Anybody else here like the music of Lifehouse besides me? All right. That song (you can read the lyrics here: http://www.metrolyrics.com/spin-lyrics-lifehouse.html), we just had the words to-no images this morning-because thats going to be our focus. Were going to be talking about when the world is upside down, when things arent going right, when obstacles and trials are what we are facing.

We are starting a new series this morning, and Im excited. Were starting on the Book of James. Its probably going to take us all summer long to get through it. Were going to go through it chapter by chapter, verse by verse-sometimes little short snippets, 2, 3, 4 verses: and other times, we might take 10 or 15 verses at a time. It just depends on what the subject matter is and when James changes directions.

Before we get in to the book-since this is the first week, I want to give you some introductory information on the book-I thought Id start talking about the series title. Its a little bit unusual, The Gospel According to Jim. Jim is obviously a nickname on James. There was a TV show by that name, still in syndication, According to Jim. More than that, I want you to get a feel for this book because to me, number one, nicknames are not uncommon. Do you know who The Sons of Thunder were? Its a nickname for James and John. The Disciples were called The Sons of Thunder. One guy was so positive, so encouraging, that they changed his name from Joseph and started calling him The Son of Encouragement; and that became his name-Barnabas, so Barnabas is actually a nickname. It means son of encouragement. Heres a tough one-this guy was nicknamed The Twin. Anybody know who that is? Its Thomas, right. I saw some of you mouth Thomas. Very good. One guy was nicknamed The Rock, Rocky. Do you know who The Rock was? Who was nicknamed The Rock? Who was nicknamed The Rock? Peter. You are Simon, Jesus says. I will call you Rocky. Youre going to be The Rock.

So nicknames are not uncommon, so calling James Jim-not an uncommon thing. However, what I want you to do is get a feel for this book because when I think of this book, its just full of practical wisdom. Its kind of like if youre sitting down with Uncle Jim on the porch swing and its a hot summer day. You have your lemonade, youre rocking along, and hes just dispensing advice. That is the kind of book this is. Have you ever had somebody in your life like that? You sit down and talk to him/her. Maybe its an elderly person, maybe not, but [it could be] someone in your family or a close friend. You sit down, and you love to listen to him talk because hes going to just keep dropping these nuggets of truth that you pick up that are gold. Youre like, Wow, I could really use that. Anyone have people like that in your life? They just share and they just wow! Youre sitting on that porch swing with Uncle Jim, and hes saying, Yup, Im telling you. That tongue will get you in trouble. You know we tame everything, but we just cant seem to tame that tongue. Its like it controls the course of your whole life. Its an excerpt, a paraphrase from the Book of James. Yeah, you know it doesnt do any good to say to the poor, Go and be blessed. You know what? We have to fill their tummies too! We have to give them some food too.

You hear the Word of God, you listen to it, you go out, and you dont do it? Youre like the man who looked in the mirror and went out and forgot what he saw.

Just all these nuggets of truth [we learn] as we sit down with Uncle Jim, and he just teaches us life lessons from the Word of God. I wanted us to have that feel. I say, The Gospel According to Jim. Now we know this is not a Gospel in the sense of a biography of the life of Christ-Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, in that sense-but, what he does is he gives us a different look at the Gospel. Hes very practical. He emphasizes works, and there is a lot of tension sometimes between faith and works in this book and between James and Paul in the Epistles-the writings of Paul-which emphasized grace. James comes and he gives us a balance, and he talks about how it doesnt do any good to say you have faith, but if there isnt works present, what good is that? The evidence is the fact that you do belong to Christ, that there will be works manifested in your lives, so thats why we have faith and works on a scale. So he brings this new emphasis to the Gospel. Some of the teachings sound very much like the Sermon on the Mount like he was very close to Jesus because there was a lot of just pure Gospel teaching in his book. Thats not a coincidence. This is the earthly brother of Jesus, the half brother of Jesus. This is not James, the Apostle. This is James, the brother of Jesus. They have the same mother, very different fathers, so he is the half brother of Christ. Were not sure at what juncture he comes to faith. We know at the beginning of Jesus ministry, he was not a believer, but at some point-certainly after the Resurrection, but probably even sooner than that-the miracles must convince him. The teaching must convince him that his brother is divine, so church tradition teaches us-if you go back and you read the early church fathers-that this is the half brother of Christ. He does not try to use that to his advantage. In fact, he doesnt elaborate a whole lot. He doesnt need an introduction, and that's another proof. He just simply says, This is James. He is the leader of the early church. Did you know that? Read the Book of Acts 15. James is in charge, and the council of Jerusalem sets in. Theyre discussing the fate of the Gentiles and whether theyre going to be accepted on the basis of faith or not. James is the one who leads up that meeting. Peter has a voice, but James is the one who drafts the letter. The verbiage in Acts 15, the Greek that he uses and the words that he uses are similar to the words that he uses here. Hes the only one who uses some words that he uses in Acts 15 and in James. Those are the only places we can find those, so we have Italian there linguistically.

So James leads the church. The churchs headquarters are in Jerusalem. Its later going to become Antioch; but at this stage in the history of the church, the church is very young, and James is the visible leader of the church. This is the first book written in the New Testament. Its not Matthew. Its not the Gospels. Its this book right here, so the first verse were going to read is the oldest-in a chronological sense-the oldest verse of the New Testament.

Last week we read from the oldest book of the Bible; the first verse ever written was…what? Job 1:1, right. Thats the oldest book. This is the oldest book in the New Testament, about 45 to 50 A.D., so its written shortly before the first Epistles of Paul, and its certainly written before the Gospel of Matthew or Mark. This is the church in its infancy. This is the church really still in its very beginning stages, so with that as a backdrop, with that as a little bit of background of who James is and the background of the book, were going to start reading. Lets stand together and open our Bibles to James 1 (page 1196 of pew Bibles), and were going to read the first four verses together. James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,

To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations: Greetings. Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Before you sit down, turn to somebody and say, Get ready because hes about to talk to you. Then you can have a seat.

He says right off the bat, Consider it joy when you encounter trials. Thats not exactly what you normally would do, right?

Hey, get ready to smile. I have some bad news for you. Heres some devastating thing thats happening in your life. Lucky you, today. Its not normally how we address trials or look at trials. James is being realistic about life and the way things are. Things dont always go our way. Life is not always good.

Its like a bird I heard about named Chippy, Chippy the parakeet. Did you hear about Chippy? Chippy was living the life. He was the favorite bird, favorite pet. This woman had only her bird. She had no dog, no cat-just the bird, so there were no predators in the house. Nothing was going to eat the bird or put it in fear. Everybody just loved the bird, and the bird would fly around the house. In fact, not really until nighttime or until visitors came over was the bird in the cage. Chippy would fly around the house; Chippy would sing; Chippy just loved life. Chippy had a great cage-state of the art trapeze, great food-the best bird food that Mom could buy, and a great water dish. Life was good. He would just fly around the house singing. He was usually on Moms shoulder as she did her chores. He just loved life; what a great life little Chippy had. One day, Moms on the cell phone and multi-tasking while shes vacuuming the floor and not really paying attention. Chippy is down on the floor looking at scraps of food, and the next thing you know, she vacuums over Chippy and Chippy is sucked up into the vacuum cleaner. All of the sudden, he is in darkness. There is soot and dirt, and hes afraid. Of course, she panics and opens up the vacuum cleaner. She takes the bird out of the dust bag, and hes all covered with soot, dirt and dust. Hes flapping his wings and is terrified. Shes like, Oh, Chippy! We just have to clean you off. What do I do? She doesnt know what to do, so she takes him under the sink, turns on the water-not too hot, not too cold. Of course, the bird is frightened and flapping its wings. Hes just traumatized by the water. Now he is just all wet. What am I going to do? So she takes him into the bathroom and starts to blow dry him-just, Zzzzzz. Hed never encountered a blow dryer before, and Chippy is just terrified. Hes squawking, flapping, and his feathers are flying everywhere. Finally, Chippy is dry. She puts him back in his cage, and he just has this look of shock in his face. This world was this pristine environment where everything was always wonderful, good, and I was always loved. Nothing bad every happened. Now all of the sudden, hed been sucked into this vacuum cleaner. He was dirty; then he was under the water; then he was being blow dried. Wow!

A friend days later enquired, Hows little Chippy doing?

She said, Little Chippy is doing fine, but he just doesnt sing much anymore. Its not a joke. Its an illustration. You can go, Awww.

Chippy just doesnt sing much anymore. Lifes not what it used to be. Chippys lost some joy.

Some of us are kind of like little Chippy. At some age, life is good, and Mom and Dad love us. The world is good, and something happens. It takes the rug out from under our feet and just knocks us flat. We go, Wow! The world is not as friendly of a place as I thought. We get sucked into a vacuum cleaner. Its dark and dirty, and things happen to us we dont like, and we just lose our song. We have some Chippys out here today. You dont sing like you used to anymore. James is saying, I want you to get your song back. I want you to sing again. I want you to realize though life is hard, God is good. There are some good things that are going to come your way as a result of what youve been through. Consider a pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, many kinds.

All of us are going to face trials-everybody here, everybody here, of many kinds. At different points in your life, youll face different kinds of trials. Some of us are going to face financial trials, relational trials, family trials, health trials, depression, emotional trials. I could just go on and on. You and I are going to encounter various trials in our lives, and sometimes those trials just seem like theyre more than we can take and more than we can handle; so James understands that. The church has been through persecution, and theyre going to go through more persecution very soon. Theyve already been scattered, and theyll be scattered yet again soon; so the words that he says are very appropriate and very real.

We look at that, and we say, Well, how in the world can you say that, James? How in the world can you tell us to consider it joy when we encounter trials? Really, its not a how question we should ask. Its more of a why. Why can James say that? What does he know that we dont know? Why can James make such a bold and audacious statement as consider it joy when you encounter trials. Hes going to answer that. Hes going to say, Why? Why, James?

Because… he says in Verse 3, Because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Ginosko meant to know with certainty-to know with a certainty. He says, We know… Hes talking about our mindset or our attitude. He says, Were coming in to a trial, and we know that God is for us. Thats like that song we sang. We know that God can work in and through that trial.

Hes not saying be thankful for the bad thing or be happy about the bad thing. If you break your leg, hes not asking you to rejoice, Oh, great! I broke my leg! Or, I lost my job! For some of you, it might-I dont know your job. Maybe that would be good news. Its not for you. Thats not funny. Whatever it is, hes not saying, Lets pretend. Put on a happy house. No, when a hardship comes and makes us sad, were going to cry. If it makes us mad, were going to be angry; but what he is doing is encouraging us to look beyond at the beginning. He says, See the end. See the end. He says, Knowing that the testing of our faith… and this word testing doesnt mean tempting. It always means to test, to prepare for something greater down the road. Its to equip. Its to get you ready. Hes saying, God is going to use this trial for us. God is going to use this trial to equip you, to prepare you, to mature you for whats coming down the road.

When has the church been the strongest in church history? Ive studied church history. Have you studied church history? Id recommend that you do. What I noticed was a trend that when the church went through testing and trials, when there was opposition against the church, the church flourished. The church didnt buckle and fold; the church flourished. The Gospel was spread. Wonderful things happened in the world. When the church was living large, when the church was in power, in control, guess what? It became corrupt. When it was living that Chippy life, pre-vacuum cleaner, and everything was good and wonderful, the church was corrupt in history. You can read that, so we know that thats the truth.

I have seen a very limited amount of the world. Ive not taken a lot of trips around the world, but Ive gone on a couple of missions trips-one to the Dominican Republic. When we were in the Dominican Republic, we saw the Haitian Church-these people who are so poor, have no rights, and are so persecuted because of the color of their skin, because of where theyre from, and their social-economic status, they are persecuted. When we went to worship with them, we have never seen such joy and love. They love Christ; they love one another. They have so few earthly things to be thankful for, yet you see God doing wonderful things. I said, This time, Jack, when we go, we dont want to just visit and say hi. We want to stay with them. We want to share that service with them. We want to linger with them. God willing, if Im able to go back someday by myself, I want to hang with them. I want to go where they live. I want to get behind the scenes and experience life with the Haitians there in the D.R. I will come back a changed man, I know, if Im able to experience that.

I went to Sweden also, and thats the land of my heritage, so I was excited about that opportunity. I was able to minister there, and Im going back soon to Sweden to minister. In Sweden, you may not know this, but this is the most secular country in the world. The per capita atheism-there is no comparable. The church was in power, and they became corrupt. They abused their authority, and the Swedish people rebelled against that; and they want no part of the church, so they turned their backs on the church and said, Were going to abandon the faith of our fathers and leave God alone. Thats what they decided to do. Well, the church, of course, is alive, but those Christians that are there are very persecuted. One thing I noticed as I met those believers was how deep their faith was, how deep their roots were, how strong they were in the Lord because they lived-to be a Christian in Sweden, you will encounter adversity.

If you look at a coral reef or you study coral reefs, the side of the coral reef that is coastline is often dying. Its not as bright. Its not as colorful. Theres not as much life there. It lives a very comfortable life. The winds arent as strong; the waves arent as strong. Its protected by the other side of the reef and by the shore, but on the other side where the waves are intense and the winds are intense, the coral reef thrives. They have beautiful colors. There are all kinds of sea-life and fish. Its beautiful, but it struggles every day for life and existence.

I wish I could tell you that God created the world to grow in maturity, perseverance, and endurance as this word hupomone talks about. This word hupomone is patience; its steadfastness; its consistency; its endurance; its perseverance; its all of those things. I wish I could tell you, Will you just take a pill? Join a club. Listen to a sermon, but it doesnt work that way. It is built into us and instilled into us by the Spirit of God as we go through life and as we encounter these trials.

So, James looks to the end. He looks to the process of what God is going to do, and he says, I can say I know with a certainty that God is going to use this to grow maturity and perseverance in your life, as Verse 4 suggests. It says, Perseverance must finish its course, or finish its work. Some of your translations will say, Let perseverance finish its course. This verb is in whats called the present active imperative, which means continue to allow perseverance. In other words, Jesus is saying, Work with… Were going to fight the trial, or fight God, or we will say, Okay, God, Im going to cooperate with You. Im going to work with You. Were going to work together. As that song said, When the worlds spinning upside down, you and I-were not going to change a thing. Were going to work on this together all the way through. Its talking about a cooperative spirit. Hes talking about a partnership, saying, Listen, youre going to go through the trial one way or another, like it or not.

I mean James is saying, Listen, your outlook is going to help determine the outcome, how this works out for you. Outlook equals outcome, how you see this. The attitude you have as youre going through this trial and encountering this trial is going to make a difference in how it ends for you. Are you going to be bitter or better? Closer to God or further away? James says, If this is your mindset, if you have this thing, you say, Lord, Im going to let perseverance work in me. Im going to allow You to work in me. Im going to continue on in my faith through this. This is our part. Hes talking here about our will. Hes saying, If you will do that, God is going to mature you, and Hes going to bring you to the place of completeness, lacking nothing. This word teleios, this Greek word teleios, has to do with perfection. It has to do with completion-something that is functioning as it was created to function. It is accomplishing what it was designed to do.

You had coaches if you participated in sports who were trying to bring this out in you, this completion. On the practice field, theyd put you through the paces, and theyd work you hard, so when the real thing came, you were ready.

Some of you had teachers who tested you. They put you through the riggers. They made you study; they made you write papers, pop quizzes, and grilled you so that you would be ready to handle that subject matter and so that youd be ready for life. A good coach or a good teacher doesnt just prepare you in the academics-they prepare you for life.

John Wooden passed away recently, the greatest college coach ever-John Wooden from UCLA. He won more titles than anybody else. John Wooden, the coach with the highest number of wins in college basketball-how many championships did he win in a row with UCLA, like seven or eight in a row, the final fours and won them in a row? John Wooden said not once in his coaching career did he ever talk about winning. Thats interesting, isnt it? He talked about character; he talked about teamwork; he talked about trust, but he never talked about winning. His end result was they won. He saw his job as to make them complete-not just for the game of basketball, but for life.

Thats what God is concerned about. We want comfort; we want pleasure; we want avoidance of pain, and God wants our holiness. God wants our character shaped. God wants Christ formed in us, and this is one of the agents that He has chosen to use-life itself-this boot camp, this training ground that we live in called the earth.

Speaking of boot camp, I think one of the ways Ill illustrate this with you is a story of a private who went into the military, and of course hed heard about boot camp. This is a true story, by the way. Hed heard about boot camp, and hed heard how rigorous it was, and he was not looking forward to it. Hed seen the movies, of course, and the evil drill sergeant. This guy was worse than anything hed seen in the movies. This guy seemed to not only demean him-which he expected-but this guy got personal. In fact, this guy got physical. He made this privates life a living hell. He was just dogging him every day. It seemed like he picked on him above anybody else. He just wanted to denigrate him and demean him, tell him how worthless he was. One of the things he would try to do was while they were doing these drills, he would try to break their bad habits. You know how they have to do the army crawl under the barbed wire, and theyd have to climb the wall-all the things that you do in boot camp. He was always cussing at him, talking and saying bad things about his mama and all this other stuff. Hed tell him how lazy, fat, slow, and stupid and everything like that; but he would tell them one thing, and he would just drill it. He had a bad habit of putting his head up. He would say, Keep your head down, soldier! Hed cuss and hed fuss, and that guy would get so mad. Hed say, I dont know why Sergeant hates me like that! But I hate him back! I cant stand that guy!

A man hed made friends with said, You know, thats his job. Hes trying to prepare us for war.

He said, I know that, but he goes beyond. He hates me. Its personal with him. He picks on me more than anybody else. You can see it! You can tell!

In fact, one day he even got physical. He said, Private, Im so tired of telling you to keep your head down, maybe this will help, and he took his military boot, put it on the back of his head, and pushed his face into the ground so hard that his nose bled. He said, Maybe now youll remember to keep your head down!

That night in the barracks, he said, Ill tell you what-Im serious. If I make it through this tour of duty, Im killing that guy! I hate that guy! I hate him with a passion.

His friend said, Well, listen. Boot camp will be over soon. Well be off to battle, and you wont have to worry about him anymore.

Yeah, I suppose thats true, and it did happen. Boot camp was over and it was time for him to go to war. He was put in the front lines, and it wasnt long before he was in combat with his pal next to his side. His pal looked up to see what the enemy line was like, and a sniper bullet caught him right between the eyes. He was dead; he was gone just that fast. Right then that private heard the words in his mind, Keep your head down. He heard his drill sergeants voice, and he put his head to the ground. He made it through that battle. In fact, he made it through that tour of duty unscathed.

He went back to find his drill sergeant as he had promised he would do. He went back to the barracks and saw his drill sergeant. He made eye contact with him. They walked toward one another, but rather than trying to kill him, he put his arms around him and embraced him. Without saying a word, he thanked him because hed prepared him as a soldier. When he went into that battlefield, he was ready; he was equipped; he was mature. He was able to function and carry out what he had been sent to do. He was able to be teleios, perfect in the line of battle because of what that sergeant had taught him. He recognized that the sergeant was not his enemy, but his friend.

Im not telling you that story to say in any way that God is analogous to the drill sergeant. I am saying that trials and testing are analogous to the drill sergeant. Im saying that when you and I go through those trials, theyre so hard and theyre so relenting that we look at those trials like theyre a drill sergeant. We hate them. Theyre our enemy. Theyre trying to hurt us. Theyre trying to destroy me. I hate them! I hate them! We become so angry, and like that sergeant, we start saying this-and I know youve never said this-but Im talking about the 9:30 group thats coming next. There are some real hardliners in that next service. What did I say? Did I say 9:30? (Congregation laughing.) I meant 11 oclock. You guys are awesome! That was a typo. Lets strike that from the record. You guys are great. Im talking about that next group. Thank you, Jesse! Some in that crowd, they go, You know what? Its always me. Why is life so hard on me? Why does everything hit me? What have I done that life has to be so hard on me? They start singing that Hee Haw song. You know the chorus, right? Gloom, despair, and agony on me-e! Ooohhh, me. Deep dark depression, excessive misery-y! Sing it. Ooohhh! If it werent for bad luck, Id have no luck at all! Ooohhh! Pretty happy crowd, apparently. Gloom, despair and agony on me-e-e!

But lets be honest. All of us have sung that Hee Haw song. All of us would go, Boy, its me. I sure get my share. The truth is we all go through hardships. We all go through difficult times at different times in our lives. Maybe you went through your hardest time as a child. Maybe youre going through it now. Maybe its still to come. Its going to be different at each stage of your life. We have different trials at certain points in our life than we have at other points in time, but everybody here has gone through, is going, and will go through hardships and trials-everybody here.

James is saying, Look, that trial is not your enemy. That trial can teach you. That trial can equip you. That trial can challenge you. That trial can mature you. Were not saying the hardship itself was a good thing, but we are saying that God can use that and will use that in your life; but you have to have that mindset. Let perseverance finish its course. James is saying work with, not against.

He came to the realization that drill sergeant was on his side; he was equipping him.

