A QUIET CONFIDENCE IN THE LORD OR DESPERATE ALLIANCES

Throughout the reign of Ahaz and Hezekiah, two Old Testament Kings, there were two temptations which gripped God’s people. Under the reigns of previous kings, Uzziah and Jotham, Judah had enjoyed a prolonged period of peace and prosperity, but now everything seemed to be in peril. Internally, the social and economic fabric of the nation was fraying. Externally, neighboring empires were flexing their muscles and threatening Judah with invasion. So it was a time of national crisis, and the crisis wasn’t just that the nation was changing for the worse, the very existence of their nation and the safety of their children was in jeopardy. And in the midst of these very serious crises the people of Judah began to cast about for anything that might promise a continuation of the peace and prosperity they had experienced up to that point. So they began to add idol worship to the worship of the Great Jehovah. From their perspective, they weren’t abandoning God exactly. They were just covering their bases by also worshipping other gods. But that’s not how it works, is it? After all, how many of you wouldn’t mind sharing your spouse with another? That’s about how God felt, and he says as much in Isaiah 52 (7-8),


“You have committed adultery on every high mountain. There you have worshiped idols and have been unfaithful to me. ⁸ You have put pagan symbols on your doorposts and behind your doors. You have left me and climbed into bed with these detestable gods. You have committed yourselves to them. You love to look at their naked bodies” NEW LIVING TRANSLATION

And there was also strong and vocal faction of the king’s court arguing that Judah should pursue alliances with strong neighbors such as Egypt who could come to their aid if they were attacked. This displeased God because it meant that the people were not putting their trust in Him, but in that of man.

Isaiah 30:1-3

 “Woe to the obstinate children,” declares the Lord, “to those who carry out plans that are not mine, forming an alliance, but not by my Spirit, heaping sin upon sin; ² who go down to Egypt without consulting me; who look for help to Pharaoh’s protection, to Egypt’s shade for refuge. ³ But Pharaoh’s protection will be to your shame, Egypt’s shade will bring you disgrace.

And 31:1

Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in the multitude of their chariots and in the great strength of their horsemen, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel, or seek help from the Lord.


The real issue for God’s people in the days of Isaiah was which would they choose- Would their confidence be in God or in desperate alliances? Would they say like David Psalm 20, Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. Or would they jump ship and jump into bed with idols and Egypt? This was the great question hanging over the Judah of Isaiah’s day, and what they did with that question had great consequences.


And I feel it is a question that is also hanging heavily over the church in America today…especially in an election year. I think for many Christians they have allowed their sense of security to become attached to the strength of the economy rather than in a provider God, or in election results rather than in our great King, or who sits on the supreme court, rather than a God who sits on high. Their fear over the state of things in our country has caused some in the church today to throw their support behind candidates who do not fear the Lord and who do not love righteousness. Christians in this country have enjoyed a period of peace and prosperity that is unprecedented in the history of the world. But now, just like in the days of Ahaz and Hezekiah, all of that seems to be in peril. And just as in those days, one of the great issues of our day is whether we will choose, at this critical hour, to proceed with a quiet confidence in God or will we make desperate alliances.  

IS YOUR JESUS MORE USEFUL OR PRECIOUS?

In the Gospel accounts we see Jesus miraculously reversing many consequences of the fall- the hungry are fed, the blind are made to see, the dead are even raised. This prompts a question which Dr. Halverson posed in his book relevance, "Why did Jesus not remain alive and eliminate, generation by generation, all the evils that plague fallen humanity?" After posing the question, Halverson goes on to answer the question by pointing out that it would be silly for a physician to merely treat the symptoms of a disease if it was within his power to eliminate the disease entirely. That is certainly true, but I don't think that quite gets to the heart of the true reason why the broken body and the spilled blood are better and more excellent than a Jesus who remains alive like an almighty Sisyphus to make whole again and again, day after day, generation after generation, what is perpetually being rebroken.

