Sermon August, 23 “Haggai: A Day in the Life”

Haggai was sent as a prophet to the remnant of Israel who had returned to Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile. He was sent with a difficult word for the people to hear. “Give careful thought to your ways,” Haggai cried out. It was a call to spiritual introspection.

In 1:1-12 we see God’s concern is that after a little more than a decade the people have blessed themselves with finely rebuilt homes but have neglected to rebuild the temple. “It’s not time yet,” they excused themselves. But God asks, “Is it a time for you to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?” This hard question was not one about worship space but about priority.

The temple was they very symbol of God’s presence with the people. He pointed to the temple building as an illustration of their spiritual life. The temple was neglected because God was neglected. Yahweh had been relegated to the sidelines while the people spun and toiled for their own wellbeing. I asked of our congregation to consider our ways. In what ways have we neglected God by putting our own material concerns first?

God told the people to do three things: Go up the mountain, bring down the wood, and build my house. Hard work indeed. But they responded. They abandoned their own pursuit of “all of these things” and built his house again. Keeping God at the center of our day to day where he belongs involves the hard work of dying to self and seeking first the kingdom!

In chapter 2 (and in Ezra) we find that many were broken hearted at how this rebuilt temple compared to Solomon’s temple in all of its glory. But God encouraged them through Haggai by reassuring them that he was with them. He reminded them that the whole earth is his. He promised to shake heaven and earth to ensure that “the glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house.” And God does just that. Through the treasury of the kings of the Persian Empire and on into Herod’s rule, God did indeed prove that the silver and gold were his. That temple that the people mourned over became one of the wonders of the ancient world.

But even that temple in all of its majesty could not compare to Christ who said of himself, “One greater than the temple is here.” And Paul says of the church, “For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said, ‘I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.’” As the church we are the chosen means through which God would make his presence known to the world. We are the new symbol of God’s presence with his people. And that means work! Go up the mountain, bring it down, and build. God says to us, “I am with you and I will shake the very foundations of the earth until my glory is revealed through you.” That should be the operative understanding of who we are called to be as the church. Let us consider our ways!

Pastor Scott

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Sermon August 16 “Jonah: A Day in the Life”

The story of Jonah was a part of this series because too often we carry around a children’s book picture of this tragedy of a prophet.

In the children’s sermon we covered chapters 1 and 2. Jonah is called to go to Nineveh- he flees, the storm comes, he is thrown overboard, the fish comes, he prays, and he is spit out. All this was told with a plastic blue whale, a bright green bath toy boat, and a Lego man. The point? God is sovereign, he loves people, and he asks us to do things we don’t necessarily like.

Chapters 3 and 4 were the focus of the sermon. There are two main characters in this tragedy; Jonah and God. Jonah loathes the character of God, saying in frustration, “you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now, O Lord, take my life away…” The tension in this book comes from the fact that Jonah’s character is not gracious, not compassionate, eager in anger, abounding with hatred (Nineveh as the capitol of Assyria was the epitome of everything he despised), and he wanted the annihilation of the city and all its inhabitants.

My preaching focus pointed out the fact that because God’s character and Jonah’s character were different, then God’s agenda (redemption) and Jonah’s agenda (destruction) would be opposed to one another. God illustrated this tension of character and agenda to Jonah through the lived parable of the vine (see picture above). This is an important idea for our own life of discipleship. Where our character differs from the character of Christ (it most certainly will differ in many areas) then our agendas will be different. So whose agenda drives our day to day? Are we living life asleep on a boat sailing away from God’s purposes or are we being led by God’s compassion to be agents of redemption?

I used Luke 9:51- 62 as the bridge between Jonah’s relationship with God and our walk with Christ. Here James and John want to call down fire from heaven to destroy some people (“the Jonah syndrome”) who won’t let them spend the night. Jesus rebukes them- different characters, different agendas. And in the very next periscope we see three would-be followers of Jesus whose agendas get in the way of Christ’s call on their lives.

So often we have agendas for our lives and futures that are based more on the ideals of the American Dream than on the eternal principles of the Kingdom of God. Like Jonah we like the idea of beings God's people but we want to define what that looks like. For Jonah that meant despising people God loved. For the Rich Young Ruler that meant holding on to the things of this world rather than letting them go in order to follow Jesus. What is your agenda? What is God’s agenda? Whose agenda wins out?

Thankfully the God who showed compassion toward the Ninevites and patience with Jonah is both compassionate toward and patient with us. May the truth of the gospel continue to shape our character into that of Christ’s, and with that may our agendas give way to God's call on our lives.

Pastor Scott

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Sermon August 9 "Ezekiel: A Day in the Life"

The texts read were from the well known 37th chapter of Ezekiel. The vision of the valley of dry bones (1-14) and the symbolic action of uniting two sticks (15-28) are quite distinct. (FYI, such distinction between the two makes planning a shortened sermon on a communion Sunday no small feat).