Friends, this is boot camp were in right now. This is boot camp, and God is calling us to holiness. God is calling us to purity. God is calling us to grow up. God is calling us to maturity, and some of the things Hes going to use are the hardships and trials that come our way in this fallen world that we live in. Some of them are caused by us and our sin; some are caused by the sins of others; and some just by the fact that we live in a fallen world. Friends, when we go through those times, those are the times when our faith matters the most. Those are the times when we are most receptive to hear the voice of God. Those are the times were going to do our greatest growing and soul-searching.

Would you bow with me in prayer?

Father, we thank You for Jim. We thank You for James and his story that he has to tell. Thank You for how You gifted him so practically to be able to communicate through Your Holy Spirit the words of life and truth. How radical his teaching was because the Jews to whom he wrote, if hardship came along their way, then God was against you. And if you were blessed all the time-you were rich, happy, and healthy-then God must love you. So to come and say, Consider it joy, was counter-cultural as much then as it is now. Father, I dont know every story. I know some. Some of us dont talk about our trials and hardships. Some of us keep it all inside. Others of us have shared what were going though because we just cant keep it in anymore. Father, whatever our trials are, we know that You are our Lord. We know that You did not bring about the trial, but You will use it. You will use it. The test has come, and, Father, we look to You. We ask You, Lord, when life has dealt us a blow and were in that place of darkness like that little bird, we are in a state of shock, that, God, when the dust settles, we can see again-that well see Your hand and take it in the midst of that darkness and despair. Lord, Youll see us through this trial. Youll see us through this adversity, and we will emerge stronger. We will persevere. We will endure. Its a hope we have in Christ. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.

Ive stopped a little early today-not because I dont have more that I can say about James or our text, but because I want to let you know of some rather shocking news that happened to a part of our body that we need to talk about. James 1:1, it says a servant, a doulos. That meant somebody who was a servant or property of another, so James doesnt say, Hey, Im the brother of Jesus. You have to listen to me. James says, I belong to Christ. I am a servant of Christ.

When I think of servants of Christ, I think of missionaries. I think of people who have left their homes, left their families, left all thats familiar to go and serve Christ on the mission field. Many times they struggle economically. In fact, most times they do. They try to just get by, and they stay faithful, and they stay faithful to their calling. Like all Christians-all Christians say, Listen, Im the servant of God. Ill do what God has called me to do, but I think as missionaries, theyve taken it to another level. They really have, so thats why we try to support missions in our church. We do support missions, and two of our missionaries for many years are John and Kris Voss in Sweden. Some of you remember John and Kris. When Kris mother became ill, they were here for almost three years. They lived in Janesville and were actually a part of our body plugged in to ministry. John was the head of our prayer team for Phase 3-if we could go ahead and put their picture on the wall, please, so you could recognize their faces; but they are our missionaries that we supported before they were a part of our body, and weve supported them since. For going on three decades, they have been faithful servants of Christ in Sweden, working with the people of Sweden, working in the secular society. Dr. Voss is an excellent teacher of the Word of God and has done tremendous things in Sweden. Im very proud of him. Im sorry to say that this week, theyd been doing some painting in their house, and he put some rags that had chemicals on them that were very flammable next to a heat source. They caught on fire, burned down the garage, and then burned down the house. The Voss lost everything. They were able to get some pictures off the wall from their wedding and of their children, and they left in time before any harm came to them. They lost it all. They lost, number one, their nest egg. They didnt have IRAs or ROTH accounts or big money set aside. Their home was their retirement, and thats gone. Do they have insurance? I dont know. I hope they do. Im in contact with them. Obviously they dont have a computer anymore. Theyve lost all addresses and phone numbers, but Im in contact with the elders, and Im trying to establish whether or not they had insurance. Right now theyre living in a home of a member of the congregation while they are on vacation. They are in a state of shock. They are broken.

We can flippantly say, Well, its just stuff. But, what if that was your home? Think about things that belonged to your mom, your dad, or your grandparents that had been passed down to you. Think about things that your spouse had bought you on anniversaries or that your children made you at school. Think of all the things that you have that you saved because they drew that picture for you or whatever it might be; and now you have nothing but the clothes on your back. You have those memories, but all those material things-theyre gone. In your sixties, you are starting life all over again. This is what Pastor Voss and Kris are going through. As a sponsoring church and as a church that he and Kris belong to when they are in America, we are not going to sit idly by. This is a church that responds to needs. When I challenged you to support the home that helps children whove been sexually abused-they needed a new sound system-in one week, we raised $12,000 to buy them a sound system, a recording system. When I challenged you to buy an SUV for Pastor Sean in Haiti, we raised those funds, and we bought them a new SUV with cash. That became the vehicle he used to bring relief, water and food into Haiti every day during the earthquake. When we challenged you with the Haitian Church in the D.R.-listen, we have three churches, two in Florida and our church, that are paying for their rent for their school and their building, those two churches-because of the difficulty of the economy-dropped off. Its now all on us. We just sent our last check out a couple weeks ago for $3,000 to pay the rest of the rent for the year. Were already done for the year now with the Haitian Church. You rise to the challenges.

Were going to open up a fund-you dont have to give to it today, but were going to open up today for Voss relief; and I would like to see us send them an initial check for $5,000. That sounds like a lot of money, and I know some of you, maybe youre going through hardships and you cant. Theres no pressure. We understand that. You give what you can. Some of us can give more, and that's okay; but were going to take a love offering for them, and were going to get them this check right away. You say, Well, what if they have insurance? Hopefully, they do; hopefully they can rebuild the house, but they still have to replace [many things]. Right now, they have only the clothes on their back. Lets say that house is going to be built. Is it going to be built in three months? No. Is it going to go through paperwork and be built in six months? No. So until then, they have to live. They have to live, so even if there is insurance, the need is great. If you want to give to them directly, you can write the check out to John or Kris Voss, you can do that. Its not tax deductible if you do, but you can do that. Well get it to them. If you want it tax deductible, you make the check out to Faith Community. You can designate Voss or Sweden on it, and then well present them a check. We will get it off to them within the week to start this fund and say, Listen, your family in Janesville is with you. We appreciate what you do for Christ. So were going to take this love offering right now, and this fund is open if youre able to give next week, next month, in the fall-whenever it is, we want to try to help them. We will update you, so lets go ahead and receive this love offering.

Lets pray:

Father, we want to pray for John and Kris. We thank You for their work, and we know that they are devastated by this loss, as we would be if this happened to us. They took what was most precious to them. That was their pictures, but they lost a lot of memories. Theyre also concerned about their future. We pray that this home could be covered. We pray that it could be rebuilt, and we pray that You would comfort them now as they dont know where theyre going to live, how theyre going to deal with this loss. Theyre coming to the point where theyre close to retirement, and theyre having to start all over. Our hearts go out to them. Lord, this trial is like a mean drill sergeant to them. Its belittling them and ridiculing them even now. Its telling them they shouldnt be on the mission field. Its telling them theyll never make it. Father, be their God. Let them know that You are going to work in and amidst this, and You are going to bring them through stronger and greater. You are going to provide for them, so, Lord, I pray that You give them that reassurance and that we, as their home church in America, would come alongside them in this time of need, help them, and respond to them. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.

That was actually a reenactment of a true story (link to video is here: http://www.sermonspice.com/search?topic=Sermon+Illustrations&q=Fair+Game), so Tom I hope I didnt hurt you when I threw that ball at you wherever you are. I didnt mean to.

Well, lets go ahead and talk about that little illustration by these ethical world views weve been talking about as we wrap up this series today. If we put up all those world views, do you know which one that is? How many of you think its antinomianism? Thats correct. It is antinomianism. There are no rules-make it up as you go. Whatever you think is right, go ahead and do that. If thats what you think, if that's what you believe, there are no absolutes, so there are no rules. Play the game any way you want to play it, and there are people who live their lives by that creed. There is no God; no moral absolutes; and Im just going to live whatever way I want to live and make it up as I go.

If youre a situationist, then you would just play the game in love. There are no rules-just do the loving thing on the court, whatever love is. I fouled you.

No, you didnt.

Yes, I did. I fouled you your ball. Just be loving. Thats how youd play.

Generalists or universalists, we just agree there are generally some rules, but we dont have to follow all the rules. Well do whats best for the common good. Well just try to get along here, and well just do whatever we agree to. All is well that ends well. The end justifies the means. Well just generally have some rules, but well lay them aside when its convenient to do so and is in our interest to do that.

Absolutists, they have the rulebook. Even in pick-up basketball one-on-one, theyre calling three seconds. Theyre calling palming. Some of you guys have played ball like that-pickup games that are called by the whole rulebook. That absolutist [would say], There are rules to this game, and were going to apply those rules and use them. So thats the game of basketball, but in the game of life, we all see the world a little bit differently.

Weve talked about each of the top three, and this Sunday, were going to look at the bottom three and talk about all of them.

The first thing were going to ask you is the question, Are there absolutes? Im going to try as best I can in a short period of time to make a case for the existence of moral absolutes, and then were going to talk about some of those specifically, what they are.

Id like you to turn in your Bibles please to Romans 2:14 (page 1113 of pew Bibles). In Pauls epistle to the church in Rome, he addresses this question, (Indeed when Gentiles…) that is those who are not Jews, (…when Gentiles who do not have the law, do by nature…) almost by instinct, (…things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law…)

So he was saying almost innate, there are universal moral laws that are in peoples hearts. You cross culturally places that dont worship the God of the Bible or dont use the Scripture. In other cultures and other times, murder is wrong. Child abuse is wrong. There are moral absolutes that they abide by, and yet they have nothing in writing that they can read or look at. Hes talking here about our conscience as well. Look at the next verse. He says, (…since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.)

He talks about that still small voice or that conscience [you often hear] when you do something, and you just know its wrong. You just know its wrong. Or you do something, you just know, I just knew in my heart that was the right thing to do. Nobody told me. I didnt read it. I just knew that was right.

Other times, you feel condemnation. You feel shame because you just knew it was wrong. Even in the animal kingdom, you can see this phenomenon. On one of those boring days, I was channel surfing, and I ended up on the Animal Planet or Discovery Channel or something. I was watching a documentary on seals. I mean this is not something I normally TiVo. There it is, and its interesting because of the phenomenon thats taking place on the screen. There is this seal and a little seal down in this icy crevice, and there are all these other seals around her looking down and barking, making seal noises. Now I dont speak seal, but I could tell what they were saying. They were looking at this seal, and they were saying, Shame on you! Shame on you! Were so disappointed in you! What have you done? How could you do such a thing? And the seal is down in the hole with its baby seal. Her heads down. She doesnt even want to look up, and she has these nervous movements like, Yeah, I did a bad thing. Im really ashamed of myself. It turns out her little baby seal had been killed by a whale, so she stole the baby seal of another mother seal and took it to be her seal. So she takes this seal, and shes going off. The mother pursues, and she ends up down in this hole. Moms there, and maybe Dads there as well or step-father. Im not sure, but all the other seals are around there-like the whole clan. What do you call a bunch of seals? The tribe or the clan or the herd? A bunch? A seal bunch? Theyre all there, and theyre shouting down, and I wondered to myself, How did they know…? These are animals. How did they know that was wrong? How did they know? Did they open up the book of Flipper and go, You know, in the book of Flipper, Chapter 3, thou shall not take another mothers baby seal. (Congregation laughing.) How did they know that was wrong? Even in the animal kingdom, I saw this sense of right and wrong, and it astonished me.

I used to have this little dog named B.T. B.T. had this moral compass that was unbelievable. Whenever she did something bad, we would know about it before we saw it because if she had a good day when we were gone, shed be happy and wagging her stump of a tail. She was a Boston terrie-thats why we named her B.T. So when wed let her outside, and when it was time to come in, wed say, B.T., phone home, and shed come running inside the house. (Again, congregation laughing.) Cute little dog, and shed greet us at the door. When shed been naughty, her ears would be back. Her little stump of a tail would be down, she would hardly even look at us, and shed be shaking. Wed go, B.T., what have you done? She would then walk us to the area of shame, and we would see this mess. We never said, Ok, B.T., this is wrong. This is wrong. This is wrong. This is wrong. But she would keep inventing things to do wrong, things that never crossed our mind that a dog could do. She would just do something, and shed just know that was wrong. I have to confess. Wed walk in the door, and shed be like, I did something wrong today.

One time we were selling our home, and it was the big show-the big open house. We were going to sell our home and move to Janesville. The realtor called us all upset. There was no chance-this dog was going in the cage. The dog got out of the cage, got into the garbage, so they came in and she was like, This is the kitchen!

It was like, Ah! Garbage is everywhere! So upsetting. But B.T. knew! This little doggie knew right and wrong.

Friends, these people who say, Theres no moral compass were born with. There are no universal laws. They know thats not true because they know in their heart when they do something thats right, they know it. When they do something wrong, they know that too.

They might be trained to put that voice out of their minds, but they know that-not just the negative, but the positive too. We know when we do something righteous that it is righteous, that that was the right thing to do.

Im going to take you to the oldest verse in the Bible. I wonder if you know what the oldest verse in the Bible is-I mean oldest as far as the oldest written. Obviously Genesis 1:1, you dont go back further than that. I understand that, but this verse was written before Genesis 1:1 was written-not before it happened, but before it was written. This is the oldest book in all the Bible, and Im assuming they started with Chapter 1:1, so the sentence were about to read is the oldest sentence in all the Bible. When this was penned, there was no Bible to look at, no Scripture to study. I want you to turn please to the Book of Job 1 (page 496 of pew Bibles). In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil.

Let me ask you this question: how did Job know what was blameless and right? Howd he know? How do you know what evil is unless theres a standard of good? How did he know to follow Gods moral universal laws if they didnt exist? Where was the law at that point in time? Right in here. He had a moral compass. He knew of God, and he knew what God wanted him to do, and he lived uprightly.

Theres a second proof that I see observed in the world around us; and that is not only this principle of this inner-moral compass where were convicted when we do wrong, and we feel Gods pleasure when we do right, but also a principle that when you violate the laws of God-even when you dont believe in them-even when you say, I dont believe in God, so therefore I dont believe in any moral universal laws. Even if you do not believe in the universal laws of God, if you break them, and you break them long enough, your life will collapse. It will collapse.

Look at Genesis 4. Remember Moses wrote Genesis. Moses doesnt live until 1500 B.C., so these traditions, these stories, are handed down orally for that time. This tells us the story of Cain and Abel. Cain and Abel presented a sacrifice to the Lord. Abels is accepted; Cains is not. Cain becomes angry and jealous, and he plots at that time to kill his brother. Verse 6 (page 4 of pew Bibles), the Lord says to Cain, Why are you angry, and why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.

What will sin do if it comes through your door? It will destroy you. If you do right, it will go well. If that is true, then the transverse is true also, right? If you do not do right, it will not go well for you, right? Weve all experienced that. Im going to liken it to you driving your car down the road. Youre driving your car down the road and all of the sudden a red light comes on the dash, and it says, Oil.

You go, Oh, boy, I dont think I need oil, and I really dont have time to deal with this right now. Im busy. Besides that, the car seems to be driving just fine, but Im tired of looking at that light. Its really annoying me. Its like its lecturing me all the time, so I have to fix that. So you take a wad of gum out of your mouth, and you put it over the red light. There you go! You just keep on driving. You drive a couple weeks, and you know its probably still on there; but youve forgotten about it. Another light comes on. It says, Heat. What does that mean-heat? Well, its not hot. I dont need the air conditioning. It must mean something is wrong inside the car, but it seems to be running okay. Im just gonna put some gum on that too, so you wad up that gum and put it up there.

The owner/manufacturer has built this car, and these little warning lights are there to tell you something internally is wrong. You better pay heed to this. You better pull over and get some coolant or get some oil. Somethings not right. The temperature is too hot, but you ignore it and you keep running your car. Then pretty soon things start to smell bad. They start to smell funny. Youre like (sniff, sniff), Whats that? That does not smell good at all. I have to fix that. Down go the windows, Zzzzz zzzzz. Just let the air in. Dont bother pulling over and finding out whats going on. You just let the air circulate in there. The next thing you know, you start hearing knocks. That didnt sound right. There is even knocking when youre driving the car. Maybe somethings wrong, but I just dont have time. I have to keep driving. Im in a hurry. Im busy, so Im just going to fix this by turning up the radio so I cant hear it.

You start ignoring all these warning signs, and whats going to happen as you keep driving that car? One of these days, that engine is going to lock up, and smoke is going to come out of that hood. Youre standing on the side of the road. You lift your hood, and smoke is going up. You cant drive the car anymore, and you say, God! How could you do this to me? You ignored all these warning signs the manufacturer put in there and the owners manual He gave you to tell you how to live your life. You ignored that, so its not going to go well. Its going to collapse.

So it is with life and these warning signs. The Holy Spirit speaks to us or even those who arent believers who have a conscience because of this inner-moral compass, and they ignore that. You say, Well, my life is just fine the way it is. Im just going to keep driving. I dont have time to deal with that or I like things the way they are. They mask it; they cover it; they ignore the rules, the owners manual. Pretty soon, whats going to happen? You keep stealing; you keep lying; you go around committing adultery-whats going to happen to you? Your life is going to collapse. Its going to fall apart.

You say, Well, I dont believe there are any moral laws, so I can tell lies if I want to.

Yeah, and youre going to reap what you sow because whether you believe that law is there or not, it is. It is.

So, thats what Im going to say about the question of moral absolutes. Now we need to wrap things up and talk about these different Biblical, ethical world views-those who are absolutists; so lets go ahead and talk about these three: Well talk first about the unqualified absolutism, and I share that for those who are taking notes. If youre taking notes, and you want to study further, thats important. There are no tests; there are no quizzes. If you want to ignore that title and just keep the content, thats fine too, but the unqualified absolutist says there are many moral absolutes, many universal moral laws, and we are required to keep all of them. They are never in conflict. Any conflict that we have is a perceived conflict. Its not a real conflict. You always have to obey.

Augustine was a very famous theologian and author who was an unqualified absolutist. He said, You tell the truth no matter what, no matter what.

I gave you the illustration that first week when I told you about a woman coming to you, and she has a baby in her arms. Shes crying, and she says, Theres a man after me. Hes drunk. He has a knife, and he wants to kill me and steal my child. Im going to go this way and hide. You tell him I went that way. If you are of this persuasion, you dont lie ever. You have to keep the truth, so that man comes up to you with a knife and says (in a drunken voice), Where is she? Im going to kill her, take the baby.

You have to say, She went that way, and shes hiding. Thats what they think. Thats what you have to do. If you say, No, she went this way, thats a lie. You just broke Gods law, and youre in big trouble. You have big problems on your hands because youve broken the law of God. They would say what happens with that man and that woman-thats up to him. That's between him and God, and youre not responsible for that. Thats the position of this point of view.

I want you to turn and look at James 4:17 (page 1198 of pew Bibles). James is writing, and it says, Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesnt do it, sins. Anyone who knows the good he ought to do and doesnt do it, sins. This is called sins of omission. There are sins of commission where we do what we shouldnt do, and there are sins of omission where we dont do what we should do. Sins of omission are just as much sin as sins of commission. Things that we dont do that we should do are just as wrong as when we do things that we shouldnt do. Jesus talked about that in Matthew 23:23 (page 981). He was talking to the Pharisees, and He said, …you hypocrites! You tithe this and you give to that, but youve neglected the more important matters of the law-justice and mercy and faithfulness. He reprimanded them for what they didnt do. They were doing all the right things of the law, but there were some important things they did not do; and Jesus says those are important too.

In Isaiah 1:17 (page 676), God is speaking. They are saying, We do all the right things. We wash our hands. We have all these religious ceremonies. We keep the Sabbath. We keep the holy days. God says, But heres what youre not doing. Learn to do right. Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of a widow. All these things you are not doing. He said, I dont want to see your festivals anymore. I dont want to look at your offerings anymore. They dont matter to Me. There is blood on your hands.

And to Augustine, as much as I respect his work, I would say, You know what? In that scenario, if that man comes up and says, I have a knife. Where is she? Im going to kill her, Im saying, She went that way. (Pastor points in opposite direction.) If I say you go this way, then that means I become accomplice to whatever happens to that woman because I had a moral responsibility-I had a moral responsibility-to protect her. That trumps the truth in this situation. Truth, moral absolute, I agree with that, but saving a life trumps telling the truth in this situation.

What about Rahab? Remember we talked about Rahab in Joshua 2? Remember that story? In Joshua 2, if you recall, they sent out two spies to the land. What happens is they report back to Joshua, and they get caught. They end up in the home of Rahab. We said Rahab-the name is a little ambiguous. It could either mean harlot or innkeeper, and if it meant innkeeper, we all owe her a big apology when we get to Heaven, Rahab, were sorry for the things we said about you. You were an innkeeper. Thats honorable.

That aside, they end up in her home, and the king and his men come to the house. They say, We have military intelligence that say the guards are in your house, these spies are in your house, and you need to do the right thing. You need to let us know so that we can deal with these men appropriately. She knows thats probably going to mean their lives, so she has to choose between her allegiance to her king and her allegiance to her God because Rahab is a God-follower. She has to choose between her allegiance to the Truth-because Im sure she tries to tell the truth-or protecting the lives of these Israelite spies?