The very question betrays that in the hearts and minds of some, as John Piper once put it, "Jesus is viewed more as useful than precious." What is desired most is something that Jesus has within His power to provide and not Jesus personally. Such a person is not concerned that their sin has separated them from God. They’re fine with the brokenness the divorce and alienation, so long as they can be made comfortable in their separation. By sinning and choosing others things over God, we  as a race have broken covenant with Him and moved out, and in so doing we have brought all this misery and suffering and separation onto ourselves. All that is wrong, painful, twisted and sick in the world was born when Adam and Eve decided it would be better to be gods than to trust in God. And now, all us sons and daughters of Adam and Eve, all of us who cheated on a kind, generous, faithful God, have the gall to now insist that because God is rich and it is within His power that he should pay our bills, clean up our messes, and fund all our dates with the world. There is a way of approaching Jesus that asks Him to heal, feed, provide, comfort and keep alive, without ever truly asking for Him or desiring Him. Why did Jesus enter history and lay down His life on the cross? Because we were alienated from our Heavenly Father who loved us and wanted us back!

You show me a “Christian” who desires the benefits of Jesus more than Jesus Himself--- one who loves the gifts more than the giver--- and I will show you somebody who probably does a lot of things for Jesus, but who has never done a single thing with Him. Christianity is not principally about getting something from God, but about getting God Himself.  It is not about doing things for God either, but rather doing things in Him personally and through the power He provides.

Jesus doesn’t want anything from us, His aim was to gain us personally. He said “For even the son of man came not to be served but to serve.” Paul quotes Jesus as saying "...it is better to give than to receive." Those are not the words of someone who wants something from us. We don’t have anything he wants or needs anyway. We can’t do for Him. However, because He loves us He wants to give us what we need most--- HIMSELF. We need Jesus more than we will ever need healing from disease or food to eat. Those needs exist to point us to a deeper hunger, a deeper healing that is needed.  That’s why the cross was preferable and more excellent than if Jesus had remained alive indefinitely using His power to continually remove the consequences of the fall. Our sin separates us from God, and because God is a just and righteous God that sin must be punished, but amazingly Jesus, who is God, took that punishment onto Himself so that we could be reconciled to the Father.

Jesus came to reconcile us to the Father not to make us comfortable in our state of separation.

THE COMMAND TO REMEMBER

In Luke 22 and also 1 Corinthians 11, we read of Jesus’ commands that we observe the Lord’s Supper saying, “Do this in remembrance of Me.”

This is not the first time in the Bible that we are given a command to remember. You might recall when God instituted the Passover celebration among His people to remind them of how God brought them out of slavery in Egypt. God said of the Passover in Exodus 12:14, “This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast.” 

 Or maybe you’re familiar with the story of when God stopped the flow of the Jordan River allowing the Israelites to enter the Promised Land on dry ground. Do you remember how God commanded Joshua to have the people erect a memorial on the far bank? Joshua 4:6-7, “that this may be a sign among you. When your children ask in time to come, ‘What do those stones mean to you?’ 7 then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the people of Israel a memorial forever.”

I hear the same God speaking when Jesus says of the Lord’s supper, “Do this in remembrance of me.” God instituted the Passover Holiday as a memorial to remind them that God had brought them out of the land of slavery. He ordered that a pile of stones be set up on the far bank of the Jordan as a memorial- an enduring reminder- that God had brought them into the land of promise. Two memorials, one to remind God’s people that they had been brought out, and another to remind them that they had been brought in- both by a miraculous work of God. The Lord’s Supper combines these two thoughts in one- for through the broken body and the spilled blood of Jesus, represented by the bread and cup, we are reminded that we have been miraculously delivered out of slavery to sin and death and brought in to the promised Kingdom of Light.

