we must be making progress in this life, so that it will be obvious the Gospel is true. In verse 16 Paul tells Timothy doing these things will save himself, and his hearers. The preaching ministry is no joke. His faith will save himself, and his words and example will save his hearers.

When You Can't See Jesus

The question this Mark 8:22-26 asks us is simply this, what do you see when you look at Jesus? What do you see when you look at Jesus?

This miracle story only appears in Mark’s Gospel. Mark was the only Gospel writer to record this event, so he must have had some special purpose for doing so. And, well, it’s just a bit of a strange miracle isn’t it? It’s hard to think of another time when Jesus needed two goes at performing a miracle. He raised Lazarus from the dead with a simple command, He didn’t have to talk Him into it. He fed 5000 men with a boys lunch with a simple blessing, He didn’t have to have two or three tries at doing it.

I think Mark wrote down this miracle because he wants to help us know what to do when we’re like the man. When we don’t see Jesus clearly, what do we do?

The disciples, at this point, didn’t see Jesus clearly. Just before this miracle, in verse 21, Jesus said to them, ‘how is it that you do not understand?’ how have you seen me, and heard me for these years now, and you still don’t get it. But just after this miracle, in verse 26, Peter says that Jesus is the Christ. Now they see clearly. So I think this miracle, which really happened, is also a parable, a story with a meaning for you and I today.

This guys problem is our problem. He can’t see Jesus clearly. When he looked at the Son of God, He was out of focus and blurry. He was in the same position as the people that Peter mentions in verse 28. The people who thought Jesus was John the Baptist, or Elijah, or one of the prophets. And people, maybe some of us this morning, are in the same position.

I’m sure all of us can remember a time when we couldn’t see Jesus clearly.We couldn’t work out His will in a situation or we couldn’t see Him well enough to follow. Sometimes things get in the way of our relationship with Jesus don’t they, and we struggle to see Him. Sometimes it’s an activity or a hobby that becomes more important to us, and we fail to see Jesus clearly. Sometimes it’s a relationship that gets in the way, sometimes it’s work, sometimes we’re just lazy, but whatever it is, there are seasons in our lives when we don’t feel close to God, when we struggle to see Jesus for who He really is.

We’re confused, we’re joyless, we don’t know what to do. We want to commit to Jesus, we want to follow Him, but there’s something stopping us. When we look at Jesus, we don’t see the glorious Son of God, we see a tree.

So what’s the solution to the problem? Aren’t you glad Jesus always gives us the answer in His Word? Jesus isn’t like so many modern religions, or philosophies, or politics, that just point out problems and leave us by ourselves to face them. Jesus will take us by the hand, if we let Him, and lead us to the solution. Now, it may not be as quickly as we like, it may not be in our time, but it will happen.

This guy got alone with Jesus. He was taken outside the village, which, though small would have been full of people willing to stop and watch a miracle, full of the constant hustle and bustle of a fishing port. So he found Jesus, and got alone with Him.

Are you doing that?

Are you making time to be alone with Jesus in your daily life? are you looking at Him? If not, you’ll never see Him clearly. Are you desperate enough to see Jesus that you’ll set the alarm 30 minutes early to read the Bible? Do you want to see Jesus more than your favourite TV show, so you’ll turn it off and go to pray? When you have leisure time, what’s your priority? Is it seeing Jesus? Is it spending time with Him? Time with Jesus is never time wasted, it’s never time you’ll regret.

And he was honest about the problem. We have to be honest about how our Christian life is! Imagine what went through his head when Jesus asked him what he saw. Imagine the pressure. Jesus has healed everyone else, can’t I just say that I can see?’ But he was honest, and so must we be. Be honest with Jesus in prayer. Ask for His help, tell Him you wish you could see Him more clearly. Pray, I believe, help my unbelief. There’s no prayer that Jesus is so eager to answer as prayers that show our total dependence on Him! So ask Him for help. Be honest. Lord, I want to see, I want to serve, I want the joy of a close walk with you, but when I look at you, I see a tree. Don’t plaster on a smile, come to church and pretend everything’s ok for a couple of hours on a Sunday morning. Be honest, ask for help!

And be hopeful. This guy didn’t throw his hands up in the air and tell Jesus it was no good. He didn’t think to himself, ‘well not even Jesus can help me, woe is me.’ No, he trusted in Jesus. He knew enough about Jesus to know that Jesus was capable, and Jesus was willing. He asked for help again, he was persistent. This is why Jesus encourages us to prayer like a nagging woman in Luke 18:1-8, or like a slightly rude friend in Luke 11. Don’t give up on Jesus. Beat His door down in prayer; wear Him out asking for help.

You understand what I mean. Your situation is never hopeless and Jesus is never helpless. So keep asking, do it again Jesus, try it again Lord.

And look at what happened as a result of these things. Verse 25 tells us that he saw every man clearly. Clearly! Not blurred anymore, he saw them with perfect vision. How sweet are the days when we see Jesus clearly. How wonderful are the moments when we know where to go and what to say, when we know we’re walking closely with the Son of God. How sweet it would have been for Peter, just a few verses later, to be able to say that Jesus was the Son of God.

So the question for us is, ‘do you see ought?’ what do you see when you look at Jesus? do you see Him in His glory in the Word, in prayer, in church, in communion? Do you look at Him and see the One for whom it is worth losing all things. Or do you see a blurred vision, an obscured vision? If that describes you, then you need help, but it’s help the saviour loves to give.