So they said, Where are they? Bring them out.

She said, Oh, they were here, but they arent here anymore. They went that way. They left. Theyre gone. Thats the way they went. So they send out men to pursue that path. They leave the city, and the gates are shut. She goes upstairs to the roof where shes hiding them under the flax, and she said, Listen, they went that way. You guys go this way, and you stay there for three days. Then it will be safe for you to return home, but remember me and my family. When the conquest takes place, remember the kindness that Ive shown you.

They said, We promise you. We will rescue you. No harm will come to you and your family.

Nowhere in the Bible does God rebuke Rahab. In fact, she is mentioned admirably in Joshua 6. She is mentioned admirably in the Book of James that we just looked at. She is mentioned admirably in the Book of Hebrews 11 in the Hall of Faith. She is esteemed. She lied! She lied!

You see, what a graded absolute person believes is there are ethical dilemmas that we encounter in life. Think of it like an intersection. When you come to an intersection, you have a right of way. What determines the right of way at an intersection? Do you do that in an antinomian way? Do you get there and go, Okay, might is right or whatever? No, you decide by the rules of the road, and you learn the rules of the road. You take a test. If were coming to a four-way stop and I stop first, then I have the right of way. If were coming to a highway and Im going to take a left and youre going to take a right, you have the right of way. There are different rules in different scenarios. One of us has to yield; we cant both go at the same time. One of us has to yield.

In these ethical crossroads, one of us has to yield. Thats what graded absolutism teaches. It says there are times when there are ethical dilemmas. When these moral principles collide and we have choices to make, we have decisions to make, what will we uphold?

Mark 3, they try to trap Jesus, and they bring a man with a withered hand. They set him in the first row of the synagogue where Jesus is preaching. Whats He going to do because the law says you dont work on the Sabbath, and healing was regarded as work? The doctor shops were closed on the Sabbath, so if you were going to get sick, you better not get sick on the Sabbath. Whats He going to do? We know Jesus has a heart of compassion, so we know, Hes going to heal on the Sabbath; and we have Him when he does that. Thats what He did. Jesus looks around in his hardness of heart, and what does He say, If I dont heal, that would be a sin of omission. If I dont show mercy to this man… Mercy in this case trumps your interpretation of the law. Mercy is more important. I need to help this man.

There are times in the Bible when the Bible says, Obey government. Obey whats been established. Obey your rulers and kings. Doesnt it say that in many places? Well, what happens when those collide? We have to make a decision.

In the Book of Acts 4, they said, You will stop preaching in the name of Jesus. No more will you mention the name of Jesus. No more will you talk about His Resurrection.

What did the Disciples say? We must obey God rather than man, so there was a decision that was made.

There are ethical crossroads. That middle one-conflicting absolutism-says, Well, you know, there are many moral absolutes, and sometimes they collide; but then you choose to do the lesser evil.

Like when the woman comes to you and says, I have a baby. Theres a man after me! He has a knife. Tell him I went that way, and she runs this way. If you say, She went that way, you lie; thats a sin but its a lesser evil, so God will forgive you. Well, we have a problem with that point of view because that would mean that Jesus sinned because they say that everybody has these moral conflicts, and everybody has to choose the lesser evil. That would mean if Jesus is tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin-as the Bible says-that Jesus sometimes committed sin. Sometimes He committed the lesser evil, which would make Him an imperfect sacrifice upon the cross. It would make him unworthy to pay for sin.

But graded absolutism says there are all these intersections in life. We have rules of the road, and when we run into these ethical quandaries, we have a decision to make. What is going to win out here? In the case of Rahab, mercy for the lives of the men trumped truth.

There were times when mercy or compassion-Mark 3, compassion-went out over the law, and there was a time in the ultimate intersection, the greatest intersection ever, when grace and love were chosen over justice. You ask, What do you mean? Well, I understand that at the cross, Gods justice was carried out, and His love was also carried out. I dont debate that theologically with any of you. We all agree on that-that God had to punish sin as a righteous God and that punishment was merited out on the cross, and His love was extended through pardon through what Christ had done, but it was how His punishment was merited out. Did Jesus deserve to die? Was Jesus guilty of the sins that He was charged with? Did Jesus deserve to have the sins of mankind put upon Him on the cross, earthly speaking?

How many of you in grade school [experienced] a child who did something [wrong], and [then] you got blamed for it? They got the wrong person. They blamed you instead of the kid who really did it? What would you say? Thats not fair!

Johnny comes late to gym class, so the teacher wants to make an object lesson out of Johnny and says, Because Johnny was late for gym class, you all owe me 50 jumping jacks and 20 push-ups or were all going to run an extra lap because Johnny was late. So youre mad at Johnny, and youre mad at the gym teacher because thats not fair. I should not be punished for something I did not do.

Youre growing up at home, and your brother or sister does something thats wrong, and you get in trouble from Mom or Dad. You get punished for something you didnt do! Maybe you even tried to stop it. What do you say? What does your moral compass say when that happens? That is not right! You are outraged! You are sent to your room, or youre grounded, and there you just sit and stew. Im bringing back all kinds of childhood memories right now. Im just feeling the love all over this room. But you were mad because your sense of justice was violated. You said, I did not do that! I did not say that! Maybe you were fired from a job for something you didnt do, and you are just angry inside. You say, Thats not just and fair!

So Jesus lives a perfect sinless life, always yields to the will of the Father, never gives in to temptation; and on the cross, He suffers and is punished for every sin that mankind has ever committed. Does that sound fair to you?

God has a conflict. Because justice says that the guilty is punished. Thats justice, so if justice is truly merited out, you and I would die in our sins. If God wanted to act upon the moral law and say, The wage of sin is death. If you sin, you deserve death, then God would be just in doing that; but what did God choose? God chose grace. God chose to impart grace. At that ultimate spiritual intersection, love prevailed. Love prevailed, and thats the beauty of the Gospel. We who didnt deserve it were set free.

Well, this series has been designed not necessarily to answer every question you have but to try to help you build the framework in which to process ethical choices that you have to make because I guarantee you you have been and you will be again at these ethical intersections. Remember when you are in those places that you have the rules of the road you can turn to. Did this ethical problem ever happen? What do we do?

Theres a place in the Bible where a guy made an oath. He said, Whoever walks in this door Im going to kill to show my love for God. That was a bad oath, right? That was a bad oath because the Bible says the law says if you make an oath to God, you better keep it. If you make an oath to God, you better keep it. Guess who was the first one to walk through the door? His daughter. His daughter was the first one to walk through the door. Are you going to keep that? Would it be right to keep the oath? The law says keep the oath. If you keep the oath, you take the innocent life of your own child.

Sometimes we get in these ethical quandaries of our own making, and you will be at these intersections again. Remember not just commission, but omission-not just the things we do, but also the things we dont do-matter to God. God has made it very clear.

Sometimes well be in a situation where somebody clearly has violated the law like the woman in John 8. She has committed adultery, and the law says stone her. Jesus says, He who is without sin cast the first stone. She received pardon.

You say, You know what? Ive collapsed my life, Pastor. I have ignored that moral compass. I have ignored those warning signs. Ive covered them up and masked them. I kept on driving and doing things my way, and my life has just collapsed. You know what? God is in the restoration business.

The Holy Spirit is the One called alongside to help. Hes the One who comes near you when youre on the side of the road. [Your car] is smoking and youre stranded, and He says, Let Me help you fix that. Let Me help you get back on the road again. Let Me show you what you need to do differently. In the future, dont do this. In the future, make sure you take care of that. Make sure you put that oil in. Make sure you pay attention to these signs. Heres how were going to fix this. Heres how were going to get you back on the road.

It doesnt matter how severe it is. The cars that are totaled, God can repair. If youll look to Him and say, Lord, Im coming to You, and I want to give my life to You. I want to live by Your principles and Your Word, God can restore your soul. Thats His promise.

When He reprimanded people in Isaiah 1. He said, Im tired of your feasts. Im tired of looking at your sacrifices when theres blood on your hands and youre ignoring the innocent who are suffering, what did He say? Come let us reason together. Though your sins be red as crimson, they shall be as white as wool. Thats our God.

Lets pray:

Father, everyone in this room has ignored that inner-moral compass. Those of us who are believers, there have been times weve ignored the voice of the Holy Spirit, and weve ignored the Word of God. Weve paid the price because you reap what you sow. We have harmed our lives, and we have harmed the lives of others. Some right now might be in a broken down state. There might even be some that arent here today because of decisions that theyve made; but, God, You are a God of mercy and a God of grace, and You will forgive and You will restore. Those same men in Matthew 23 that You rebuked, for they kept the law, but they did not keep the way to Your things of the law. They ignored justice, kindness, and mercy. Those same men-You said that day, How Ive longed to gather you into My arms as a hen gathers her chicks, but you would not come. Lord, might we come to You to receive the grace, forgiveness, and restoration that we need. Thank You for Your laws that we delight in, that guide us through our lives. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.

[This is a link to the clip Pastor is referring to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIhWBO_5x2E]. Sometimes probably doesnt cut it. Youre ready to jump out of an airplane, Everything packed right? Is it good?

Probably.

You want to hear, Yes, its ready to go, 100 percent. Sure, everythings fine, before you jump out of that airplane because your life is on the line.

Paul gives a stern warning to believers. He said, When you pass into eternity, you need to make sure that what youve put your hope and trust in is reliable. You need to make sure that its strong, that its true, that it will stand the test. So he says in Colossians 2:8 (page 1166 of pew Bibles), See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. He says there are some philosophies out there-there are some teachings out there-that will lead you astray, and the time when you need them the most-when you enter into eternity, you need to make sure that when you pull that ripcord, there is something of substance thats going to save you and deliver you on the other end. Dont be duped. Dont be careless with your soul. He gives us that admonition, so thats what were trying to do-go through some of the philosophies and traditions of this world and talk about them, examine them one by one.

You may not have known some of the names or the labels that we attach to those world views, but youre learning them. Its helping us to go, Oh, thats what thats called, and you know that these are still very prevalent in our world today.

We talked about antinomianism which means against the law. Its as old as the Garden. You do your own thing; be your own boss. Adam and Eve tried to set their own course, make their own rules. Judges said every man did that which was right in their own eyes in the dark days of the Judges in Israel, so that very much exists today-people who believe there are no moral absolutes, you and I make up our own rules as we go.

Then we talked last week about a form of generalism called utilitarianism. Thats the end justifying the means; all is well that ends well. What is the greatest good is whats good for the most people. Thats what we need to do. Whatever is the right thing-there are no absolutes. There are no moral laws; just do what is right for the most people.

This morning, were talking about a Third World view, ethical world view, called situationism. Situationism says that the decision that is right depends on the situation, and there is one guiding absolute. There is an absolute, but there is only one. Its summed up in this popular Beatles song. Were going to hear a couple seconds of it right now, so go ahead and play this song. Youll all recognize it. (Playing is All You Need is Love.) I like the song, by the way, but is that true? Is that true? Some of you would rather the song just continue. I understand that, but you know we have a job to do here. All You Need is Love, thats what the situationist says. Thats all you need.

There is one moral absolute in the universe, and that is the law of love, so you do whatever the law of love dictates in a given situation-not just any kind of love. Theyre very specific that it must be agape love. In the Bible, in the Greek, there are three kinds of love. There is Eros, which is sensual love, and usually its concerned with your own pleasure. Then there is Phileo, love or brotherly love, and that is a mutual reciprocal love; and then there is Agape love, and Agape love is a selfless love. Agape love seeks the highest and best for another whether or not that is reciprocated, so the situationist says, We need to love one another with an Agape love. We need to seek the highest and best for other people and make sure that the golden rule is followed. It sounds really good, right?

They say, Listen, people are never a means to the end. You dont use people. You use things. So people are preeminent, and we are called to love people. The Bible extolled the virtue of love. In 1 Corinthians 13 (page 1137 of pew Bibles), if you give your body to be burned but have not love, youre nothing. Didnt it also say that faith, hope, love-these things remain, but the greatest of these is love? Didnt Jesus teach that if you love the Lord, your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and your neighbor as yourself, those are the commandments right there. So Jesus lifted up love. The Scriptures seem to lift up love, so what could be wrong with a world view that has this as its mantra, All you need is love. Even complicated situations are supposedly resolved by this. There was a situation in Wisconsin where a husband killed his ailing wife. She was terminally ill and was going to die, so out of mercy-he was tired of seeing her suffer-he took her life, so he was charged with murder for that; but a situationist would say he acted in love. Murder is not a universal law. Its love, so because he acted in love, thats okay.

If we take a poll here and say, Well, is adultery wrong? pretty much every hand would go up; but a situationist would say, Well, there are situations where adultery is okay if love is involved.

Theres an example the situationists liked to use in World War II where a German prisoner was held in a Russian camp. It was a woman, and she learned the law that said, If you are pregnant, you will be dismissed because youre seen as a liability. She had met a friendly guard, and she asked him to impregnate her so she could be released from prison and be united with her husband and her children. The situationist says, That's fine. That was love. A situationist would say, If two people love each other and want to just live together, do what they want to do-as long as they love each other, they can do what they want to do, so theres this freedom as long as youre loving. Its kind of a perversion of what Augustine said. Do you remember what Augustine said? He said, Love God and do what you will. In other words, if you love God, everything else is going to be fine. The situationist says, Just love and then do what you will. Its a good thing in that its one law. There are a lot of laws in here to know, so its less complicated if all I have to know is one law and live it, but there are some problems-just like these other world views weve talked about-there are some problems with this one too.

What about when what is loving is not so clear? There is a movie clip we are going to watch right now of some parents who found out their little daughter has leukemia [This is a clip from the movie, My Sisters Keeper. Unfortunately, there isnt a link at this time.] What are they going to do? How are they going to save her life? Imagine the desperation of this mom and this dad knowing that their little daughter may have a year, two years at the most to live? What would you do in their situation? Lets watch this clip.

Its a little more difficult, isnt it? An act of love, she is considering bringing a child into the world to be an organ donor to her living child. Whats right there? What do you do there? Is that ethically right to bring a child into the world simply to be an organ donor to save the life of your living child? Things get a little messy, dont they, if there are no other laws in the world, if there is only the law of love? The problem isnt love. The problem is you and me. The problem is sometimes our love is misguided.

Lets go back to Matthew 16 where we talked last week about Peter. Lets look at it from just a little bit of a different angle this time. Remember Jesus asked the question, Who do you say that I am?

Peter said, You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.

Jesus said, Youre right. Flesh and blood does not reveal this to you, but by My Father in Heaven. From that time on-Matthew 16:21 (page 973 of pew Bibles) says that He began to teach them that He was going to go to Jerusalem, He was going to suffer, be killed, and on the third day be raised to life.

Peter takes issue with this, and he pulls Jesus aside privately and says, This will never happen to You. This isnt going to happen to You. Im going to see to that. Peter doesnt want that to happen for two reasons. Number one, Hes the Messiah. He has read his Bible, and he knows the Messiah abides forever. Therefore, what Jesus is saying apparently is against the Will of God because Hes talking about laying His life down whereas the Bible says He abides forever. His kingdom never ends, so Peter is correcting Jesus.

Number two, Peter loves Jesus. Its personal. This is his friend, his master, his teacher. Hes living this adventure. Hes now discovered who Christ is, and now its going to end? Peter says, No, I will be your bodyguard. I will prevent that from happening. What was the motivation for not wanting Jesus to go to the cross? He loved Jesus. He loved his master and friend. He didnt want Him to suffer any more than youd want a loved one to suffer. Youd try to prevent it if it was in your power to do so. So he loved, but his love was misguided because if Peter has his way, then mankind-including Peter-is lost for eternity. If Christ does not go to the cross, He does not bear sin. If He does not bear sin, God does not offer it in the pardon of grace through faith in His shed blood. What Peter was asking was for the damnation of the entire human race, but he did so out of love.

How many of you in this room have ever thought you did something out of love, and it turned out it was the wrong decision? Let me see your hands. A lot of you werent paying attention because half of you didnt raise your hands. Either you werent paying attention or you just have a really bad memory. Many times we do things that we think are loving. Parents do things for their children, trying to protect and help their children, and they end up hurting their children because their children dont experience the law of reaping what theyve sown. Spouses will help their spouses and try to protect them and cover up for them, and it ends up being a co-dependency, an unhealthy, dysfunctional situation. They think its love, but its actually not. Its actually hurting, so sometimes we love, but our love is misguided.

Its like the Disciples in Luke 9. Would you flip there please? They are to prepare a place for Jesus to stay in a Samaritan village. We pick up the story in Verse 51 (page 1027). It says, As the time approached for Him to be taken up to Heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. And He sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for Him; but the people there did not welcome Him, because He was heading for Jerusalem. There were ethnic differences; there were prejudices, so racial and religious prejudice existed between the two cultures of people. The Jews wanted nothing to do with the Samaritans, and vice versa, so when they find out that this person is going to the territory of their enemy-the headquarters of their enemy-they will not receive Him, and James and John are ticked off. They have a few unkind words to say. They probably said, Oh, you dont know who youre messing with. You have no idea who youve just turned away, but youre going to find out because were going to go back and were going to tell our boss that youre not going to let Him stay here, and you are going to get nuked. You are going to be gone. Youre going to pay.

They go back to Jesus with this wonderful idea. They come back, theyre ticked off, and they have a solution. When the Disciples James and John saw this, they asked, Lord, do you want us to call fire down from Heaven and destroy them? This is our solution. Theyve rejected You, and because we love You, we want to destroy them. Thats their idea. Yeah, that will make it all right.

Its not in here, so I cant say for sure, but Jesus probably went, What? What?? What do you mean-destroy them? See they were exercising their free will, and they had every right to do that. Just as the Disciples exercised their free will to follow Jesus, so could the Samaritans exercise their free will to reject them.

He was not going to destroy them for that. If He was going to destroy them for not following the Will of God, Hed have to destroy the Disciples too because the Disciples were sinners just the same. There were times the Disciples did not do what Jesus wanted them to do.

We cry out justice for the other guy and mercy for ourselves, right? Forgive me, nuke him! That's kind of how we do things. Jesus said, It didnt work that way. If I call down fire from Heaven for their sin, I have to call down fire from Heaven for your sin.

These guys know Jesus can do anything, so theyre asking Him to reenact the miracle of Elijah on Mount Carmel. Instead of consuming a sacrifice, consume these people. We know You can do anything, and we believe. We have confidence. You just say the word, Man, and well be like Elijah, and we will call down fire from Heaven.

Jesus rebuked them. Look at the footnote. Some of your Bibles will have this in your translation itself, and others of you will have it in the footnote at the bottom of the book. Some transcripts have this; some manuscripts dont. It says, And He said, Jesus, You do not know what kind of spirit you are of, for the Son of Man did not come to destroy mens lives but to save them. You dont know what spirit youre of. They loved Jesus. They loved God, but that was in violation of Gods moral laws.

There are terrorists who blow themselves up on a daily basis because they love their god. They love their god so much theyre going to destroy people who dont serve their god. Theyll blow themselves up in villages, in shopping centers, on buses, and in hospitals because they want to show their love for their god and be received in Heaven as a martyr.

Love can be misguided. Its putting way too much confidence in man if you think that we should be the judge and jury about how love looks and how love acts.

Were going to learn in the next story that love does not negate the law, but love fulfills the law. Lets turn in our Bibles to John 8. In this Passage, Jesus is going to the Mount of Olives to teach. Verse 2 (page 1059 of pew Bibles) says, At dawn, He appeared again in the temple courts where the people gathered around Him, and He sat down to teach them. Notice Jesus sat down to teach them. That has nothing to do with the sermon, but I just wanted you to know that He sat down (congregation laughing at Pastors insinuation). The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery.

Because its just the woman, most scholars believe this is a setup because the mans not there; so wheres the guy? This is a married woman-where is the man she committed adultery with? Because hes not there, she was probably a pawn. She was probably used, taken advantage of for this very purpose.

The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. So shes there. Shes shaking. Shes afraid for her life. Shes ashamed, embarrassed, and crying. The law of Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do You say?

They were using this question as a trap in order to have a basis for accusing Him, so the woman and her fate really didnt matter. What mattered was this plan was fool proof. This would not be the first time they tried to trap Jesus. It would not be last, but, boy, this was a good one.

Whoever came up with this plan got high fives. What if… He tells his plan, and theyre like, Obadiah, you rule. That is a killer plan. Its fool proof. High five, and everybody is cheering on this plan because we have Him no matter what He says, no matter what He does.

If He says, Stone her, then theyll say, Oh, wait a second. Dont You teach love and forgiveness and all of that? Which is it, Jesus? Law or love?

If He says that, theyll say, But you know Rome says we cannot kill people, so are you against Caesar now, Jesus?

If He says, Let her go, they theyre going to say, Oh, so youre against Moses, ha? Youre against the law, ha?

So no matter what Jesus does or says, they have Him. They have Him, and they know they have Him. Theyre excited because after they ask the question, the Bible says, …Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with His finger.

We got Him. Hes stalling. He doesnt know what to say, so Hes doodling.