Why does God repeatedly issue these commands for us to remember Him and the great deeds He has done? And I don’t ask why because I’m confused about why it is necessary --- that’s easy--- us humans are small, shabby, forgetful creatures who have a hard time seeing beyond the difficulties directly in front of us. As soon as the bear shows up in our lives it’s like all of us sheep suddenly have no memory of the shepherd. Our eyes focus on the bear, Our google searches are all bear-related, and because our minds are full of thoughts about the bear our minds are full of anxiety. If today somebody’s car breaks down or they get laid off or they feel a lump---it’s a new crisis--- and they seem to forget the God who brought them through crises in the past and who has promised them an eternity free of such worries. So in one sense that’s why the command to remember is given--- because it’s necessary--- we’re forgetful--- but maybe a more important question than why is the command necessary, is why does God care that we remember. Does He want us to obey His command to do this in remembrance of Him because that will be satisfying and rewarding to Him or does He give the command for our joy?

Scripture is clear that Jesus is God. It was through Him, we are told in the opening lines of John’s Gospel, that all things were made, and that he existed eternally, without beginning and without end. Before ever the earth was spoken into being He was. So according to the plain teaching of the Bible Jesus is God- he is the Creator. When we state that Jesus was/is God that should color the way we view the motive behind His commands. God is perfect and perfect in all of His ways. That means that Jesus is perfectly content, and all-sufficient within Himself. He wants for nothing. He needs nothing. And we, of course, have nothing to offer Him that would make Him more complete, or joy-filled or satisfied in Himself.

 If He was needy he would not be God

This is why Acts 17:24-25 says, 24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man,[a] 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.  This is why Jesus Himself says in Mark 10:45, “For even the Son of Man came not be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” So, Jesus, in coming to the earth as a savior had nothing to gain, because, as God, there was nothing he needed, nothing he lacked. He’s perfect! And perfectly content. So why did he come and allow his body to be  broken for us and his blood spilled out for us? If he was not motivated by some need in Him, than what did motivate Him? It was because of our desperate need and for our joy that he came. So when Jesus commands us to do this in remembrance of Him it is not self-serving in any way. He is not eager for us to keep this command so that he might become more complete or satisfied or joy-filled or because He would feel bad if He was forgotten. Jesus is not pathetic or lonely or weak or needy like that. He is God, the very opposite of those things. He is so full and so complete that he can never receive but only overflow as a blessing to us. So the command is given for our benefit and for our joy. He does not need to be remembered. It is us who need to remember. So the command was given for our good and for our joy.

THE PERFECT, MIRROR SYMMETRY OF MAN'S FALL AND REDEMPTION

There is such a perfect, mirror symmetry in the story of man's fall and subsequent redemption on the cross. In the garden of Eden there were many trees which one could eat from and live, but only one that would cause you to die. On this side of the fall there are many ways to die and only one way to know life. Adam exited paradise when he decided it would be better to be a god than to trust in God, and all us sons and daughters of Adam may only enter back in when we cease striving in our own power and trust in Jesus alone for our salvation.

Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. - John 14:6

SAYING BEGETS SEEING

Fellow Pastors, I recently read Piper's book, "Seeing Beauty, Saying Beautifully," and it prompted this thought. I wonder if you have experienced the same. As I am preparing my messages and struggling to find fitting words to describe something that I have seen in God's Word, in the very act of trying to wrestle that idea down onto paper, I am drawn into a deeper, wider pool where I see truths that are more excellent and beautiful than the first. My plan had been for the message to terminate on the first idea, but instead it becomes merely the entry point.

This is why, although I think it is unfair to demand that a preacher have a beautiful way with words, it is fair to demand that your preacher be one who wrestles to describe what God is showing him in his own words.

Human words can no more contain the deep mysteries of God, then a hiker's boots can contain a mountain range, but they do allow us to explore the higher reaches and experience some beautiful views. Saying begets seeing.

CAN IT BECOME HARDER TO DO THE IMPOSSIBLE?