I had the intention to focus my preaching on the two sticks when I planned this series a couple of months ago. However, in my sermon notebook I couldn’t get past the valley of dry bones. It was one of those preaching itches. (I am learning to let it stick when it gets stuck and not try to fight it. So I did. I focused on the vision of this valley.)

The valley was representative of God’s people- lost, displaced, faithless, scattered. But God was not content. He sent his Word and his Spirit to bring these dry bones to life. I do not think this passage is about personal spiritual regeneration. But it does reveal the nature and character of God to move toward us even when we are unable or unwilling to move toward him. It may have been a valley of dry bones, but those bones were his people. He sent the word though they did not, indeed could not, call for the word to come. He sent his breath, his Spirit to invade their lifelessness with his life. That part of God’s character does speak to the reality of our spiritual regeneration. It’s God’s work, based on God’s character and love- not of our own works.

The most poignant part of our worship was at the communion table. Christ’s body broken. Christ’s blood shed. Christ breathing his last. We see in the meal the cost that it takes to give dry bones like you and me flesh, blood, and breath. As a part of our worship we gave people an opportunity to participate in that great exchange of death for life by putting their faith in Jesus Christ.

This actually tied in beautifully with the second part of Ezekiel 37. The unity God told Ezekiel to speak about through this image of the two sticks foreshadows Christ, “My servant David will be their prince forever…” It also foreshadows us, the church, “My dwelling place shall be among them, and I will set my sanctuary among them forever more…” The symbol of the unity of God’s people in Ezekiel’s hand as these two sticks become one is accomplished in the two sticks of Calvary on which Christ was crucified.

The table prepared before us was the picture of dry bones coming to life as we celebrated together our unity through the gospel of grace.

Pastor Scott

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Sermon July 26 “Josiah: A Day in the Life”

It was in the spirit of King Josiah that Martin Luther was confronted by the powerful Word of God- when his life changed and uncommon clarity left him unable to be the man he was before. The Word of God is God’s witness of himself as well as the mirror through which we are to understand ourselves. When Josiah heard the Word that had been lost for 57 years his life changed.

Our texts this week were 2 Kings 22:1-13 (the discovery) and 2 Kings 23:1-3, 21-25 (the implementation). Josiah is confronted by the weight of the “Book of the Covenant” read to him by Shaphan. Of the scholars I read most concluded that based on the reforms Josiah made it was a section from the book of Deuteronomy that had been discovered that day in the temple (perhaps Deut. 28:15- 29:28 and surrounding). On the hearing of the Word Josiah tore his robes. Shame for how despicable the people of God were living as compared to the holiness spelled out and fear for the wrath of a holy God gripped Josiah’s heart at once. He and the people re-covenanted with God according to the words of the scroll that was found. Josiah had become a man of God through the Word of God.

There were three points of application I came to in this text founded upon this basic principle: Before we can be the people of God we must be a people of the Word of God.

First, to be a people of the Word we must hear the Word. Josiah didn’t know what faithfulness was without the Word defining it. Neither can we. For us, to hear the Word might just mean reading your Bible. Or it might mean getting involved in a Bible study with a small group. For some it might mean showing up to church more where the Word will be read. But one thing is for sure, navigating life without the Word will result in faithlessness and idolatry.

Second, to be a people of the Word we must listen to the Word. This kind of listening involves understanding that it is God’s Word and therefore has authority over us! Josiah knew that he and the people had to change the way they lived because of the Word. For us that simply means that we need to submit to the authority of the Word in our lives. The Word gets to define how we view money, people, war, poverty, sexuality, and the character of God.

Lastly, to be a people of the Word we must teach the Word. Josiah included everyone in on what God had begun to do in his life through the Word. He read it to them. He committed to it publicly and invited them to do the same. We need to share how God is shaping us through his Word. For some that might mean teaching 3rd grade Sunday school. For some that might mean talking with a co-worker about how God has been working in you on a common struggle.

At the close of our services on Sunday, those there covenanted with me that we would hear, listen, and teach the Word of God that we might be the people of God. May it be!

Pastor Scott

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Sermon July 19 “Hezekiah: A Day in the Life”

OK, so this sermon didn’t cover a single day in the life of Hezekiah, king of Judah. But this short season at the beginning of his 29 year reign never the less focused on the one thing Hezekiah thought most important- worship. From the repairing of the temple doors (2 Chronicles 29:3) to the reinstitution of the Passover celebration, worship was the one thing Hezekiah wanted the people of God to get right. This sermon pointed out four dynamics of “right worship” that I discovered in these two texts (2 Chronicles 30:1-9, 2 Chronicles 31:1-10).