Jesus is down, so they think Jesus is scratching, going, What am I going to do? Lord, help me out here. Im thinking.

But, you know, the thing of it is in the Greek, we read it, and it says, Write, but in the Greek, it uses a different word. He uses the word katagraphin. Graphine means to write; and kata means against, so Hes writing a word to write a charge against someone. Hes not just doodling. Hes writing a specific charge in the ground, in the sand. Now you understand when He stands up that He probably points down to the ground at what Hes just written in the sand and says, The one who is without win, if any of you are without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her, and He stooped down on the ground and began to write against one more time.

They looked down and they seen their sins, things that they were ashamed of that nobody knows about, yet somehow Jesus knows. Theyre embarrassed and ashamed. They realize they are just as guilty-if not more so-than the woman who they have accused. One by one, they begin to drop their stones and walk away.

Obadiahs probably slapped in the back of the head, Stupid plan!

To finish, Jesus stands up, and He says, Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you? Has anyone thrown a stone at you?

No one, Sir, she said.

Neither do I condemn you, Jesus declared. Go now and do whatever you think is best. God loves you no matter what, so live anyway you want to live.

Is that what He says? He has this perfect balance of law and love. He says, Go now and leave your life of sin.

To sin means to miss the mark. He says, Stop missing Gods mark. Stop living in contrary to Gods law. She had broken Gods law, and that needs to change; so Jesus lifts up the law and extends love at the same time.

In Johns Gospel, Chapter 14:15 (page 1068), we read this from Jesus, If you love Me, you will obey what I command. To me this is an assertion of deity.

He doesnt say, If you love Me, you will obey what God commands. He says, Youll obey what I command. In other words, He is making it sound as though the Commandments of God and His commands are synonymous.

Verse 21, Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves Me.

How will you show your love for God? By obeying His commands-plural. There is more than one law. Its not just the law of love. There are more laws that we are to abide by that are revealed in His Scripture. But love is the fulfillment of those laws. It does negate law, but it fulfills law.

Same author, different book-the Book of 1 John 5:2 (page 1210), John says these words, This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out His commands.

How do we show love? By obeying laws-plural. Obeying His commands shows our love for God. It shows our love for our fellow men.

So this world view is in direct conflict with Gods Word. Gods Word says, There are many universal laws. Live a life of love and you will fulfill them, but it does not negate them. We come to the point where we rejoice in the laws of God because they keep us from hurting ourselves, hurting others, or squandering our one and only life. We come to see that laws are our friend, and theyre a way that we demonstrate our love for God.

Would you join me in prayer this morning?

Father, it sounds so good when you hear it espoused. You know all we need is love. That's the one thing we need, and we dont need anything else; but when it comes down to it, life is complex. Ethical decisions sometimes are complex. As finite men, we sometimes dont know what love is and how it should be demonstrated. We need Your laws to guide us as we make decisions. Lord, sometimes weve come to see law as something that is against us when actuality it is something that is for us. Its there for our benefit. Its there for the benefit of others. It is a tangible way that we express our love for You and for our fellow men. If we will live a life of love, we will fulfill the commandments, not negate them. We thank You for the demonstration of this in John 8, this perfect balance of love and law that we see in Your example of the adulterous woman; so, Lord, might we take these teachings, these principles, apply them to our hearts and lives at the discernment and leading of Your Holy Spirit. In Jesus name, we pray, Amen.

Would you please open your Bibles up this morning to the Book of Colossians 2? I just want to bring us back to our theme and our purpose because its been a little while since I covered this. Were doing a series on ethical world views. In Colossians 2, Paul gives the Christians a word of ammunition. In Verse 8 (page 1166 of pew Bibles), he says, See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.

His warning is to Christians, and hes saying, Listen, if you are not careful, you can be swept up. You can be susceptible. You too can succumb to the philosophies that are in the world until you end up resembling the world rather than Christ until you become captive in your mind to a mindset that is not of God, so he says to the church-to Christians, Because you live in this world, you need to be careful. Be careful what you espouse, what you believe, because there are influences around you that can steer you down a wrong path. So thats why were on this series. These messages arent the kind of messages that inspire you. Boy, I just feel good about myself or I feel good about my faith. This isnt that kind of a message. These arent designed to be. These are more designed to educate us and to make us aware and also to realize that things are not always as cut and dried as they seem. Sometimes as Christians, we think, Oh, we have it all figured it. We know black from white. Its all clear. And its not. There are issues that we should struggle with as believers in ethics. Whats right and whats clear to do if left up to you and me is not always clearly seen.

Were going to watch a clip this morning because our subject matter is utilitarianism, which is a school of thought-a philosophy of generalism. It says there are no universal laws. We talked about antinomianism a few weeks ago which says every person makes up their own right and wrong. You are your own god. Well, in generalism or utilitarianism, we say, Well, there are general rules, but there are no universal rules. Really, what is good is what brings about the greatest good for the greatest amount of people. Thats what utilitarians believe. What brings about the greatest good for the greatest number of people-that is what is good. The end justifies the means. All is well that…? Ends well, exactly. You may have even muttered that. Well, is that true? Is all well that ends well? Does the end justify the means? Utilitarians would say that if you start off to do a good act and it has a bad consequence, that was a bad act. If you try to rescue somebody from a car thats balancing on a cliff and in the process of rescuing, the car tips over and they fall to their death, that was a bad act even though your intentions were right.

The transverse is also true if you have no intention of doing good. In fact, you might be intending to do harm, but if it ends up being good for some strange reason, that was a good deed. Everything is consumed with the end, with the outcome; and the outcome-not the actual act-determines whether something is right or good. Were going to explore that prevalent world view this morning from Scripture and talk about that philosophy.

The first thing were gonna do is were gonna watch a clip from the movie Seven Pounds. Has anyone seen that movie with Will Smith? Were gonna watch a short clip, and Im gonna tell you what happens in the movie. If you say, Oh, Ive been wanting to see that movie, youve had over two years to see this movie (congregation laughing). Your time is up, so I would encourage you to just plug your ears if you dont want to know what this movie is about-the surprise ending, which some people liked and some people didnt. Well talk about it. Lets watch this clip from the movie, Seven Pounds. [Clip is played.]

Thats how the movie starts, and then it takes you on a lot of twists and turns, and you come to find out that this character was in a car accident. He caused the accident, and innocent lives were lost because of his negligence in driving, so he is racked with guilt. He is consumed by guilt, and he comes up with a plan of how to make it right, how to make his life count for something good. Hes young; hes healthy; hes in the prime of life, and he knows people who need his organs-his eyes, his heart. His girlfriend is dying of a diseased heart, and then she has a transplant. She is going to die. His brother needs one of his organs. Other people that hes come to know that are good people need other organs that he has, so he decides the best thing he can do with his life since he cost the lives of other innocent people is to surrender his life, so he commits suicide. He fills the bathtub up with water and ice to preserve his organs. He has a poisonous jellyfish come in the tub, and it stings him and he dies. Theres a note there for the ambulance workers to be careful because the floor is wet, and theres a poisonous jellyfish in the water. Hes warning them. Hes really been a good person. He gives his house away to a poor family, and you see these people become the recipients of his organs. You see them living and enjoying life. Its one of those movies that leaves you just thinking. My wife wants to go to a movie and be entertained and feel happy. She wants a happy ending, and this didnt do that for her; but for me, I said I liked the film because it made me think. It made me think about ethics.

So a utilitarian would look at that and say, Well, heres a story. The greatest good was done. These people were helped. These people had happy endings. Their lives were prolonged. This guy got his vision back. All these wonderful things happened, and its good.

Others of you would say, No, its wrong because he took a life. He committed suicide. He killed somebody-even though it was himself. Thou shalt not kill, and youd argue that what he did was wrong.

Then others of you would say, Well, isnt that what Jesus did? Didnt Jesus lay down His life and sacrifice His life for the greater good? Didnt He give of Himself so others would live? So wed find that even in a room where people are followers of Christ, we might disagree on the meaning of what Will Smiths character did-the rightness or the wrongness. Things are not always easy to understand. Its not always easy to determine what is right or wrong.

I want to share a story with you, but before I share the story, I want to ask a question. The question is this: how many of you think its ever right for a Christian who is a leader, a pastor, a theologian to plot to kill the head of state of a country? Can you foresee any circumstances where that might be acceptable or correct? For a Christian leader, theologian pastor to plot to kill the head of a country. Can you foresee any circumstances where that would be right? I have a few. In the past services, there has only been one hand that has gone up. In the Saturday night service, there was nobody. The 8 oclock service, nobody; 9:30, one [person put their hand up]. In this service, there are about five.

I want to tell you the story about a young pastor and theologian. He was born into affluence. His father was educated, a professor at a leading university. His mother received a degree which was very rare in those days from a major university. He grew up in a very Godly home, very structured, and theology was something that attracted him at a young age. By the age of 21, he had already become a doctor. He became a doctor of theology at the age of 21. His dissertation was one of the greatest theological pieces ever written. Many people regard him as the greatest theological mind of modern times. By his early twenties, he was an ordained minister, was traveling around the world, and was teaching at a prestigious theological seminary. He was living a good life and doing good things, but the government began to change. A party was coming to power, which seemed to be corrupt. It was almost like he could read the writing on the wall that this party and this leader was up to no good. They were espousing doctrines of hate, of superiority, of one race over another. They were taking away human rights and civil rights. In fact, it had become so corrupt that for the state-run church and this corrupt regime, it was almost impossible to distinguish them. It was as if the state lived to propagate the doctrines of this regime, and the regime just fed in to the church. I use the word church with italics because they were espousing things that are contrary to the Scripture. This pastor said, We need to come out and be separate. This is not the church. The state is not the head of the church. Jesus is the head of the church. The church does not teach against the equality of all people. It should not, so we need to separate ourselves, and he started a new church called the Confessing Church. They said, All true Christians need to come out from the state-run church because its teachings are contrary to the Gospel, and we need to unite across denominational lines and form this Confessing Church, and thats what they did.

His message became increasingly strong as the government became more aggressive in its steps. Innocent people, crippled people, minorities, Jews, handicapped people were all being put in to concentration camps, and rumors were that some were even being executed. There was an ethnic cleansing going on. People were hearing that their race, their color, was the superior, so many in the church and many in society were loving the message. This leader had brought economic prosperity at a time when the country had been in a depression, so people who should know better by the millions were following after his leadership. The pastor tried to warn, You have to get on the airwaves and warn, but he was literally cut off in the middle of his speech one time while on the radio. The leader of this country said that he should not speak anymore, so his rights to speak, to teach theology, and to ordain pastors were taken away from him, so his ministry went underground. He began to teach, train and write underground, so the Confessing Church continued but away from the eyes of the government.

As the government became stronger and as the leader went from a leader to a dictator, this pastor who was a pacifist foresaw that millions of people were gonna die at the hands of this brutal man; so he decided amongst other people that he would plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler. That would be his goal. As a Christian man, he made a decision that this man was going to kill millions of innocent people-Gods people-and he must be stopped. He plotted to kill the head of state.

His name was Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He wrote many books-including books from prison-because he was soon arrested. The plot was uncovered, and he was ordered to be executed. Just days before the allied forces would come and liberate and defeat the Nazi Party, the Third Reich, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was lead to the gallows and hung by a wire until dead.

The same question I asked you just a moment ago-is it ever right for a Christian, a pastor, or a theologian-to plot to assassinate the head of state? Most hands did not go up. A few of you now are telling me, You didnt tell me it was Hitler! The question still stands, and some of you who would not raise your hand a few moments ago if I were to ask again would probably go, Okay. In Hitlers case, okay. Others of you would say, No! No, not even in Hitlers case. Youd say, The government is ordained by God, and then others of you would wise up and say, Well, not that kind of government, not a government that kills people thats not ordained by God.

Then, some would say, Well, thats murder. Youre murdering the head of state. Its still murder.

Others of you would say, But hes gonna kill millions of people. So in this room, I guarantee you we would have a debate. People who otherwise get along and otherwise seem to think theologically along the same lines would be arguing their case, and their cases would be different. Do you see? Things are not always easy. Things are not always black and white. Things are not always cut and dry in the world of ethics.

I want to talk about utilitarianism a little bit, and I want to look at it in light of the Scripture. Before we do that, I want to raise a couple of points, a couple of questions I have. You may be more skilled than this, but number one is if there are no universal laws, how do we ever determine whats good? You say, Well, whats great is good for the greatest number of people. Well, how do you know whats great is good? If there is no standard, if there is no norm by which were to measure what is good and what is not good, then how do we decide what collectively is good if we have no standard or measurement.

If youre running a race and nobody has ever decided whats fast or whats far, how do you know if your time was good, if you were fast? There is no standard of measurement. We have to have a norm. We have to have a standard.

Number two, if the end justifies the means, how do we know when the end is? How do we measure the end? Is it the day after the act that we determine whether it was good or bad? Is it the year after? The decade after? The century after? How many have ever had a situation where you thought something was terrible in your life, and it ended up being something good? Let me see your hands. You thought something was bad, and when all was said and done, it was good.

We baptized seven people last night after the Saturday night service-seven people! A couple of those people got up and said, This bad thing happened to me, and this bad thing happened to me, but these [bad] things brought me to God. This thing that I thought was so terrible and so awful ended up bringing me to new life in Christ. So what was bad turned out to be something that led to something good.

My wife wanted so desperately to get a job after nursing school, and she was hoping to get a job at the clinic; and they called her and said, No job. No dice. She cried. A couple days later the hospital called where shed been trained and said, We want you to come and work as a nurse. It was a better job, better money, something that she wanted to do more, and she wouldnt have been able to take the job had she already been at the clinic. You see? So what we thought was bad turned out to be good.

And other times, some of you have had something good that turned out to be bad, right? Let me see your hands. Something you thought was great-maybe you took a job, and once you took that job, it wasnt what it was cracked up to be. Maybe you married Mr. or Mrs. Right, and they turned out to be Mr. or Mrs. Wrong.

Some people wanted to win the lottery, Oh, if I could just be rich and have all this money, everything would be wonderful and good. They win the lottery, and theyre miserable. The whole world is at their doorstep asking for money.

Some famous people have said, If I could just be famous, if everybody knew who I was and I was famous, boy would I be happy! Theyre miserable. The paparazzi follow them all over the place. They have no privacy! They say, I wish I could just be a regular person again. I wish I could just go to the grocery store again without people following me, taking my picture everywhere, and pictures of my children.

You see, you think something is going to be good, and it turns out to be bad. But we know things can change. Things that we think are bad can become good and vice versa, so how do we define the end? Thats the second question.

Then the third question is if its up to man to define what is good, then good is relative. We talked about that World War II theme. Staying on that theme, what about the dropping of the bombs to end the war in Japan-Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Is that good?

A utilitarian might say, Well, it brought about the greatest good for the greatest number of people because millions of lives were saved. We ended the war. They would say its good because their son got to come home. If your son has been in Asia or been in Europe fighting World War II and theyve come home, and its not in a body bag, but theyre healthy and they get to live a normal life, you would say the outcome of the dropping of those two bombs was a good thing, but what if you lived in Hiroshima or Nagasaki? What if you lived in those cities? As the plane carrying fat boy, the name of the bomb, they didnt even sound the alarms because there were only a few planes. They thought it was just a recognizance mission. They didnt even sound the alarms. The bomb was dropped releasing energy unseen, unheard of before; 7,000 degree heat; 600 miles an hour stronger winds. Over 200,000 people died from those bombs. Half of them died because they were just incinerated in a moments time, and those were the lucky ones. Others hung around. There was no medical care. The hospital was destroyed. Ninety three percent of the doctors and nurses died in the bomb, so you would lie and suffer with your burns-men, women, children and infants-until they died. If that didnt kill you, radiation poisoning would kill you, and you would die a long, slow death-maybe many months after the bomb was dropped. If youd been a person living in Japan, and you had lost a child, father, mother, a spouse, or a friend, from your perspective, was the bomb good or bad? You see, it becomes a relative thing.

Think about the cross for a moment. When Jesus announced the news to the Disciples that He was gonna suffer and die and He went to the cross, suffered and died, was it bad or good at that point? Its bad. Its bad. In fact, it was something to be prevented, Peter thought. Lets take a look. Lets go to Matthew 16. Youre gonna watch Peter as he falls from lofty heights here. If you follow the Bible, you know that Peter was a man who spoke his heart, often put his foot in his mouth, and didnt think about consequences until afterwards. Jesus is going to quiz His Disciples, and Hes going to ask, Who do people say that I am?

Some say Youre John the Baptist. Some say Youre Elijah. Then He turns the question on them and asks, Who do you say that I am?

Peter gets it right. Peter says, You are the Christ. You are the Son of the Living God. You are the One that weve longed for. Youre the One the prophesies foretold. You are divine. Youre the Son of God. Youre the fulfillment of prophesy. You are the Son of the Living God.

Jesus said, Youve answered correctly, Peter. You solved the mystery. You answered the puzzle correctly.

Peter is praised. He gets an A that day in the pop quiz. He is promoted to the head of the class. Way to go, Peter! You got it right. That is exactly who I am.

Then Verse 21 says, From that moment on, Jesus began to change how He taught them. He began to disclose new revelation. He says in Verse 21, From that time on… from the time of that confession, …Jesus began to explain to His Disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that He must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.

This does not sit well with Peter. Hes been to Sunday school. Hes studied the Scriptures. The Messiah abides forever. His kingdom never ends, so what Jesus is saying is wrong. Its wrong! He is going to let Jesus know that. Hes going to tell Jesus in no uncertain terms that what He is thinking is wrong. Jesus is his friend; Hes his leader; Hes his teacher, but more than that, He is everybodys Messiah. Think of what Peter is going through. He has just discovered and just made known who Jesus is, and not only is he seeing history fulfilled and seeing a prophesy fulfilled, he gets to be a part of it. He gets to walk and talk with the Messiah. He gets to learn from the Messiah-not just publicly, but privately. What a privileged person he is, and now its all going to end. Its going to be taken away from him. The way its going to be taken away from him-this man who he loves and follows is going to be taken away, beaten, suffer and die on a cross where thieves and criminals go. Jesus is a good person. Hes done miracles. Hes helped people. This isnt right! Good people dont die on a cross. Good people dont suffer at the hands of evil men. This is not going to happen on Peters watch. It would be like in that movie if Will Smith would have said, Im going to commit suicide and give my organs to people I love, and a friend would say, Oh no, youre not. Oh no, you wont because I love you! His girlfriend would have said, No, I dont want to lose you even if it means getting a new heart. I dont want to lose you! I will guard you 24/7. I will tackle you whenever I see you going near a bathtub.

So thats what Peter does. Hes going to take matters in to his own hands. He says, Never, Lord!

Verse 22 (page 973 of pew Bibles), Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. Never, Lord! he said. This shall never happen to You!

Not only should it not happen to you, he says, It will not happen to You! Hes going to personally see that it does not happen. Remember Peter is the one in the Garden of Gethsemane that when the soldiers come to arrest Christ, he takes the sword and cuts off the ear of Malchus. Dr. Luke, whos in to detail, even tells us which ear it was. He cuts it off, and Jesus says [in John 18:11, page 1071 of pew Bibles], Put away your sword. Those who live by the sword shall die by the sword. The cup the Father has given me, shall I not drink it? So Peter is willing to defend Jesus. He says, I will stop You. You are working against Your own best [interest]. You dont even know what Youre talking about. The Messiah abides forever. Youre a good man. Youre not going to go to the cross. I will personally see to it that it never happens!

In other words, Peter wants to personally see to it that he and every other human being is lost in sin for all eternity [congregation laughing]. Thats what it boils down to because he sees the end, and according to him, the end is the death of Jesus on the cross, and its bad! It must be prevented because you and I are finite. If you and I determine what is good, then good is relative. Peter did not want to lose a friend. He did not want to lose his Lord, and he didnt want anybody else to lose Him. He didnt want the world to lose Him, but he didnt understand that in order for the world to gain the benefits of the Messiah, Christ must die. Peter understood who Jesus was, but Peter did not understand why He had come. Do you see the difference? I know who Jesus is. Hes the Christ, the Son of the Living God, but I dont understand why He came. Peter thinks he knows better than Jesus. Peter thinks his plan is better than Jesus plan.

I know nobody in this room has ever thought that, but the 9:30 crowd-you have to watch those guys because some of the those people think they know better than God. There have been occasions-some of those 9:30 people-have known the Will of God and done something contrary or read the Will of God and done something contrary. Not you guys! Understand, Im not talking to you, but some of these other folks sometimes think they know better than God. They get ahead of God, and they start trying to lead instead of follow. You might even know some of the people from the 9:30 service, so you know what Im talking about. Its good to talk to a group that is always in the Will of God and submissive to the Will of God. Thats why I love the 11:00 service so much!

Anyway, what does Jesus say? He looks at Peter, and He says, Peter, get behind Me Satan or adversary. You are a stumbling block to me. You are trying to thwart Gods plan. You are trying to thwart the plan of salvation, which he doesnt understand at this point. He said, You do not have in mind the things of God but the things of men. People are very short-sided. The end of Jesus, Peter thought, was something bad.