Fellow Christian, I have heard it said that things are becoming harder for the church today. How can that be? It can never become easier or harder to accomplish impossible things. The God-given objectives of the church are impossible. We have been tasked with nothing less than to make dead people alive (Ephesians 2:1-10, 2 Corinthians 5:11-21). There was never a time when that was easy and there will never come a day when it is more difficult. It will only, ever, always be impossible according to the limits of human strength. So the belief, so often expressed in these days, that things are becoming harder for the church reveals the smallness of our goals (Comfort? Approval? Security?) and an inflated view of what men can accomplish in their own power under the right circumstances. 

THE MOUND OF SILENT DAYS

For friends long-separated, life has a way of piling up like snow, and it is only when you sit down to write a letter or place a phone call that you become suddenly surprised at just how much has accumulated since you last caught up. It can be hard work to keep the paths between homes cleared. Although letters and phone calls make a poor shovel, shovel we sometimes must because that silent mound of days can become a serious impediment to an easy  back-and-forth. That is sometimes the fate of friendships in this fallen, winter world, but Jesus is bringing the springtime when all that chill and silence will melt, and all those separated by distance, death, deceit and disappointment, yet still bound and tethered by Christ will pull chairs up to the fire and enjoy a more perfect friendship in the warmth and light of his eternal presence.

Racism and Christianity can never be brought into harmony because racists boast in their blood, but Christians boast only in the blood of Jesus.

OVERHEARD

"That's just foolishness!"
(Starbucks Barista to a man who was apparently homeless- the man approached the counter and explained that he had already bought coffee elsewhere, which he was carrying in a cardboard carrier, but he was hoping she could help him out. She asked if he needed "cream or something?" and he answered, "Nah, I need like five bucks.")


"Where did Lucy get ham?"
(My son, Jack, after exiting the dentist's office where his sister, Lucy, had just had a tooth pulled. She had removed a wad of blood-soaked gauze from her mouth which vaguely resembled a piece of ham, and which Jack was eyeballing hungrily.)

We're Gonna Go Get a Christmas Tree (Words and Music by Josh Tate but it really ought to be performed by someone else)

O we're gonna go get a Christmas tree
We're gonna go get a Christmas tree (2 X's)
And bring it home tonight!

Running through the rows of trees (3 X's)
Shouting with delight!

Put one up on the minivan (3 X's)
Tie it down real tight.

Driving home through the busy streets (3 X's)
Hey, let's grab a bite!

Set it up in the living room (3 X's)
And string it all with lights.

Decorate the Christmas tree (3X's)
Such a beautiful sight.

O we're gonna go get a Christmas tree
We're gonna go get a Christmas tree (2 X's)
And bring it home tonight!

Things I thought today but didn't share with anyone (until now)

1. Every time I witness a fender bender I feel a certain amount of survivor's guilt.

2. If I was working on the marketing team of a department store I would recommend that for the Christmas season we advertise that our bags are not see-through. Every year it strikes me as a major oversight that shopping bags at Christmas don't better disguise their contents.Don't they know?

QUITE GOOD

WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO THE BFZ?

 I miss this place. I need a zone that is bummer-free.

 I'll open all the windows. Then I'll sweep, dust and fix the screen door.

Once the place is ship-shape again, I'll invite everybody over. Please, come.

THREE QUESTIONS ABOUT HUMILITY

Several years ago God began speaking to me about the problem of pride in my heart.

How I came to that point is too long a story to recount here, but suffice it to say that God used some circumstances and relationships in my life, as well as some good Bible teaching from my pastor at the time, to begin opening my eyes to the problem of pride in my life. I was cut to the heart and resolved to do something about my pride problem. Anyone who has ever made greater humility the petition of their prayers and the aim of their Christian pursuits knows that it is a very slippery thing to acquire and an even more difficult thing to measure.  Any “achievement” in humility instantly becomes the basis for pride, and round and round we go. It's a vicious cycle. Perversely, the pursuit of humility often gives birth to new depths of pride.

Humility is a funny thing. It seems that the harder you try to focus on it the fuzzier it becomes. The harder you try to lay hold of the more it slips like water through your fingers. I have been surprised at times by humility when it has shown up in my heart unannounced. At such times I have found surprising words suddenly spilling from my lips like I was returning a borrowed thing. However, when I seek out humility it always seems elusive and just beyond reach.