First, right worship is God centered. Hezekiah’s implementation of Passover was not just a celebration of a meal or a memory. It was lived-out dramatized theology. It was reliving the story of redemption- from slavery through freedom by way of the blood of the lamb. The centrality of Christ, our paschal lamb, in Christian worship is a necessity. Each worship service should be a re-telling of the story of human redemption from slavery to sin and death to freedom and new life in Christ! But we make it less than that each time a style of music or a carpet color makes us lose focus on the story our worship tells.

Second, right worship costs us something. In 31:3-7 we see the length that the people of God went to ensure that worship happened, Hezekiah included. They tithed their lives for four months straight! When we bring a consumer mindset into our life with the body of Christ, asking what “church” can bring to us, then our worship, our experience of God will be thin.

Worship that is God centered, that we invest our lives in, produces fruit. My third and fourth observations about worship in these passages are the results of right worship. Third, right worship unifies the people of God. From Dan (the northern tip of the northern kingdom) to Beersheba (the southern tip of the southern kingdom) Hezekiah’s decree went out. These people who had been divided since Solomon’s reign were united in their worship. One indictment of the fact that Christian worship in our culture is less than right is our lack of unity. Socioeconomic, racial, and denominational segregation testifies to the fact that our worship is less than God-centered and costly.

Fourth, right worship results in holy living. When these people left this Passover worship they tore down idols that were not fitting for the people of God. When the greatness and grace of God are explored in right worship, when we encounter the holiness of The Almighty, we cannot help but be discontent with that which is not fitting to the people of God. Holiness issues in one’s personal life are the result of worship issues in their communal life.

The challenge in these passages is to do the hard work of Hezekiah by making worship central to our way of life. Abundant living begins with abundant worship.

Pastor Scott

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Sermon July 12 “Elisha: A Day in the Life”

This passage (2 Kings 4:1-7) shows us an encounter between the prophet Elisha and a woman whose husband had just died and who stood to lose her two sons to a debt collector. This woman’s despair and hopelessness was compounded by the fact that her husband was a good man; he was of the company of prophets.

Elisha was certain of two things when this woman cried out to him for help. First, he knew that he was completely incapable of doing anything that would be of benefit. This certainty of inability is summed up in his first question to her, “How can I help you?” I read that as rhetorical. Elisha couldn’t pay off her debt. Second, Elisha knew that God doesn’t need much. That prompted his next question, “What do you have in your house?” She had nothing, oh, except a small jar of anointing oil. She would soon learn what Elisha was quite sure of, that God doesn’t need much. That oil became enough to pay of her debts and to provide for her and her sons in the future.

One of my main points of focus was not in the miracle itself, but how it was that Elisha came to be used so mightily. He wanted to be used mightily. His great desire was for God to use him. He begged Elijah for a double portion of his spirit (2 Kings 2:9). And he received it- there are 14 recorded miracles of Elijah and 28 of Elisha!

So what does that mean for us as the church? Being used by God to carry out the ministry of Christ (Luke 4:18, 19) through the power of the Spirit begins with us saying, “Give us a double portion of your Spirit Lord!” We say this not because we think we have the ability in and of ourselves to carry out Christ’s mission, but because God desires to use us anyway. The incarnation is God’s proof to us that God doesn’t need much to accomplish his great work of redemption in the world.

Pastor Scott

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Sermon July 5th “Elijah: A Day in the Life”

A communion Sunday… I always like sermon preparation on a communion week. I enjoy seeing how a text relates to the table. Communion keeps me focused on the gospel I am supposed to preach each week. I enjoy the fact that it is in the meal of the Lord’s Supper that God speaks most profoundly to the hungry souls of needy people. It takes the pressure off of me a bit.

Looking at Elijah this week was challenging. This familiar passage (1 Kings 19:1-18) of Elijah running from Jezebel- from the top of the promised land (Israel) all the way through the bottom (Beersheba in Judah) and into the wilderness to Horeb or Sinai, where God met with Moses, is the passage that has us encounter the irony of the still small voice of The Almighty.

Of course the context of this week was that it was July 4th weekend. I Have been reading a biography of John Adams and the role he played in the establishment of America’s independence. This informed the way I asked questions of this text. What does where we are as a nation today and where Israel was in Elijah’s day have in common? The pervasive godlessness of Israel under the leadership of Ahab and Jezebel, and Elijah’s lament over that does strike a chord with many Christians in America today. Many faithful people in our nation lament where we are and where we are going.

Elijah ran and found a cave. Christians do the same. Elijah wanted God to make the situation right by his righteous judgment of the godless. But God wasn’t in the wind, the earthquake, or the fire. He whispered, telling Elijah to go back and do the things a prophet is supposed to do in the place he was called to do it. Fear tells us to retreat. Faith tells us to engage. It was through Elijah’s small acts of faithfulness that God worked out his justice and redemption. Where has God called us to small acts of faithfulness?

Pastor Scott

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