Now that brings us to point number four, utilitarianism exalts man. It makes man the arbitrator of whats right and wrong in our limited knowledge, in our finite wisdom; but apart from divine knowledge, you and I will not understand what is good. Thats point number four: without divine knowledge, you and I could not understand what is good-apart from divine knowledge. We are limited in our understanding.

Now, keep in mind this same Peter who once said, You shall not go to the cross. Evil men go to the cross. Youre not an evil man. Criminals go to the cross. Youre not a criminal. Youre a good man. The Messiah is supposed to live forever. You are the Messiah, and this is a wrong plan. Through divine revelation, Peter came to see that entirely different. Lets turn to the Book that bears his name. Turn please, if you will, to 1 Peter 2 (page 1201-1202 of pew Bibles). The same man is now looking back on the same event. He says this in Verse 24, speaking of Jesus, He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness. He now sees the cross as not just an instrument of death but as a means of righteousness. …for by His wounds, you have been healed. As difficult as it was for him to watch his friend suffer, bleed, and die, he recognizes that God was going to use that event to bring healing, to bring reconciliation. Chapter 3:17, It is better, if it is Gods will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.

Jesus, you cant go to the cross. Youre a good man. Now he sees its better for a good man to suffer for doing good than an evil man to suffer for doing evil. One of the few witnesses to Pastor Bonhoeffer said they had never seen a man more submissive to the Will of God. Before he walked the gallows, Pastor Bonhoeffer got on his knees and prayed earnestly to God and walked calmly up on the gallows and submitted to death without a struggle. In a matter of seconds, the witness said he was dead. Pastor Bonhoeffer discussed what it was to be a sufferer of Christ and a persecuted follower of Christ in his book, The Cost of Discipleship. If you havent read a book on discipleship, this is required seminary and bible school reading across our country, The Cost of Discipleship, by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, I would encourage you to read that book-submissive to the Will of the Father.

Verse 18, For Christ died for our sins once and for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit. He comes to see the death on the cross as the key to reconcile man to God. What he once regarded as evil and bad, he now sees as the means of salvation. Its how God would pay for sin. Its how God would bring sinners to Himself. He would exchange the righteousness of Christ for our unrighteousness. It is the good news-how God took this ultimate bad event and turned it in to the ultimate good for the greatest amount of people. Man could not conceive that in his limited wisdom. It took divine revelation and understanding-the Holy Spirit-to illuminate that truth.

Utilitarianism is a form of humanism that puts man at the center and says, You and I are capable of determining right from wrong. You and I can understand all these complex issues and questions and come to right decisions on our own apart from divine revelation. And Im saying to you that we cannot. We are fallen; we are finite; and we are limited, and we need to take a good dose of humble medicine this morning and say, I am dependent upon the Creator, the author of good and righteousness to tell me how to live my life, to tell me whats good, whats right, and whats truth.

Lets pray together,

Father, this morning, we want to thank You for the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, for his writings, for his struggle against evil, against oppression, against a regime and a man who sought to kill and did kill so many people. Lord, we see in his example whether one agrees that he was right or wrong, this is a man who loved You, a man who was vexed in soul with what he had to do-a pacifist who was tormented over the suffering that he saw. Lord, these sermons, these stories, and these Scriptures raise a lot of questions in our minds, and we realize that things arent always tied and wrapped in a neat little package with a bow. We see Peter, and in Peter, we see ourselves. We see ourselves sometimes getting ahead of You and thinking we know better than You, thinking our plan is better yet realizing in the end that You are the One who determines what is right and good. You can take what is harmful and evil, and You can turn it in to something thats good in our lives; and so we are dependent upon You to know goodness and truth. Help us, Lord, to have this humble awareness. Help us to have our radar up, as the Apostle Paul said, to be aware of the subtleties and the hollow deception that is a part of our society and culture-that we might reflect Christ and not the world thats around us. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.

Its nice to see you here today on this beautiful spring day, and I hope youre all thankful for trees. If I were to ask you a question about one of the prevailing philosophies in our world, in our culture, today-we talked about world views, and we talked about evolution in the past-yet this philosophy is probably the underlying philosophy that evolution results in. This permeates our culture everywhere. If I were to ask you the question: what do Hugh Hefner, drug addiction, beer advertisements, and about half of our music and movie themes have in common, would I have any takers? What do you think? What do all those things have in common? One basic theme is that were to live for pleasure.

When I was a kid growing up-I dont think this is around anymore-was you only go around once in life, so you gotta grab for all the gusto you can. See, you guys still remember that. It was a great advertisement, and, friends, thats the way it is in our culture. Whether you sell toothpaste or cars or whatever it is today, thats the predominant theme. This toothpaste, this nail polish, this lipstick, this car will make your life more exciting! It will give you pleasure! You will enjoy life and be happy in a way that you would not if you didnt buy this! Right? And so as we think about that, does anybody know the word that that philosophy entails-that we ought to live for pleasure? Anybody know what that is? Its called hedonism, and it goes all the way back to the Greeks and many, many moons ago-3,500 years ago. That was one of the huge philosophies, We should do everything that we do for pleasure. Thats very much our culture: if it feels good, do it. Why should I deny myself? Were here to have a good time, and the better time we can have, the earlier we can have it, the better.

Now, having said all that, let me ask you a question: so, should we live for pleasure? Think about that for a second, and while youre thinking about that, our wonderful tech team-who was awesome in the first service, by the way-just mad props to you guys. I was jumping all over creation, and they were following me, but were gonna stick Revelation 4:11 up on the screen in the old King James because it says it in a way that some of the newer translations dont. If I were to ask you that question as Christians, a lot of times our immediate response would be, No, we should not live for pleasure. Well, I have news for you. Listen to this verse: You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for Youve created all things and for Your… what? Pleasure, …they are and were created. Why does God say He does everything He does? He enjoys it. It gives Him pleasure. He likes it! He likes it-thats why God does what He does. He enjoys it, and, friends, heres the interesting thing as we think about that verse, a couple thoughts: number one, what are you here to do? Rick Warren talked about The Purpose Driven Life. Well, what is your purpose in life? Youre here, according to that verse, to please God. I mean it is the basic foundation of your character. Youve been designed to please somebody else other than yourself. Well talk about that a little bit more in a minute.

The second thing is that because you were made in the image of God, you were made to enjoy things. You were made for pleasure. In fact, the predominate motivating factor in your life is pleasure. Why? Because you were made in Gods image. Pleasure is not necessarily wrong in and of itself. The focus is-and well talk about it a bit when we look at Moses-how long that pleasure lasts. In fact, the problem with sin is that nobody ever said sin wasnt fun, right? If they say sin isnt fun, theyre lying to you. The problem with sin is, what? The pleasure that you get from that doesnt last. God offers eternal pleasure, eternal joy, and eternal rewards-in fact, eternal glory. God calls us as individuals made in His image to live for those eternal and long-lasting choices, so as you look at that verse that says, God made everything for His pleasure, that is inherit in that.

Then theres the paradox. Philosophers call it the paradox of hedonism-that, like our Founding Fathers said it the Declaration of Independence-you choose to pursue happiness… You know, were endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights. Among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. If you choose to pursue happiness and pleasure in and of itself, you find something amazing. This paradox says that you wont find it. If you forget God, you forget everybody else, and pursue pleasure, youre doomed to a life of misery and sorrow.

I think of Ernest Hemingway who pursued a life of pleasure. He was a mans man. He was everything that guys are supposed to be according to our worlds culture and ended up killing himself with his shotgun because…life was meaningless. After hed done everything and pursued every pleasure imaginable, there was no reason to go on living. He killed himself.

Alexander the Great, of course, weeps at the age of 31 that theres no more worlds to conquer. The paradox is that happiness, pleasure, and joy are byproducts. In fact, in our culture, to please somebody else or to please others, thats often set in a bad connotation or context, right? If I were to say, you should please others-now Im not talking about being a people pleaser in the sense that I wont stand up for right or wrong. Thats not what were talking about because pleasing God comes first. Paul says that were to please our neighbors for theyre good to edification. The amazing thing is God says, Thats the way to real pleasure for ourselves. Thats what you were designed to do. When you please God and please others, something amazing happens. You find pleasure; you find joy; and you find blessing and happiness in ways that you would not otherwise.

Were gonna delve in to that a little bit deeper here. Lets turn to the Book of Hebrews, or we can look at the verses up on the screen. Hebrews 11:24-26 (page 1192 of pew Bibles), I want to look at three groups of people-Moses, martyrs and the Messiah. There you go; theres three Ms for you.

To begin with-Moses. Look at what it says about Moses. It says, By faith, Moses, when he had grown up, he refused to be known as the son of Pharaohs daughter. Well hold it there for just a second because I want you to think about this: in our culture, we dont think much when we read those words; we kind of gloss over them. It doesnt seem that big of deal. Friends, if Moses were in our culture today, he would have everything that our culture says is cool. He would have money absolutely coming out his ears. Egypt was the world power at the time. Egypt had a culture that no one else had. They had civilization advancements in ways that other people did not. They had the best architecture, the best buildings, the best riches, the best luxuries. You name it, Egypt had it. Not only is Moses living in that culture, but he is one of the big Kahunas. Hes one of the top dogs. In fact, hes in line as the sun of Pharaohs daughter to end up possibly taking the throne himself and being worshipped as God some day. That would be very big in a lot of circles, right? You see our movie stars, sports stars, music stars; in fact, its interesting, we dont call it American Idol for nothing, do we? Theres a lot of idolatry that goes on-a lot of worship. People long to be worshipped; they long to be exalted. They want everybody to recognize them. Notice me, and interestingly Moses gave all that up. He said he didnt count it as a big deal. It wasnt important to him.

Lets go on to the next verse. Look at what he says, He chose to be mistreated… You have wealth, luxury. You have wealth, luxury-I mean he drove the Rolls Royce of chariots, and he chose to give it all up to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. Look at that last line. I talked about this earlier, but, friends, if someone tells you sin isnt fun, theyre lying. If sin wasnt fun, would it be a temptation? No. But whats the problem? Look at that verse. Whats the problem with sin and its pleasures? It doesnt last. Its only for a short time. I wont go in to it, but one of the most well-known studies, psychological cultures, a Stanford marshmallow study, you look that up some time. Ive talked about it before, but that challenges us that the thing that is most essential for success anywhere is the ability to delay our gratification, to put it off for the future. Its interesting that God is interested in teaching us to wait, isnt He? The process of maturity, in fact, is learning how to wait. Thats the essence of prayer. God encourages us in prayer by saying yes sometimes. Sometimes He says yes very quickly. Any of you who have prayed very long know that God often tells you to…wait. I always say God answers every single prayer ever asked. Sometimes He says yes; sometimes He says no; sometimes He says…wait, but He always answers. But, friends, thats what Gods trying to teach you-to wait. Thats where maturity comes, and that's the essence of real growth.

Moses chose to suffer affliction with the people of God rather than to enjoy short-term pleasure. Heres the interesting reason why: it says he regarded the disgrace for the sake of Christ as greater value than the treasures of Egypt-because he was looking ahead to his reward. God is an unbelievable motivator. He knows how to encourage people. God challenges you to live the Christian life, why? Look at the words there, …because there are things of greater value… and …because you are looking ahead to, what? Reward. Thats the essence of the Christian life. God tells us, Take the mature look. Look ahead toward reward. In fact, Jesus talked about this often. He assumed that you would do things that were for your good, in your best interest. Thats why He said, What does it profit a man or a person if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? What does Jesus assume you will live for in that verse? Profit. Hes saying, Look, take the longest look. Do the most profitable thing. Invest in eternity. Thats the wisest choice.

Lets look at the next group of people. If you didnt comprehend this, this would make no sense at all. He talks about the martyrs. Before this, he talks about a group of people who say miraculous things happen. They won amazing battles, you know-David and Goliath type stuff; Gideon defeats a massive army with 300 men; women receive back their dead raised to life again, and then he stops, and he changes. He says there was one group of people that had all kinds of amazing things happen to them, but theres another group of people who were tortured, and they refused to be released. Why did they do that? So that they might gain a better resurrection. Why would you choose to go through suffering, heartache, and pain? The answer is for better a resurrection. They were looking for future rewards, future joy, and future happiness. In fact, you know that in this life, theres a basic principle. We talk about easy come, easy go. The other side of the coin is often also true. The more something costs you, the more youve been through, the greater the rewards will be and the more joy you have-the more ecstasy, the more excitement that you will have when you reach those rewards.

I think about the first state championship I ever won, a private school state championship with a group of girls that just made an unbelievable team. Those young ladies worked really, really hard. In fact, later on, when I went to public schools and even in college, I had kids gripe about doing not even a tenth of what girls in fourth grade did for me at that school because they thought it was too much, too hard. Yet, because wed been able to develop the culture in that school, girls would walk in in fourth grade, start every single practice with passing 1,000 balls from this little two foot by three foot rectangle on a wall. They never thought a thing of it. That was just the culture. You watched those girls work and work and work and work and listen and do what you said. Finally, it was the final point of that last game in the title game we won. I remember taking my clipboard and throwing it all the way up to the top of the gymnasium; and it was exciting, and it was fun to watch the girls get awards and metals, be all state, and raise trophies. It was exciting and exhilarating, and they still talk about that today. And it mattered, and it meant so much, why? Because they had put so much in to it, and they recognized that. Friends, that is the basic pattern. God says the more something costs you, the more youre going to enjoy it. Why will Jesus Christ enjoy eternity more than anyone else? Because it cost Him more than it cost anybody else. He will be the happiest, most joyful, most exhilarated, most exalted, most glorified person in the entire universe. Why? Because no one ever suffered in the way He did.

Thats why theres a group of young men. In fact, theyre the brothers of Joshua Harris. About ten years ago, Joshua Harris wrote a book called, I Kissed Dating Goodbye, that made the rounds in Christian culture. He has two brothers that go around, do seminars and challenge young people their age to do hard things. Why would they do that? Why do hard things? Because they realize theres an inherent benefit of doing really hard things. It makes life more meaningful. It makes life more exciting, more exhilarating because theres a joy to reaping the benefits of doing hard things.

The last thing, as you look at that, we want to focus on Christ-look at the words of Christ in Hebrews 12:1-2. If you doubt what I was saying about pleasure and reward, look at Jesus. If I were to ask you this morning why Jesus died, theres actually a multitude of reasons or one of my favorite words, a plethora, or reasons. There are a lot of reasons Jesus died. He died to pay for our sins. He died to satisfy divine justice. He died to please the Father, but Hebrews 12:1-2 (page 1193 of pew Bibles) says it this way, Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author or the starter and perfecter or finisher. Hes talking about a race-start and finish, of our race who for the joy set before Him endured the cross scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of God. Now, dont gloss over that. Why did He do all that? For the…what? Say that again. For the… A couple of you get it. He did all of that for the, what set before Him? Youre getting there-joy, joy. Try it once more. He did it for the joys. Is it just me, or…? Lets try it one more time, okay? It says, Look to Jesus, who… for the what? Joy. Oh, were getting better. I must have woken everybody up. …set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of God. Why did Jesus do what He did? The same reason God created the world. For pleasure, for joy. That saw Him through-the knowledge of what He was going to receive.

In fact, Psalms says it this way: After He did his work for God, He sat down at the right hand of God thereafter expecting that His enemies who were going to be made His footstool. Thatd be something exciting to look forward to. Jesus is the example of that for us as we think about eternity. Matthew 25:23 says that someday well stand before God and hear our Master say to us, Well done, good and faithful servant. Youve been faithful over a few things. I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your Masters happiness, or the old King James, Enter into the joy of the Lord. What does He say Heaven is going to be? A place of joy and happiness. Whats the reward for following God? Its joy; its happiness.

Likewise, as we group these things together, I challenge you, friends. We think back in the very beginning of the Bible, we see this in Genesis 15. One of the very first ways that God reveals Himself to mankind to Abram in Genesis 15 is by saying, After this, the Word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, Do not be afraid, Abram. Im your shield and your very great… what? [Congregation says, Reward.] Hey, you guys are getting better. …your very great reward. Thats reward!

And its interesting-God reveals Himself this way in the very first Book of the Bible, and also almost the last thing God says in the Book of Revelation is this: Jesus says, Behold, Im coming soon. My…reward is with Me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done. The beginning and the end-God says, Im here to reward.

Have you ever wondered why 2,000 years after Jesus lived, died and rose again, He has followers the world over who are still willing to die for Him? Because Jesus gets what many bosses dont get. Have you ever had a boss that you worked for that never noticed you till you did something wrong? Had a few of those? Its like you go day after day after day, and they ignore you and they ignore you and they ignore you until low and behold, you mess something up or do something wrong and boom! They jump all over you and let you know that you really messed up! Is God that way? I dont think so.

In fact, as you talk about this principle, one of my favorite passages-Hebrews 11:6, lets look at this verse (page 1192 of pew Bibles). Look what it says about God, …without faith it is impossible to please God… Notice what were here to do-please God. Whats the benefit of that? I end up finding pleasure myself. Thats the paradox. Its like knowing God. Jesus said knowing God was eternal life. The amazing thing is the more you know about God, who else do you discover? Yourself in ways you never would have otherwise. The same thing is here. He says, …without faith, it is impossible to please God. He who comes to God must believe two things about God. Number one, he must believe that God exists, and number two, what do you have to believe about God to please Him? You have to believe that He really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really likes rewarding people. Have you ever thought that way about God? He really likes rewarding people. Thats what that says. In fact, He says if you dont believe that about God, you cant please Him. Now that should challenge you. Its why Jesus reveals His Father in Heaven as the One who says, I saw you give that person a cup of cold water. I saw you give that person a seat. I saw you let them cut in line ahead of you. I saw you let them go ahead of you. Im going to reward that. Hes not like our bosses that ignore us until we do something wrong. In fact, God is the One who-He may not reward you immediately, but He doesnt forget anything. The smallest thing, He notices all of it, and you can bank on it that there will be a reward for it someday.

That also challenges us in our personal lives. If youre here this morning, Im assuming that you want to be like Christ. If youre a follower of God, what does that mean? That should mean that you really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really like rewarding people too. How many people cross your path day after day after day that do things for you and you never say thank you? Young people, how many meals has your mom fixed for you? How many loads of laundry has she done for you? How many times has she driven you in a car? How many times has your mom and dad put a roof over your head and done a number of unknown things for you, and you never say thank you? You see, to be like Christ is to continually reward and notice the good that other people do. That makes you very much like Him.

If youre in charge of people, do you regularly praise them for their efforts, tell them thank you for their efforts, and notice the good things that they do? Honor people around you. That's the image of Christ, and thats the image of God. He calls us to be that way. As we look at the subject of pleasure and joy, Ill have you notice the flip side of the coin too.

So should we only do things because of reward? Well, theres a balance. Lets look at 1 Timothy 6:17 (page 1177). He says, Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Notice why God says He gives us everything. For what? For our enjoyment.

I just read an article by a preacher this week who said, Drink orange juice to the glory of God. Paul says, Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all of the glory of God. So how do you drink orange juice to the glory of God? You start by telling Him thank you for the orange juice, right? And if its good for you because it gives you vitamins, minerals and nutrients in your body-its the temple of the Holy Spirit-well, that might be a good reason to drink orange juice. Maybe you can share some orange juice with somebody, but then youre on the right track. Youre thinking, Why do I do things? Even the smallest things, am I doing it to please God? Am I doing it to please and bless others? If so, Im going to reap the reward of that as well. But you and I know that there is also a blessing from giving. Do we just do things for rewards? In Acts 20:35, Paul quotes the words of Jesus. He says, You know the grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ, who though He was rich yet for our sakes, He became poor, and he says, He taught us that its more blessed to give than to receive. As you look at that Passage, Its more blessed to give than to receive, what do you notice? Whats the motivation for giving in that verse? Its more blessed. Any of you who have done things for other people, what happens in return when you give or are generous with other people? You feel good, right? In fact, were talking about sin and motivation. I think all the psychological studies about that are interesting. There is a pleasure that you get from sin.

In fact, one article I read said that were simply telling you what preachers have said for a couple thousand years, which is even though its fun to sin, its even more enjoyable to do good things. When you do good for others, how do you feel? You feel better; you feel good. There is a blessing; there is a joy inherent in giving to others and reaching out to others; and, lets put it this way: if I were to talk about Martha Steward or Rachel Ray-see, ladies, this is not a Sports Illustration-or Paula Dean. I had to get the Dean part in there. These ladies are famous; theyre well-known. Do you think they profited from being able to cook and all those things? Sure. Theyre famous. They have a lot of money. Theyre very well-known, and theyve been very blessed. Theyve had incredible rewards for doing what they were doing. Now heres the interesting thing: what if you were to take away all those rewards? No TV programs, lose most of your wealth, all the fancy cars, mansions, and all those things, do you think theyd still keep on cooking? What do you think? I think so. Why? Because they like it. It gives them pleasure. It gives them joy, and that's the balance that were talking about. As children of God, we are to live for eternal rewards, eternal glory, and eternal pleasure, but there are blessings even in this life. Jesus said, No man who has left Father, Mother, Sister and Brother and houses the lands for My sake in the Gospel who wont receive in the life to come eternal life, but also in this life a hundredfold. Whats He talking about? That you and I know that even if there were no rewards, no blessings, no benefits, no crowns, no trophies, no mansions-as children of God, would you continue to do what you do, walk with God, bless others and please Him? Would you? Yes. Why? Because you enjoy it. Because when you trust in Christ, He puts His Spirit in you. He puts His very DNA in you, and it is your nature. Its your heart to bless others, to minister to others, to do good to others, to reach out to others. Thats who you are, and there is a joy that comes with that. There is a delight that comes with that.