Recently, I was listening to a radio preacher speak on the topic of pride and humility and he made the claim that as a result of God’s sanctifying work in His life he could now look back on his younger self and see how he had become more humble over time. At the time, that was a very discouraging thing for me to hear. After all, I had been sincerely praying for God to grant me more humility for the past ten years, and I had done everything I could think to do within the scope of human power to foster greater humility. I had memorized scriptures on the topic and sought to behave in ways that outwardly demonstrated humility even as I remained suspicious of the purity of my inner motives. However, as I reflected over the past ten years I did not feel less prideful than I was when I began this journey, but only more aware of the depths of my pride.

Those thoughts led me to the following questions, which are not convictions masquerading as questions. These are honest questions. How would you answer? 

Three Questions on the Topic of Humility:

1. As a Christian grows in humility, will increased humility in his/her life be marked by a corresponding decrease in prideful inclination or rather an increased awareness of one’s prideful inclinations?

…or to put the question another way…

It has been observed that courage is not absence of fear but rather the mastery of it. In much the same way, can it be said that humility is not the absence of pride, but rather the capacity to recognize and reject it?

2. Are these good working definitions for humility and pride?

Humility- Recognition of who God is and who man is in relationship to Him.

Pride- A desire for the place of God.

3. Is pride roughly synonymous with our sin nature?

YOU CAN QUOTE ME

"The choice is yours. Will your life be a sermon or a cautionary tale?" J. B. Tate

LONELY DEFEATS, LONELY VICTORIES AND THE MOST COMPELLING REASON TO ENTER AN ACCOUNTABILITY RELATIONSHIP

When it comes to our struggles with sin, lonely defeats will one day bring lonely victories, and God is not glorified in a lonely, hidden victory. “Why would the victory be hidden?,” you might ask. Because, for someone who has hidden their defeats, telling of a victory would be a tacit confession to the “shameful” battles they have been fighting. It would be like discovering that your house was infested with rats. If this was embarrassing to you it is unlikely that you would announce proudly to your friends, “This morning when I opened the cupboards I found two rats dead in the traps I had set there!” Although you are glad to have exterminated two rats, you know that the first thing your friends would probably think is, “Disgusting! I didn’t know he had rats in his cupboards,” so you keep that bit of news to yourself. The prelude to most every sin is “No one will ever know,” and its epilogue, “No one must ever know.” But when we resolve to let no one know about the rat-infested nature of our hearts a perverse thing will inevitably happen- for when, by God’s grace, we are given victory in a moment of temptation, that story of God’s strength, provision and faithfulness in delivering us from sin must necessarily be hidden away because of its shameful association with the very acts of wickedness from which we were delivered. This denies man his highest good, for we were made for the very purpose of worship that the glory of the Creator might be revealed in His creatures, and, perversely, it denies God the praise and glory which are His due. This is the first and most compelling reason for entering an accountability relationship. God spoke the world into being, and created man in His image, that His glory might be revealed through them, and if we have no one in our lives who we have invited into the reality of our struggles we will, by implication, also have no one with whom to share the stories of His goodness. God desires man to experience victory over sin, yes, but primarily He wants to give us such victories that He might be glorified in them.  If we have bundled our defeats and victories together into one shameful package we will never know the kind of practical sanctification that we long to see in our lives, for it reveals that we are not properly motivated by a high concern for God’s glory to be revealed in and through our lives.

A concern for God’s glory should be the first and most significant motivation for entering an accountability relationship. However, if we continue the analogy of the rat infested house I think we will see some additional ways that accountability relationships can be a very practical help in our struggles against sin.