If you ask me why I get up in the morning and read my Bible or spend time with God in prayer or sing praises to Him, Id say, Well, do I hope to be rewarded for that some day? Well, the answer is yes, but what happens right here and now? As I open up the Word of God, seek Him, and spend time with Him in prayer and praise, what happens? My hearts warmed. My hearts filled. I feel His presence; I feel His pleasure; I feel His joy, and I crave that. It brings us back again and again and again and again as we feel the warmth of His presence. We feel His blessings, and we feel His closeness. We hear Him speak to us in interesting ways. He lets us know that He is ours and we are His.

Justin and I were talking before the first service this morning about waking up sometimes in difficult times and a verse will be running through your head or a song is running through your head and how God gives you [that] almost specifically just to let you know that He cares.

I said, Yeah, about a month ago, I woke up… Ive never even seen the musical, but I had the song from the movie Oliver running through my head. Im like, Whats that doing in there? It was the song, Consider Yourself One of the Family. [It goes something like this:] Consider yourself at home. Consider yourself part of the family, and consider yourself one of us. Im like, Why cant I get that out of my head, and why should I wake up and as soon as my feet hit the floor, thats what pops in my head? That makes no sense.

Well, I got up, went into my office, opened up my Bible, sat down, and I was reading from Romans 9. The first words that popped into my vision were the place where it should be said that you are not My people, there you will be called My people, and the place where it says, Youre not my children, there that we will be called the children of the Living God. Its like the Lord whispered in my ear, Hey, Jerry, just wanted you to know-glad youre in My family. Glad youre one of us. Im like, Wow! I spent like two or three days walking around going, Consider yourself at home. Consider yourself part of the family. I was like, God, Youre cool! And Gods saying, Just letting you know I care.

Its that joy that you get from being in His presence that brings you back time and time and time and time again-even if there were no rewards. Its why on this side of the coin, Jesus tells the story of the servant. He says he goes and works for his master all day long. Hes plowing fields, and he comes home after a 14, 15-hour work day.Does the master tell him thank you? He said I dont think so. [Rather, he says something like,]Fix me supper. He fixes his master supper, and after that does the master tell him thank you? No. Jesus said, In the same way, when youve done everything Ive asked you to do, say, Hey, were unprofitable servants. All weve done is our duty. Whats He talking about? Hes talking about this whole attitude that theres a joy of serving Him. Theres a joy of walking in His presence. Theres a joy of blessing others that would drive us to do it, would make us do it, would encourage us to do it, the Spirit of God was in us-even if there wasnt a reward given. Does that make sense?

So theres this balance. I do it because its who I am. Yet on the other side, God is so incredibly gracious that He offers us rewards for doing the things that we ought to be doing anyway. Isnt that unbelievable?

Im going to share one last thought with you and then wrap it up. In Isaiah, it says it a different way. Ill throw out one line quickly to think about, Isaiah 43:7 (page 718 of pew Bibles), God says, …everyone who is called by My name, whom I created for My glory, who I formed and I made.

Heres a different way of saying it. Instead of saying, I created everything for my pleasure, God says, I created you for My glory. I could ask the same question: should we live for glory? Well, the answer to that is yes-if youre made in the image of God. An amazing thing happens. Again, theres the paradox of if you lose your life, you find it because when you decide to live for Gods glory, what happens? Like Jesus prays in John 17, Father, glorify them with the glory that I had with You before the world was. Its like the God who says I wont share my glory with anybody else, He says, If we live for His glory, hell share His glory with us. That's mind-boggling. Just like pleasure, to talk about glory and say it a different way, we see people live for glory, right? Whats the problem with the glory that the people of the world live for? It doesnt last, right?

Paul talks about those people who really get it. Theyre willing to go through suffering. Theyre willing to go through heartache. Theyre willing to go through pain. Why? Because he says, I realize that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared the… glory which will be revealed in us. And our light affliction, he says, …which only lasts a minute produces a far more exceeding and eternal weight of…glory. Thats why you do what you do-for pleasure, for glory. Thats why you do what you do-for pleasure, for glory. And again, heres the thing: when I live for Gods pleasure and Gods glory, what happens? I find that God gives me pleasure, and God gives me glory in ways that I would never have known.

In fact, I love the words in Romans 2:7 (page 1113 in pew Bibles) where God challenges us. Listen to what He says, To those who by persistence in doing good… If you get up every day and think about who can I do good to today? Who can I serve today? Who can I minister today? If you think that way, look what Paul says youre thinking about. If you wake up every day thinking about God, others, and doing good, what are you really looking for? Youre really looking for the immortal triad: glory, honor, and immortality. God stands back and applauds people that do that. He says, When you wake up and you wonder how you can please Me, and you serve others and bless others, youre living for real glory. Youre living for real honor, and youre living for real immortality. Isnt that amazing? Thats what God offers to us.

Ill wrap this up by looking at Matthew 5. Friends, the byproduct of that, of reaching out and blessing other peoples lives, is joy. Matthew 5 (page 958), he says, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God. He says, Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.

Whats the motivation in all of those things? He says, Do these things. Mourn over sin. Be a peacemaker. Show mercy, why? So that you will be blessed, or truly genuinely happy. Thats what the word blessed means. Its the Greek word makarios. It just means happy. Jesus assumes that youre motivated by happiness, but again, that paradox, you dont get happiness by pursuing it. Its a byproduct of other things. When you seek to be a peacemaker, what do you find? Happiness. And the greatest of all-the pinnacle of Christianity-when you return good for evil, what are you doing? Youre being most like your Father in Heaven. Youre laying up rewards in Heaven. Youre investing in Heaven because on this earth, it doesnt make a whole lot of sense to return good for evil, does it? But God notices, and He sees-and notice the end of that verse-and He says this: Blessed are you when people persecute you, hate you, revile you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely. Whats the motivation? He says, For great is your reward in Heaven.

Yet, even on this earth when you do those things, what happens? In your heart of hearts, when you return good for evil, how do you feel? There is a joy; there is a knowledge; Gods Spirit answers with your spirit because you know that you did the right thing. You know you did the honorable thing. You know that youre investing in eternity, and theres a joy that comes from choosing to follow God.

I challenge you this morning in an age of hedonism, in a culture that worships pleasure to live for pleasure yourself, to live for Gods pleasure and the pleasures of others because thats when you will find true pleasure, true joy, true reward, and true glory. Amen?

Father, I thank You for Your Word. I pray that You would challenge us this morning to live for the things that really last and the things that really matter. Help us to be people who seek to glorify and please You and put others ahead of ourselves, knowing thats the path to true happiness, true joy and real rewards. Thank You that we can pray. In Jesus name, Amen.

This morning, we are going to be taking a different turn in the road here. We have been on our series on ethical world view; and were going to depart from that today and just have a traditional Mothers Day message, and well get back to it in a couple of weeks.

I want to talk to you this morning about the Barren Place. The barren place is that place where we are in want. We want something good; we want something we think we deserve. We want something that we think we should have, but its not yet come, and were waiting for it. That barren place is a time of promise; the barren place is a time of hope, but its not a time of fulfillment. The person who has had a companion-has lost that companion and is lonely-one day many of us in this room will experience that. That loneliness you feel while you long for companionship is a barren place. Some in this room have been wrongly accused of something. Youre innocent, but people have judged you and think youre guilty. Until your name is cleared, that period that you were in while you waited is the barren place.

For some of us, maybe we are oppressed in some way or even abused in some way, and while you wait for deliverance, while you wait for a rescue, that time you are in is the barren place. It could be a health situation where you are sick and long to be well. It could be a time when you discover you have a disease, and you long for a cure; and a cure just never seems to be found. It could be a person or a family that is in poverty and literally doesnt know where the next meal is going to come from. While youre waiting for help, youre in that barren place. The fact of the matter is everybody in this room either has been, is now, or will be in a barren place in your lives. In that time when it seems like youre very alone, youre judged, youre misunderstood-maybe even ridiculed-that's what well be talking about today. How do we make it through that barren place? What do we have to do?

Were going to look at a young lady this morning in the Bible by the name of Hannah. We find her story in the Book of 1 Samuel 1. Would you turn there (page 262 of pew Bibles)? Remember this is a dark time in Israels history. Israel has no king, and the Book of Judges tells us that every man did that which was right in his own eyes; so in the midst of this spiritual drought, there is a man who seeks God. He goes to the city of Shiloh every year. Thats where the Arc is kept. Remember that Jerusalem is not yet established as the capitol. The temple has not yet been built. The Arc is kept in Shiloh, and a priest by the name of Eli is watching over it. Elkanah is the name of the man who comes with his two wives. His first wife is named Hannah, and he loves Hannah with all of his heart. Hannahs problem is that she cannot conceive; and year after year go by, and Hannah cannot conceive a child. Hannahs womb is barren. In those days, especially, if you could not conceive a child, it was not only a social disgrace because you were not fulfilling your role as a wife-to produce children and especially male heirs to carry on your husbands lineage-you were failing your husband; and you were seen as being cursed of God. Something was wrong with you not just physically, but spiritually, if you could not bear a child. So Hannah lives with this disgrace.

To make matters worse, there is another woman in the picture, another wife, whose name is Peninnah. Peninnah is probably married second. Im guessing that when Hannah cannot conceive, Elkanah wants to have children, so he takes a second wife. That was the custom then. Often times, men would marry more than one woman, which meant you had more than one mother-in-law, which can be a problem. Not that mother-in-laws are bad, but I dont know if you necessarily want more than one. Elkanah marries this second woman, so there is this dynamic thats going on in this family where he begins to favor Hannah. He feels sorry for her. He truly loves her, so he really spoils her. He goes out of his way to do extra nice things for wife number one. Then wife number two resents Hannah. She gets mad at Hannah because Hannah gets all the extras, all the attention. Rather than take it out on her husband and say, Hey, why do you treat Hannah better than me? she takes it out on Hannah. Maybe thats happened to you in the workplace. The boss is mean to one of the employees and treats other employees better than you; and rather than getting angry at your boss or talking to your boss, you take it out on the employees. Maybe in a home, a parent favors one child over another child. What does that sibling do? The sibling takes it out on their brother or sister like Joseph, for example. So this is the family dynamic that were going to encounter as they come to the temple.

Lets pick up the story in Verse 4 of Chapter 1. It says, Whenever the day came for Elkanah to sacrifice, he would give portions of the meat to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters. So shes a rabbit-shes really fertile. Shes spitting them out every year, and then every time she has a child, it just makes Hannah feel worse about herself and her situation. But to Hannah, he gave a double portion because he loved her, and the Lord had closed her womb.

So she gets extra food at the dinner table. This is the most important meal of the year, and she gets an extra portion; and that just makes wife number two very angry.

Because the Lord had closed her womb, her rival, thats Peninnah, kept provoking her in order to irritate her. This went on year after year. Hannah went up to the house of the Lord. Her rival provoked her until she wept and would not eat.

So here she is trying to worship God, and wife number two keeps abusing her, telling her how unworthy she is, reminding her that she is [supposed] to have children and cannot. Shes making fun of her over something that she cant help.

Have any of you had any Peninnahs in your lives, people that bullied you or made fun of you for something that you couldnt help? Yeah, it started back in grade school. I can remember in grade school, I had broken arches, and I couldnt walk very well or run; and children would make fun of me. There was another kid who had buck teeth, and kids would make fun of him. Another girl was poor and couldnt afford very good clothing, and they would make fun of her because of her poverty. Another child was homely, and they would make fun of that child. Another child was overweight, and they would make fun of that child. Another child wore glasses, and they made fun of that child. Another child had a mental handicap, and they made fun of that child. You can go back, and you can remember people like that. Even into adulthood, there are people who will belittle you, demean you, or ridicule you for something that is outside of your control; and its not fair, but it happens, and it happened to Hannah. It was not Hannahs fault that she could not conceive a child. Yet this woman saw it as her role to demean Hannah for something that she couldnt help. That just makes the barren place even worse. When youre in a barren place, and then somebody is ridiculing you for that barren place, it makes it all the more unbearable; so we can relate a little bit with what Hannahs going through.

Well, maybe her husband will understand. After all, her husband loves her, so maybe Elkanah will have the right words to say, be able to comfort her and make it all better.

Lets see how he does. Verse 8, Elkanah her husband would say to her, Hannah, why are you weeping? Duh! It should be obvious to anybody with eyes that shes sad because shes barren. It should be obvious to any husband who is paying attention that wife number two is relentlessly picking on her; but apparently, he cant see this. Hes oblivious to it. He says, Why dont you eat? Why are you downhearted? Dont I mean more to you than ten sons?

So now he starts making her feel guilty. Hes saying, Look, I should be enough for you. You shouldnt even feel sad because you dont have children because you have me. Hey! Look at me! Any woman… hes thinking. You should be happy! Im a great guy! He is totally insensitive and totally unaware of what she is going through. I guarantee you in your barren places, you have Elkanahs too. I guarantee you in those times when you feel alone or afraid or sad, theres going to be somebody that comes along and asks the wrong questions and says the wrong words. They mean well. Theyre trying to comfort you. Theyre trying to encourage you, but it backfires. Anybody have some Elkanahs in their desert place? Maybe even several of them, and that makes it worse because now in your barren place, you are misunderstood by these significant people who are saying the wrong things and not noticing facts they should notice. So again, more of us can relate to Hannah.

Well, maybe the priest will understand, right? Maybe this man of God will understand and be able to help our friend. So Eli the priest notices Hannah praying. Look at Verse 12, As she kept on praying to the Lord, Eli observed her mouth. Hannah was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving, but her voice was not heard.

In other words, only God heard her words because God knows our thoughts, so Eli thinks that shes drunk.

Eli thought she was drunk and he said to her, How long will you keep on getting drunk? Get rid of your wine.

Wow! Now shes being judged. She is provoked and abused by the co-wife. She is misunderstood by her husband, her best friend; and she is judged by the priest. Shes come to the tabernacle for help and encouragement, and all she has found is judgment. Have any of you ever had an Eli in your life? Youve come to get help; youve come to get encouragement from a spiritual authority, and they dump on you. Sadly, hands could go up for that too, right? Because many of us have been there. That just makes the barren place all the more barren. So what is Hannah going to do? Whats she going to do?

Heres what she does. She says, Theres gotta be one person in the whole world who understands me, and thats God. So she is going to pray. I want you to go back to Verse 10. I want you to see how raw this prayer is. This is a prayer from the gut. This isnt one of those safe, nice, bless me kind of prayers. Hannah is pouring out her soul to God, and we have just a little bit of that prayer. In bitterness of soul Hannah wept much and prayed to the Lord. And she made a vow, saying, O Lord Almighty… And by the way, this is the first time that God is ever addressed by a person as Lord Almighty, Lord of hosts right here, so Hannah is making history with her prayer. If you will only look upon your servants misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head.

Whyd she say that? Why did she say, Give me a son, and hell never get a haircut? Because he was going to be a Nazarite, just like Samson, and they would take a vow. Part of that vow was they would never cut their hair. It was an outward sign that they belonged to God. Youd be able to identify who a Nazarite was because youd be able to look at their hair, and say, Oh, that man is a Nazarite. That man belongs to God. That was her promise. She says to God, Im in misery. She says, Remember me. She even starts to plea-bargain. Sometimes when we are desperate and were in that barren place, well even start to bargain with God, Lord, if Youll do this for me, then I will do this, and we try to make a deal with God. Thats what she does. She is a desperate woman, and her prayer is not a safe prayer. Her prayer is real, its from the heart, and its specific.

When you are in a barren place, friends, the worst thing you can do-the worst thing you can do-is keep everything inside. If you keep everything inside when youre in the barren place, that is going to tear you up. That anger is going to turn to bitterness and resentment or even hatred. That hatred is going to work a way in you, and its gonna rot your soul. You dont want to do that. You want to be able to talk to somebody you can trust. You want to be able to talk to the Lord and say, Lord, here is what Im thinking and feeling. No matter what it is, you let it all hang out. You say, Heres why Im angry, and heres why Im upset. She just tells it like it is, Im in misery. Im in pain. Lord, Youve chosen to close my womb, and I dont understand why. Please, God, help me, and she just bears her soul to the Lord. Then she bears her soul to the priest.

After the priest says, Youre drunk, she says in Verse 15, Not so, my Lord, Hannah replied, I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer; I was pouring out my soul to the Lord. Do not take your servant for a wicked woman; I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief. The best thing you can do in those barren experiences is talk to somebody, talk to somebody you can trust, and she says, Heres what Im feeling, and dont hold back. Be real; be authentic; take off the veneer; take off the mask, and let your soul breathe. Thats what she does.

I want you to notice what happens to Hannah. I want you to look down in Verse 17. Eli says, Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him.

And Hannah says, May your servant find favor in your eyes. Hannah uses her own name, the name Hannah means favor or grace. So Hannah says, May Han or Hannah be upon you, may grace be upon you.

Then she went away and ate something… and listen to the end of this verse, …and her face was no longer downcast.

What had changed? Nothing had changed, yet everything had changed. The circumstances hadnt changed. She was still barren. She wasnt pregnant. She still had a husband who didnt understand and know what her needs were. She still lived with a coworker or a cowife who ridiculed her and belittled her. Nothing had changed in her circumstances, but everything had changed because shed had an encounter with the living God; and she knew that she was not alone in her pain. She knew that she had One who would understand her and One who would help her through that difficult time.

Keeping our place in 1 Samuel, I want you to turn in your Bibles to Matthew 11 please. In Matthew 11, we find some very comforting words from Jesus in Verse 28 (page 966 of pew Bibles). Jesus says, Come to Me. Come to Me. This is an invitation, and its very personal. Jesus did not say come to a system; come to a structure; come to a pastor, a teacher, or a leader; come to a denomination; come to a building. He said, Come to Me. Christianity is about a person. Its not about a religion. Its about a relationship. He says, You come to Me directly.

Itd be like the President saying, No, dont go to the secretary. You come to the Oval Office. Or itd be like a CEO saying, Dont go to the receptionist. Dont go to my vice-presidents. You come right to my desk when you want to talk to me. Jesus says, Come to Me. Its personal.

Who is to come? All who are weary and burdened, and in the course of a lifetime, thats every single one of us, every one of us [are at one point or another] weary and burdened. This is a cause and effect relationship. We are weary because we are burdened. If you werent burdened, you wouldnt be weary. To be burdened means to have a load or a weight put upon you. If you carry a weight long enough-no matter how strong you are-you will get weary, and so Hes talking about this cause and effect relationship. He says, Come to Me all you who have been bearing loads and are getting weary. Come to Me, and I will give you rest. That's His promise.

He didnt say, I will take your troubles away. He didnt say, Ill make all pain go away. He said, I will give you rest.

Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.

What does it mean when He says, My yoke is easy? Is he telling us how He likes his eggs for breakfast? What is He saying here, My yoke is easy? Now this would have been a real familiar illustration to this agricultural society. A yoke was a wooden harness that was placed usually upon the oxen to yoke them together because you could plow the field more effectively when you had oxen working in tandem. Jesus would have made yokes as a carpenter. He was probably the finest yoke maker in Nazareth. If you were a farmer and you needed a yoke custom made for your oxen, you probably took the measurements and brought them to the carpenter shop in Nazareth where Joshua would make you a yoke; so Jesus knows of what He speaks when He talks about yokes. But heres the ironic thing: He says to us, I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you. What is a yoke? A yoke is for work, so whos He trying to kid here? Youre telling me Youre going to give me rest by handing me an instrument thats designed for me to work. Its Mothers Day, and, Moms, you come home and relax; and your husband or your kid comes up to you with a vacuum cleaner and says, Here, Mom, go rest. Can you come and vacuum my room? Or one could hand you a scrub brush and say, Hey, Mom, the kitchen floor is a little dirty. Can you rest and scrub the kitchen floor? Its an oxymoron. It doesnt work to give a tool-dont you dare do that to your mom! Its like somebody giving you a tool at work and then asking you to rest.

Jesus says, Take My yoke on you. Why does He say, Take My yoke on you? Well, number one, Hes not going to make our problems go away. Thats not what Gods going to do. And neither is He giving you a tool that you put on where its still all on you like I read about somebody talking about this Passage, and heres how they interrupted it: They said, Well, you know in Asia, theyve got these A-frame yokes. It has an A-frame which almost touches the ground on either side and the bar across the middle, and if youre trying to carry hay and its too heavy, too cumbersome, you stuff the hay in the A-frame, get underneath it with your shoulders, and you can carry it farther. Its impossible to carry it on your own, but if you put it in this A-frame, you can carry it a little bit down the road. If you get tired, you set the A-frame down, rest, and pick it back up. Thats what Jesus means. Jesus means youre going to be able to carry more weight than you could before. Well, thanks! If this means that Gods going to give me more problems-that I can carry more problems than I had before-then we kinda say, No, thanks, right? If thats what this means? But I dont think that is what this means. I dont think that is what Jesus means at all when He says, Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me.

Heres the key. Jesus is inviting us to be yoked to Him. The yoke was almost always for two, so who is the other person in the yoke? He is. It says, I invite you to be yoked with Me and learn from Me.

Usually when you yoked animals, you would yoke two of the same kind and two of the same size. You wouldnt yoke an ox with a mule, for instance, or a horse. It would be two horses, two mules or two oxen together. But if you were training an ox, you would take a big ox and youd take a little bullock, and youd yoke them together.

Now really as they plowed that field, the bullock was hardly doing anything. He was just kind of along for the ride. But what was he doing? He was learning through that experience. He was learning what it meant to be yoked. He was learning what it meant to submit to the commands of the master. Sometimes the masters could be very cruel. They had a crop to get in; they had a field to plow, so they would poke the oxen with a goad, a spike, when they were going the wrong way, or they might whip them or hit them with a stick and yell at them to plow faster or plow straighter. Jesus says, Im not like that. Im not like that kind of a master. He says, My yoke is easy. My burden is light. He says, I am gentle, and I am kind. Im not going to beat you; Im not going to abuse you; Im not going to prod you. Im going to be gentle with you. When you pour out your soul to Me, when you pour out your heart to Me, Im not going to ridicule you. Im not going to mock you. I will be gentle with your soul. Thats what He says.

We come alongside of Him, and that bullock learns. It learns how to plow a field, learns what the commands of the master mean. Even though hes not pulling anything or not pulling much, he still gets some discipline, and he learns from the big oxen how to get the job done. He learns how to plow a straight line. He gets used to having that around his neck. He comes to learn that this is something I should have. If I do what my master says, it goes well with me, and he learns from being yoked. Jesus is saying, Learn from Me.

He says, Youre still going to go through the hardship, but well go through it together. He says, You have a choice to go through it alone, or you have a choice to go through it together. You have a choice to keep everything inside of you and have it eat you up alive, or you can give it away, give it to God, and give it to people who love you. You can say, Heres what Im experiencing. Heres what Im going through, and be yoked to Christ. Think about it: God became a man. As Jesus, He went through all the things youre going through. He was abused by people who were supposed to love Him. He was ridiculed; He was rejected; He went through pain and suffering-emotionally and physically. He went through all the temptations that are common to man, so when you yoke yourself to Christ, thats why He is gentle. That's why He is kind-because He understands. Jesus says, When you yoke yourself to Me, I will give you rest. Thats why Hannah finds rest in the midst of her prayer. Her circumstances hadnt changed, but everything had changed because her soul which was so deeply grieved and troubled had found help in God, her Savior. She knew that she was loved, and she knew she wasnt alone.

Lets go back to our text. Her prayers are answered, and she gives birth to a son. The sons name is Samuel. Anytime you see the letters El or L in a name at the beginning or end, that has something to do with God because one of the names of God was El; so this means his name is God. Its a reminder of the promise that Hannah had made, and she kept her promise. When he was somewhere between two and three, Hannah brought him back to Shiloh, and she found Eli. She said, Eli, do you remember me? Im Hannah. She said, I was the one you thought was drunk a couple of years ago when I was praying.

They both had a chuckle, Oh, yeah. I remember you, Hannah. Im so sorry about that.

Its okay. Remember I was praying?

Yes.

Heres what I was praying for. This is my son, Samuel, and she told him the whole story about her years of barrenness and how God had met her there at that altar. God had answered her prayer and given her a son, his name was Samuel, and he belonged to God. She was going to leave, but Samuel was going to stay. He was going to live with Eli, and he was going to serve God all the days of his life. Who was he to argue with God? Its obvious that God had answered that prayer, so Eli receives Samuel as his own son. It was a literal dedication. Parents, you bring your children to dedicate them. Thats wonderful, but we really want you to take them home with you when were done. We dont want them to stay here. Ive got my own. Were fine, so we will dedicate them to God, but they still belong to you. You take them home with you. We love them, but you keep them (congregation laughing).

Hannah had to keep her promise. By now, she had bonded with her son. She loved her son. Can you imagine the pain and the tears that she had to go through when she has to literally give her son to the work of God? How that must have broke her heart! How he must have sobbed and cried, Mommy! Mommy! He was only two or three years old, and his mommy left. Shes not going to come back for a long time. She would come back every year and visit Samuel, and shed bring him a robe to wear for his duties. Every year, the robe would be a little bigger and a little bigger. Samuel, whose name is bared in his Book, became arguably the greatest Prophet that Israel ever had. He became an incredible man of God, a man who caused cities to tremble at the very sound that Samuel is coming to our town. The whole city would shake because they knew he spoke for God.

It happened because one woman in her barren place took her pain to God. Then whats really important-when she was delivered from her barren place and God had answered her prayers, Hannah remembered to say thank you.

Sometimes you and I take things for granted, dont we? We take our blessings for granted. We dont give thanks like we should. No one is more thankful for food than the person who is hungry. No one is more thankful for rest than the person who has been deprived of it. No one is more thankful to have a good reputation than the one who has had their name tarnished by gossip. No one is more happy to be free than the one whos been the victim of abuse. When we receive our blessing, when we receive our deliverance, the time of barrenness ends, its important to give thanks to God for His blessing.

That's what she does in Chapter 2. Were not going to take the time to go through it, but Chapter 2 is a prayer, a song, unto God. I want to encourage you to read it when you get home. Hannah pours her heart out to God-this time in praise and thanksgiving. Remember to thank the Lord for His blessings because this mom sure did.

The beauty of Hannah is Hannah had grown to the point where even in the midst of her barrenness, she was able to say, God is enough for me. Even before she conceived, Hannah said, Ive found my peace in You.

Might we get to that point in our walk where we can follow the footsteps of Hannah. We can take our pain, our heartache, and our burdens, take up the Saviors invitation to take His yoke upon us, learn from Him, and find rest for our souls.

Would you join me in prayer this morning?

Father, around this room today, there are those who are weary and burdened. They are weary from carrying something theyve carried a long time. Lord, this Scripture is not just a promise to help us carry more burdens. This Scripture is a promise of partnership. Not only will You promise to come alongside of us and go through this barren place with us, but You promise that You will carry the lions share of the load. Like that young bullock learning from his father how to plow and how to be yoked, we need to learn to submit to authority. We need to be willing to surrender to You. Lord, we can do things our own way. We can refuse Your invitation if we so desire, but then we go through the barrenness alone. We go through the barrenness without the help of the One who can help us the most. Its my prayer that each and every one who is weary and heavy laden this morning would come to You, that they might find rest for their souls. In Jesus name, we pray. Amen.

Good morning! I was driving home from Milwaukee. It was late at night. It was a week ago Wednesday. The sky was beautiful and clear-not a cloud in the sky. It was a beautiful night. At about 10:15, I pulled off I94 and turned left on HWY 26 there in Johnson Creek to head home. All the sudden, theres this bright light in the sky. It was totally uncharacteristic because, like I said, there was not a cloud in the sky. Then I see this gray streak coming down fast to the earth diagonally. It was almost like the smoke of a large rocket or something. Then it turned into this orange flame, and again, it was picking up speed. Then it seemed like it started to disintegrate, and then it just disappeared before it hit the ground. Whatever it was, it looked like it landed on Culvers, which is where I was going, so I was a little concerned. I mean it looked like I could just get out of my car and find it. Im looking around like Im crazy; Im nuts. Im looking around at the people at the intersection thinking, Did you see that? In this age of instant information, you think, What was that? and you just punch in a few buttons and get your answer. I wanted to turn on the radio. I wanted to find somebody who could just tell me, What did I just see? My first thought was it was lightening or some sort of a bolt. I thought, Well, wait a second. It couldnt be that. Maybe it was an airplane or some debris from an airplane. It turns out it was a meteor. How many of you saw it that night or caught a glimpse of it? A few of us did. It was pretty cool, wasnt it? Id never seen a meteor before-at least that close, so I didnt know quite what I was seeing. Depending on your real view, it determines what you think that is. If youre an aviator, you might think its a plane. If youre an astronomer, you might think its a meteor, and there are also meteor chasers. They literally see that as money falling from the sky, so theyre trying to map out on the internet where that thing hit because one of those little rocks can be worth $1,000. Thats money, so theyre on the job.

If youre one of these end times people, you study the end times, you were thinking, Man, this is it. This is Armageddon. War has come. Maybe youre a sci-fi person. You listen to The War or the Worlds or something. You thought, Oh, its an alien attack. This is it. Maybe youre a meteorologist, and you think its some sort of weather phenomena; but how we view the world colors pretty much everything we interact with. So as a small group and as a church, thats what we are doing. We are looking at World View.

In our small groups during the week, were studying some material called, Wide Angle, from Chuck Colson and Rick Warren. Were going through a little booklet together, watching a short video and talking about it. What were doing on the weekends is supplemental. Its working in conjunction with it. Were not trying to replicate it or duplicate your teachings in your small group. Were trying to work in conjunction with it. What were going to do now since weve laid the framework-we talked about natural secular humanism; we talked about Christian world view-now were going to talk about in the real world how those world views affect our decisions of whats right and wrong.

Were going to talk about ethics in the weeks ahead-so ethical world views. How were they formed? Do world views happen because individuals form them? Do you determine your own ethical world view? Are your ethics based upon absolutes that a Creator has given, established, and said, Here is right, and here is wrong. Heres what you should do, or heres what you shouldnt do? Some believe that ethics are determined by society collectively-that we have societal norms and codes of conduct that civilization establishes, so it varies from culture to culture. There are a lot of theories out there about who determines right and wrong and how we come about those decisions.

You know what? Its not as cut and dried as you think as far as ethics are concerned. Those of us who believe that God has given absolutes where it says, Thou shall not kill; thou shall not steal; thou shall not lie, it just seems pretty clear. It seems pretty cut and dried. When we really start to look at it, sometimes life, its not that easy.

How many times have I been beside the bed of somebody whose loved one has maybe been in an accident or has almost drowned? Maybe there was a heart attack, and they were on life support. Now all of the sudden, this family is making these life and death decisions-what to give, what to withhold. Do we pull the plug? If so, when? What do we do? And Ive got their lives in my hands. I didnt anticipate Id be in this situation, but here I am. What do I do? What do I do for resuscitation? What do I do to keep life going here? And all the sudden that verse, Thou shall not kill, what does that mean to me in this situation? What is right, and what is wrong?

Thou shall not steal, pretty clear cut, right? Dont take what doesnt belong to you. I was listening to a video and reading an article about some children in Bogota, Colombia. These children have no parents, and theres no state-run orphanage for them to live in. To survive, they steal food. The merchants form these death squads. The death squads see these children as menaces, as disposable, and theyre executing to kill them. The children who survive have gone underground and are living in the sewers. Right now as we speak, there are children living in the sewers of Bogota. They come up at night seeking to avoid the death squads to steal food to survive, so they take the food because it wont be given to them. The death squads are still there, still looking for them. Many of the people in the death squad are in the law enforcement when theyre not on the death squad. For these children, its either steal or die of starvation, so is stealing wrong then? Is that wrong for them to take food when theyre starving? See, its not as clear as we would think.

Thou shall not lie. Pretty straight forward-tell the truth. Its a moral absolute-pretty clear. When I was a little boy, my brother-in-law had an alcohol problem, and when he was drunk, he would be angry. He was an angry drunk, and sometimes he might try to harm my sister or her children; so when he was in a drunken stupor, it was not uncommon for my sister to escape and come over to our house. We got a knock in the middle of the night, and it was my sister with my two nieces, Macs drunk, and hes looking for me. My mom would say, Go hide in the closet. I would lay there in bed just nervous. Then came the knock on the door. My mom would open the door, and it was Mac. He said, Wheres J-J-Judy? Wheres my wife? I know shes in here.

What would my mom do? My mom would say, Shes not here, Mac. I havent seen her. I dont know where she is. She would lie to protect her daughter, her granddaughters, herself and her son. Is that wrong? Is that unethical for her to do that? You see, its not quite as easy as we make it out to be. Sometimes there are ethical decisions that seem to be in conflict with one another. What were going to do this morning is lay the groundwork and lay the foundation for the rest of this series. Have you ever been watching a show on TV, and there is like five minutes left? You know the plot isnt going to be resolved in five minutes. You are thinking, I hope this is not one of those to be continued. Sure enough, 9 oclock comes around, and it says, To be continued. You go, Oh, rrrr! because we like things to be wrapped up-just wrap it up and put it in a ribbon for me. Normally when we do a series, everything kind of stands on its own. Even though its a series, I wrap it up. This week is not that. This week is one of those weeks that leaves you with that kind of to be continued feeling. Its kind of like, Ahhh. We just cant finish it all in one week, so what were going to do is introduce these ethical world views, talk about them briefly and just span them, look at them all briefly; and then each subsequent week, were going to put them under a microscope and Biblically look at it-from a Biblical world view. So what were going to do is find out how this ethical world view works.

What I want us to do is to open our Bibles to Joshua 2. Were going to look at one of these ethical conundrums here. While youre turning there, I want to recommend a book to you. Normally when I preach, its just me. Theres nothing wrong with it. Now other pastors like to read books and so forth. I like to just have my Bible, or maybe a couple of commentaries I like. I really want the message to be my message-not taking other peoples thoughts and ideas. Theres nothing wrong with that as long as youre giving credit to the other person. Thats just how I like to approach my sermons.

This week, with the subject matter, I did want to consult some outside sources. One book Id really recommend that Im using in this sermon-and Id recommend it to you-is a book called, Christian Ethics, by Dr. Norman Geisler. Its an excellent book, so if you want to do some further study on the subject, Id recommend that book. Also, I want to tell you in advance that Im going to be using some big words-some $10, $50 words along the line. I do that for the sake of those who are taking notes and who want to explore the subject matter further. Thats the beauty of this. Youre not in high school; youre not in college here. There isnt going to be a test or a pop quiz, so if you dont want to learn the titles, the terminology, let it go. Dont worry about it. Just say, Im here to grasp the gist of it, the content of it. Im not worried about specific terminology because Im not taking a test. Im not taking this for credit. Im just here monitoring this course. Thats fine, but were going to share some of those words for the sake of the people who want to dig a little bit deeper.

We could focus on a lot of different ethical problems, but were going to focus on one, and that is lying. Is lying ever right? Is lying ever justified? Is lying always wrong? Thats what were going to focus on, and then were going to run each of these world views. Were going to run it through those world views and see what their conclusion is, so you can see how your ethical world view determines whats right and wrong in a given situation. Were going to take this one scenario-that will be our constant-and then were going to run it through these various ethical world views and see how it does. Thats our assignment. Its a little bit different-not your typical sermon, but I think its going to be beneficial.

Heres the story: Joshua and the children of Israel are about to enter the Promised Land. Remember that Moses generation had not acted in faith. It acted in disbelief and disobedience. A hard heart, God allowed them to wonder in the wilderness for forty years. That generation died off. A new generation led by Joshua, who was a believing generation, is going to inherit the Promised Land. Remember land ultimately belongs to whom? God-not countries, nations, kingdoms, people. It belongs to God. No matter what country on the face of the earth-its temporary; God is eternal. His creation belongs to Him.

So God in His sovereignty chose to give a portion of land to the nation of Israel. He promised it to them, but there was still work to be done. Just because God promises something to you doesnt mean you dont have work to do. They were still going to have to obey God and follow His directives as God would bring them into this Promised Land. So practically speaking, Joshua sends out 2 men to spy out the land. Remember Moses sent out 12? We knew their names; we knew their mission. This is not quite the same-similar, but not quite the same. We dont know their names. We dont clearly know their mission because he sends them out in secret, but it had something to do with probably finding out the lay of the land, learning the streets, learning about their defense, maybe even the moral of the community because they know that this attack could be imminent.

Jericho is aware. Israel is on their radar. They have intelligence that Israel is on the move. They have intelligence that theyre going to try to take their land, so they are on high alert. There is a wall around the perimeter of the city. That wall is fortified. There are armed guards there. There are look-outs there at all times. They are on high alert for any suspicious activity or any entrance through those walls of Israelites. Along the walls are houses, and one of those houses belongs to a woman by the name of Rahab. What makes Rahab unique is though she is living there in Jericho, she is a believer. She very much believes in the God of Israel-that He is the true God. She acknowledges that she has faith in Him, and she acknowledges that she believes that His purposes will not be stopped. So she really believes that one day Israel will occupy the land that she now lives in. She and the whole country have heard the exploits of how God parted the sea and how He gave victory over the powerful Egyptians, and they are afraid of the Israelites. She is aware of this.

In Verse 1 (page 208 of pew Bibles), we pick up the story. Joshua says, Go, look over the land, especially Jericho. So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there. I do think we should note-do you notice the footnote there on the word prostitute in your Bibles. If you follow it down, it says on the bottom, an innkeeper. To me, thats quite a disparity between possible definitions for that word. Its one of those words that one time it meant innkeeper and came to mean prostitute. Its like the word gay used to mean something very different than it does now. Im not sure which one was first-if it was innkeeper and then prostitute or if had been prostitute and then became innkeeper; but its quite possible that she wasnt a prostitute, that she was an innkeeper in which case we owe her a big apology. She probably has quite a chip on her shoulder in Heaven, Oh, and this is Rahab.

Oh, yeah, Rahab.

Hey, wait a second! I was an innkeeper! So well leave that one alone, and well just say we just dont know. We do know they went to her house.

The king of Jericho was told, Look! Some of the Israelites have come here tonight to spy out the land. So the king of Jericho sent this message to Rahab: Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, because they have come to spy out the whole land.

So the intelligence is really sound. Its not like they are saying, Hey, there could be some people. We dont know where theyre from. We dont know what theyre doing here. Maybe they came to your house tonight. We dont know.

No, its, We saw men. Theyre Israelites. They are here to spy out the land. Theyve come to your house. Send them out. The intelligence is that secure. Now Rahab has a choice to make. She really has to choose between two kingdoms. Is she going to be faithful to the king of Jericho, the city she lives in? Is she going to be loyal to the city, or is she going to be loyal to these Israelites that follow the God she believes in? Will she be loyal to them? Either way, she has to make the right decision because either way, her life is on the line. If she turns them in and Israel does invade the city and is conquered, shes a goner. If she lies to the king and the king finds out about it, shes a goner for betrayal; so she has a very difficult, ethical decision to make. Does she lie and cover up the truth-in which case she will probably die-or does she tell the truth and risk dying a little bit later? She is thinking in terms of survival as well, so she is weighing this. What is she going to do? Is she going to tell them the truth and turn in those men, or is she going to lie, cover up the truth, and hopefully spare herself and her family in the future? Whose side will she pick?

Verse 4, But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. She said, Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they had come from. Lie. At dusk, when it was time to close the city gate, the men left. Lie. I didnt know which way they went. Lie. Go after them quickly, and you may catch up with them. Lie. She had taken them up to the roof and hidden them under the stalks of flax she had laid out on the roof. So the men set out in pursuit of the spies on the road that leads to the fords of the Jordan, and as soon as the pursuers had gone out, the gate was shut.

Their roofs were not like our roofs. They were flat roofs, and so the men were up on the roof. They were under some flax, and she tells several lies. Was that wrong? Did she sin right there? Because God says, You shall not lie. But she was trying to spare their lives. She was trying to spare her life because she ultimately believed that Israel would prevail.

Was-it-wrong? Thats the question. What would you have done had you been in her situation?

Now were going to look at some of these world views, and were going to talk about what they would say about lying in this situation and whether what Rahab did was ethical or not. Were going to look at some non-Biblical world views, and then were going to bring it around to some Biblical world views. Were going to see that even Christians would disagree on this subject.

The first world view were going to look at is called Antinomianism. They would say this, Lying is not wrong or right-ever. There are no such things as moral laws. You make up your own moral laws if you want to have laws because there are no moral absolutes. There are no universal laws in the world. Its kind of like every man for themselves, and you simply use common sense. There are not objective laws that I must submit to. There are subjective experiences, and you use your best judgment. In this case, it is survival for her and her family, and because lying is neither right nor wrong, because there are no moral laws, it was fine. What she did was fine, and it was the right decision for her. You just do the best you can using reason and common sense, and in this case, survival; so they would say Rahab was not wrong in what she did.

Lets look at a second point of view. The second world view says that lying is generally wrong, but there are no universal laws. This is a world view called Generalism. Lying is generally wrong, but there are no universal laws; so sometimes laws can be broken. What really matters is the end result. It all works out in the end. The end justifies the means. Youve heard that. You maybe have even said that. One thing that I found interesting-I was talking with one of our folks at the 8 oclock service, he said, Ive said things from every one of those world views. What he realized is that he has world views that are incongruent. They just dont mesh. Hes believing things in different world views that are at odds with one another, and he wasnt even aware of it. One of the things were trying to do is get us to have consistency in these ethical world views. The end is what counts. In the end, Rahab was rescued. Her family was rescued, so the generalist would say that was the right decision. There are general rules. There are no moral absolutes, so lying was okay because she had to survive. The end justifies the means. All is well that ends well. Thats their world view, so she was right.