When you confess to a close friend (one who has proven himself faithful, and who you trust to handle the information you share about yourself with grace and discretion) that your house is infested with rats, your friend might surprise you with his response. For example, he might say, “Me too!” This can be very encouraging, and it has often been my experience that in sharing my "big ugly" that I have learned I am not alone. Paul, writing in 1 Corinthians 10:13, says that “no temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man.” One of Satan’s tricks is to make you think you’re the only one with rats in the attic, but Paul makes it plain that those areas where we struggle are “common to man.” In other words, you’re not alone. However, as long as you labor under the impression that yours is the only rat-infested heart in the neighborhood Satan will continue to draw you into a double life where the sin you habitually harbor and act upon is hidden away in a secret place. Over time the gulf between who you are in reality and who you are trying to appear to be will widen to into a shocking and unsustainable chasm. Much of the power of sin is broken when it is spoken out loud to a brother or sister who will receive that confession with love and grace. Satan’s modus operandi is always to get you alone with your sin, and God’s strategy is to draw that struggle out to be shared within the context of loving community (1 John 1:7-8).

So your friend might say, “me too,” and if he does you will be greatly encouraged. Or he might say, “I know exactly what you’re going through. I used to have rats.” And that is even more encouraging for now you know a more enduring victory can be achieved. As you listen to his story, you will gain some hard-won perspective and expertise in the matter at hand which you can bring to bear in your own efforts to kill rats. Or perhaps your friend knows nothing of rats and has no personal experience with them, but he is a true friend who loves you sincerely. If that is so, he will most likely respond compassionately by offering to come over after work, and with flashlight in hand go up into the attic with you to see what can be done about this problem, and by this you will have gained some much needed support and help. Every time I have shared sin with a carefully chosen accountability partner I have received one of these three responses- “Me too,” “I used to struggle with that,” or “how can I help?” And each time it was a blessing and a help to me in my efforts to fight sin.

Come away

A golden day

When you was seen with him

Walking long

Singing song

A rough-hewn, country hymn

Make such sounds

As now abounds

In newness of the day

Nature sings

And round us rings

When we are come away

LEARNING TO SPEAK THE LANGUAGE OF WORSHIP

A common sentiment in the church today is that it is difficult to find the time for Bible study and prayer. Most often I hear leaders in the church counter this line of thinking by saying it is all just a matter of priorities. That’s true, it is, but in my experience such lecturing is largely ineffectual. We need to speak the language of worship, for that is what man hungers for in the quiet places of his heart. Man doesn’t hunger for duty, obligation and strategizing. He was made at the first for worship. It is his design, and that design finds expression in a desire after God.  If we understood things perfectly, coming to the conclusion that our job kept us from being in God’s word we would quit our job. Nothing of temporal concern should trump the eternal. Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and all these things will be added unto you, but, for one reason or another, the priorities lecture doesn’t seem to get the job done.

Someone might say I have trouble finding time for studying the Word of God and prayer, and instead of speaking about priorites, I say remember the widow and her one small coin that she put into the offering (Mark 12:41-44). She had very little money Just as you may have very little time, but when she gave what she had, though it was scarce and hard to come by, it was received by Jesus as greater than those who gave vast amounts out of their abundance. So you may be a busy person with very little time to spare for studying your Bibles and praying, but think how much it will delight your Father in heaven that you gave out of your time-poverty to worship Him in that way. Yours is a more precious offering to bring. Some with an abundance of spare time might even envy you.

Or someone might say, “I have never been much of a reader. It’s harder work for me to read and study than for others.” Rather than speaking of priorities, point them to Zacchaeus who, though he was a short man, climbed a tree to see Jesus above the crowds.  Sometimes it might require more effort to rise above the crowd of temporal concerns between us and Jesus as well as the limitations of our own design to get a better look at Him, but it is always worth it.

We must learn to speak the language of worship because it is worship that man hungers for and responds to. Such reasoning will bear the weight of wonder and desire in a way that speaking of priorities will not.

YOU CAN QUOTE ME

"For the Christian laborer, thinking that something can be done without prayer is the same as thinking it can be done without God." J.B. Tate

"I do not believe in the power of prayer. I believe in praying to a God who is powerful." J.B. Tate

I WANT ONE