There is another world view that would say lying is sometimes right. Lying is sometimes right. There is one moral absolute, and its not truth. The moral absolute for the person whose view is of Situationism says that the one moral absolute in the entire world is love. They very much could sing the Beatles song, All You Need is Love. All you need is love. They just make a decision based on love. That is the only moral absolute. It sounds pretty good, doesnt it? Just do the loving thing. Whatever the ethical conundrum is, just do the loving thing, and its going to be okay. Now, well talk more about this view as we will the others in the weeks to come. In fact, well spend a whole week on it, but right now were just introducing it. The situationism says Rahab did the loving thing. She protected herself and her family. She loved Israel. She loved the God of Israel. Rahab acted in a loving way to protect that which was hers, so lying is sometimes the right thing to do because as long as that lying doesnt come in to conflict with the one moral law of the universe-which is love-[its okay to do]. Thats a very prominent world view in our society today. Many people make their ethical decisions based on this rule, Is it the loving thing to do?

Now lets turn and look at some Biblical ethical world views. The first one were going to talk about is something called Unqualified Absolutism. These people believe that God has given many moral absolutes, and they never conflict with one another. There is no conflict, and theyre all to be followed, all to be obeyed at all times. God has given absolutes for all people, in all places, at all times, and these are always to be followed; and so Rahab sinned. Rahab did what was wrong even thought the outcome was good. God didnt ask her to lie. The soldiers didnt ask her to lie. What she should have done is told the truth and let the chips fall where they may-put her family and her care in the hands of God, put the spies from Israel in the hands of God, put Gods purposes ultimately in the hands of God. Rahab was wrong to tell a lie. She should have told the truth. Agustin-you might have heard of Agustin-was an unqualified absolutist. Agustin believed that the truth is one of the absolutes, and its never to be violated. If you violate it, its sin. When my drunken brother-in-law came in threatening my sister and said, Wheres my wife?

She should have said, Shes in the closet.

Wheres the closet?

Its right up through this other room around the corner. Here let me show you. Thats what these folks would think.

Now from World War II, this is very interesting. There were people who would hide the Jews from the Nazis because they didnt want to see them go to the death camps. If you held to this school of thought, you would not lie under any circumstances, Nazis would come knocking on your door and you would open up your door. Nazis would say, We have a report that there are Jews in the house. Are there Jews in your house?

Yes, there are.

Where are they?

Theyre in the cellar.

Can you show me?

I can. So you better hope that whatever house youre hiding in is not one of those because man, woman and child would be hauled off to the death camps if you happened to be in the home of one of these folks.

Have you heard of The Hiding Place, by Corrie Ten Boom? Anybody? What he did was pretty interesting because he had a secret compartment-like a basement hideaway-underneath the kitchen floor. Hed carved it out in such a way that when you put the floor back, you couldnt even tell it was there. You couldnt tell there was a trap door there. It was just totally concealed. The Nazis would come knocking on his door, Mr. Ten Boom? We have a report that there are Jews in your house.

Mr. Ten Boom would tell the truth. He would say, Yes, I am hiding Jews. It is true.

Theyd say, Well, where are they?

Hed say, They are hiding in the kitchen. Theyre there in the kitchen.

Where are they in the kitchen?

Theyre under the table.

Ah, got no time for your jokes today, Ten Boom! And theyd all be out the door.

Where were they? They were in the kitchen under the table, but they were also under the floor. See, hes telling the truth, but yet he spared the lives of many-very cleverly-he spared the lives of those folks.

These folks would say that you tell the truth under every circumstance. Truth is a moral absolute, and it is never right to tell a lie. You always have to tell the truth, so Rahab sinned.

Now lets look at another school of thought. This school of thought is Conflicting Absolutism. It says that lying is wrong, but its forgivable. There are a lot of moral absolutes in the world, and sometimes they conflict. When they conflict, the Christian is responsible to do the lesser evil. You have a responsibility to do the lesser evil.

Lets say a woman comes to you while youre walking home from shopping. Youre downtown and-do we still shop downtown? I dont know. Youre downtown-just work with me on this. Youre on your way to your car. She comes up to you, and she says, Theres a man whos chasing me, and he wants to kill me. Hes crazy! Im going to go this way. Tell him I went that way!

The man comes to you a minute later, and he has a knife and hes crazy. Hes like, Where is she? Im going to kill her! Which way did she go?

She went that way, so you say, She went this way. And so he takes off the wrong way. You just lied. This person would say, Yes, that was wrong, but it was the lesser evil, because if he goes this way, hes going to harm this person. Her being killed or hurt in some way was a greater evil, so you chose correctly. You still have to ask for forgiveness. You still have to say, God, Im sorry. I lied, but it was a lesser evil; so though lying is never right, these two issues were in conflict, and you did the right thing.

The last school of thought were going to look at is called Graded Absolutism. Graded absolutism believes that lying is sometimes right. Its just like situationism. Lying is sometimes right. There are a lot of moral absolutes that God has given. Sometimes those moral absolutes are in conflict with one another, and when they are in conflict with one another, you and I as Christians have the responsibility to do the greater good, and its not a sin. To do the greater good is not a sin. If you lie in this situation, you dont have to confess it.

The first absolutes would have believed that Rahab committed sin.

The unqualified would say it was sin.

The conflicting would say its forgivable, but it was sin.

The graded absolutism would say not a sin. You dont have to ask for forgiveness, but they obeyed the higher law.

Using the scenario of the crazy guy with the knife, he comes up to you in the street, and he says, Where is she? Im going to kill her! You deliberately send him in the wrong direction-you have not sinned. That guy has no right to the truth. He has no right to the truth because he was going to cause harm.

When my drunken brother-in-law came to the house at midnight-sometimes wed have to actually leave the house and wonder the streets of Rockford out of fear of him. It was a very traumatizing thing in my family during that period. They would say he had no right to the truth because he was going to harm an innocent woman. She was totally justified in choosing the greater good, so she does not have to confess her sin.

Maybe you saw yourself somewhere in one of those ethical points of view. Maybe you saw yourself in several, which is probably a problem. What we want to do from here on out, and see heres the to-be-continued part because were done, were going to start looking at these again next week and talking about it from a Biblical perspective. The goal when were done is to be able to think on our toes, process our world, and make Biblical, ethical decisions. Thats the goal of our series. So thats just kind of a panorama view of what is ahead, so next week well dig in to that first one and explore it a little bit.

Lets pray together,

Father, were grateful for Your Word that serves as our guide in these decisions. We want to be consistent with what Your Truth has said, so were going to examine these truths. Were going to explore these world views and these ethical world views. Were asking Your Holy Spirit to guide us along the way. At the end, we will have learned, and we will grow, and we will have a better understanding of right and wrong and the decisions that we need to make. We pray this in Jesus name, Amen.

What is Christianity

Hopefully, youll learn some things thatll encourage you and challenge you in your framework and world view. As we looked at Larry this morning and heard what he had to say, [I thought] Im glad to be in a church thats not afraid to ask the big questions. We obviously in a half hour dont have time to address all of the things and all the questions that Larry asked, but believe me there are answers to all of those. We do want to look at a few things, and we want to talk about secular humanism in light of the Bible because what you may not believe is after Christianity and Islam, secular humanism is probably the prevailing religion in the world today. And you say, Secular humanism religion? I didnt know that. I thought it was secular. But, friends, the reality is if you were to read, The Humanist Manifesto, the first one that was put together in 1933, about 5 of the 14 planks of The Humanist Manifesto call humanism a religion. Interesting, ha? So theres nothing new under the sun, and these people believe what they believe passionately. They believe it ardently, and they believe its the answer to human beings ills, needs, and salvation, and so as such-as we talk over the next six weeks and start this series on World View, one of the things that we need to address right off the top is one of the prevailing religions in the world today-which is secular humanism.

Its interesting too that since in the second and third revisions of The Humanist Manifesto that that kind of religious tone has been edited out of that, but, again, going back to 1933, the founders of that viewed secular humanism as a religion and a world view that embraced all of life. The first thing that we see out of that-if you were to go to the secular humanist website and read The Humanist Manifesto, you will find words like this: secular humanism provides a cosmic outlook, a world view, in the broadest sense. By world view, we mean a big picture kind of look at the world that embraces everything, everybody and everything we do. Secular humanists see themselves as undersigned, unintended beings who arose through evolution possessing unique attributes of self-awareness and moral agency. I always chuckle how they got self-awareness and moral agency if there was no God, and they came to exist all by themselves by accident; but thats a whole other topic.

Friends, as we look at this Passage and look at this religion in light of the Scripture, well look at Psalm 14:1 (page 538 of pew Bibles) to begin with. We will look at three Passages, but lets first turn to Psalm 14:1. David, 3,000 years ago, wrote these words. He said, Only fools say in their hearts there is no God. They are corrupt. Their actions are evil. Not one of them does good.

When we talk about fools and Pastor Jeff asked me to entitle this message on secular humanism, The Fool, I dont mean that in necessarily a derogatoral way whereas we talk about being a fool; I dont mean in the terms of being mentally deranged or mentally handicapped. Were talking about someone who is simple, someone who is naïve, someone who doesnt get the big picture, someone who doesnt take the farthest look, somebody who sets aside reason and intellect in order to come to the conclusions that they do. There are many wonderful illustrations that children make. In Jesus Takes, we had little Nolan this morning, and God talks about little children as the examples of faith because they embrace things and believe things, almost unequivocally. You know you tell a child the sky is blue and the moons made out of green cheese, and, Okay. And so Jesus said trust Him as the faith of a little child. The flip side is that we want to use children as an illustration-not in a derogatory way but just an incomplete way. The children are also very naïve, arent they? If I were to ask the question, how many of you were afraid of the dark when you were a kid? Some brave people. If you were like me, I was very afraid of the dark, and basements, it was like, Oh, my goodness. Please, Mother, dont send me down to the basement for potatoes or something! I remember when the movie Home Alone came out and Macaulay Culkin went down there and the furnace kicked on. It was like, Ahhhhh! Youve got to be kidding me! I remember going down to the basement and turning on the lights, creaking down the stairs and looking for potatoes. I found their little eyes looking back at me. Then the furnace came on, and I would just make a bee-line up the stairs. It was like the bake of potatoes playing Chariots of Fire. I was sprinting up the stairs. I was terrified of the dark. That carried over every time I went to bed, you know. You had monsters and all those things. I had nightmares almost every night of my childhood in to my teenage years. As a child, when youre afraid of the dark, and youre dreaming of monsters, what do you do to get away from it? You pull the covers up over your head, right? Because if you cant see them, they cant get you, right?

The secular humanist and the fool as God looks at here are very much like that. Pull the covers up over your head and pretend that God isnt there. He doesnt exist. Why? Because I cant see Him. Regardless of what youve heard in history books, the majority of the people in Galileos time or Columbus time did not believe that the world was flat. They didnt. Youve heard that, but its not true. Regardless of what some of our modern movies say, the Catholic Church did not reject Galileo because he said the earth went around the sun. That was not the issue at all. The point is that people like Sir Isaac Newton who believed in God, who made the world, said that science was possible and that you could study the world, study the universe, and study things in a scientific way specifically because there was a Creator who made it all and therefore, it was knowledge. Solomon said in Proverbs [25:2, page 650 of pew Bibles], Its the glory of God to conceal a matter. Its the glory of kings to search it out. Thats what the early scientists believed.

Im going to read this other Passage from The Humanist Manifesto as we talk about religion. Believing that religion must work increasingly for joy in living, religious humanists… This is straight out of the first one. …religious humanists aim to foster the creative in man and encourage achievements that add to the satisfactions of life. In fact at the tail end of the first The Humanist Manifesto, it says this: Do you know what the essence of living here on the earth is? Its to have The Good Life. Isnt that interesting? It sounds like a beer commercial, doesnt it? You only go around once in life, so you have to grab for all the gusto you can. Lets pull the covers over my head.

Going back a bit as I remember what I was going to say. You think about that, pretend it isnt there, that foundation of science led to all kinds of horrific experimentations or ways of dealing with illness in the past when like the first President of our country. We didnt know about germs and all those types of things, so what did we do when he was sick with pneumonia? We bleed him, taking away the very thing that he needed, which was his blood. We bleed him, weaken him, and hence he dies because we cant see germs, so they must not exist. The father of modern sanitation Ignaz Semmelweiss got hounded out of two different hospitals because he had the audacity to believe the Bible when it came to performing autopsies and then walking across the floor to maternity wards and delivering babies without washing your hands. When Ignaz Semmelweiss had the audacity to tell the doctors under his care that they needed to wash their hands after performing autopsies and before delivering babies, he got hounded out of two different hospitals and died a broken man. Why? Because science at the time, You cant see it, so it must not be so. Now science tells us, I cant see God, so guess what? It must not be so. Yet, so much of the technical things-lights, heat-all those types of things, so many of the scientific advances that weve enjoyed in the last 150 years are because of things that we cant see.

That brings us to motivation. Well get to more specifics later, but lets talk about motivation. Why are people so passionate about the idea that there is no God? I always chuckle at that. Do you get the ridiculousness of that, the incongruity? Theres no God, but Im going to spend my life defined by telling everybody that the thing that I dont believe exists doesnt exist. Let me give you an example. If I believed that purple elephants dont exist, would I spend my life passionately crusading throughout the entire world telling everybody and making sure that everybody knows that purple elephants dont exist? Would I? No, Id just ignore it because I know purple elephants dont exist. Duh!

Its hilarious to me that people will say, Oh, God doesnt exist. Guess what? God defines their lives-their whole lives and framework is built around, Theres no God! Theres no God! Theres no God! Theres no God! If we tell ourselves that long enough, maybe well convince ourselves that thats the truth. Pull the blankets up over your head. If you cant see Him, it must not be so. Whats the motivation? Why are people so passionate about that? As we said, its religion. Friends, I am so glad that the Bible is not relevant for today. That was a joke. I was just seeing if you were awake.

Way back in Genesis 3, we find the answer to that. This is the foundation of so much religion, so many Eastern religions-even some of the late comers to the modern Americans. What is the crux? Whats the sum total? If I follow this religion, what happens in the end? Here it is: Genesis 3, I get to be God. Why do I stand and shake my fist in the face of God, say He doesnt exist, Hes not out there. Because if Hes not out there, then who is God? Who is king? Whos boss? Whos lord? Me. Im so glad the Bibles not relevant-nailed that in the first three chapters. The serpent comes to Eve in the Garden and says, Take that fruit. Dont listen to God. He doesnt know what Hes talking about because if you eat that fruit, what will happen? You will get to be your own God! Thats the sum total of it. If there is no God, you get to be God.

I like poetry. I like literature, and I dont think any poem says it better than the poem they used for the title of a movie this last year. Clint Eastwood directed a movie about the South African rugby team and their quest for a rugby championship. The name of that movie was, Invictus. What you may not know is that is a very famous and well known poem written in 1875 by William Earnest Henley. This poem espouses this philosophy in an amazing way, and I often wonder what was going on in Henleys head. Im not going to speculate about a lot of things, but I know he had a rough background. He had tuberculosis of the bone at a young age. At a young age or pre-modern medicine, he had a leg amputated. Im sure in the late 1800s, that must have been a pretty horrific experience. We can see some of that pain, some of that heartache in the middle of this poem. Lets listen to the words of his poem, Invictus, when he writes, Out of the night that covers me, black as the pit from pole to pole…

Now theres a really optimistic world view, right?

…I thank whatever gods may be for my unconquerable soul.

Dont gloss over that line. Is he really thanking God? Notice that god is in small letters. Whatever gods might be, who is he really thanking for his unconquerable soul? Who is the god? Himself-youre right. He is.

He goes on to say, In the fell clutch of circumstance… Think about losing a leg and the pain he went through, I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance my head is bloody, but unbowed. Beyond this place of wrath and tears… That's what life is to him, a place of wrath and tears. Whats to come? Looms but the Horror of the shade… Now theres a great view of eternity. And yet the menace of the years finds and shall find me unafraid. It matters not how strait the gate, how charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.

Look at that line. If you dont get whats going on here or get poetry very well, get this. When he talks about, It matters not how strait the gate, whats that an illusion to? Jesus said, Strait was the gate that led to…? Heaven, everlasting life. How charged with punishments the scroll, whats that an illusion to? Whats the opposite of Heaven? Hell. Hensley says, I dont care about Heaven, and I dont care about hell. Im the master of my fate. Im the captain of my soul. Im in charge, and no god, nobody else. Im the boss. Im the king. I rule. Im God.

Our secular world stands and applauds that. Now it is great poetry, and its great in terms of its artistry, its rhyme scheme. It makes an incredible impact. Its a powerful piece, but philosophically, its awful. Yet, our secular world and secular humanists stand and applaud that. That's the essence of secular humanism. Im the master. Im the captain.

Friends, Ill tell you something: after looking at my own life and after 30 years in the ministry and a dozen years as a police chaplain, Ive stood beside grades; Ive stood beside beds; Ive stood beside people in hospitals and jails and watched the utter destruction that people make of their lives when they decide theyre the boss, theyre in charge, and theyre gonna do it as Frank Sinatra sang, My Way.

Holding that dear little child in your arms… Ill never forget standing by hospital beds as a police chaplain because I had to tell mothers that their four-year olds just died because they were having illicit drug-laced drunken affairs and killed their own children as a result of their actions. They were so high, and they backed their vans into lakes, and their children drowned. Their lovers drowned. I listened to the parents scream because-well, they were doing their own thing. They made the rules; they wrote the songs. They were in charge, and they reaped the fruit of it. Ill be the first one to tell you that I am so glad that I realize-it didnt take me very long to realize -as a person that Jerry Dean made a really horrible god and I really royally messed my life up. If I was honest with the thoughts that went on in my head as a young person, the perversion, the wickedness, the lust, and the evil…

I used to lift weights in just a rage-fueled passion thinking about people that I wanted to kill. That embarrasses me. It shames me to say that. I sit here and think, Yeah, I really deserve to be worshipped as God-really noble stuff, right? Im really in charge. Im really the boss. I spent two years in high school, thinking about killing myself almost every single day. The gloom and the darkness that covered my life were incredible. The pain, the heartache, and the agony because I couldnt find the big answers to the big questions that I wanted-but, friends, out of that, when God finally opened up His Word and showed me His Truth and His light, and I found peace, redemption, hope, and deliverance in Jesus Christ-when I found out that He paid for my sins on the cross and justice was done there, I literally at 23 years old and a pastor already, literally jumped off my couch and almost hit my head on the ceiling because I instantly knew peace. I instantly knew joy. I instantly knew hope in a way that I never had in my whole entire life. I am so glad that I am not my own god.

Paul Kurtz in the second Humanist Manifesto writes these words: No god will save us. We must save ourselves. My response to that and many of your responses to that is those two wonderful English words, Balderdash and Hogwash. I did a lousy job at saving myself. If God hadnt reached down and rescued my soul, I would have died a long time ago. I wouldnt be standing here today if it wasnt for the grace, the wonder, and the goodness of a Holy, loving, and gracious God. Many of you would nod your heads and say exactly that same thing, wouldnt you?

Friends, Jesus Christ will have the entire universe bow their knees to Him some day. Every tongue will confess that He is the Lord. Hes boss; Hes King. What earned Him that position? Because 2,000 years ago in the Garden of Gethsemane when He faced eternal hell and the wrath and curse of a Holy, righteous, and just God, He had the wisdom to say, Father, whatever You want. Not what I want. Amen? If you know peace, you know hope, and you know joy, and you have hope for eternity, its because your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, His incredible attitude said, God whatever You want. Not what I want. Thats where real power comes from. The amazing thing is when you finally surrender to God and say, Youre the King. Youre the boss, then and only then do you find true freedom and a real hope. As you grow in your walk with Him, you finally find that you become the person that [He wants you to be]. He starts to change you, and you become the person that you hoped you could be. We all have a ways to go, but you see the way God changes, moves, and molds your lives, and your gratitude grows.

Friends, I would ask you to take just a minute right here, bow your head with me, and pray that prayer-you alone with God, if you would, say, God, whatever You want. Not what I want. Will you take just a minute to pray that to God right now?

Father, we thank You so much for the example of Jesus Christ who prayed, Not My will, but Yours. I pray that we would pray that not just today, but every day, and follow Him. I thank You that we can pray in His name, Amen.

Friends, thats the challenge-not to pray that just once, but you will be truly wise if every single day at some point in your life you turn to the God of the universe and say, Youre the boss. Youre the King. Whatever You want. Youll be amazed at how your life will change.

The second thing I want to look at is Proverbs 22:3 (page 647 of pew Bibles). It says these words and is repeated in Verse 12:27. Its repeated in many different ways throughout Proverbs, but it says this: A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions. The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences. A prudent person sees danger and takes precaution.

Proverbs 14 says, The wise man looks ahead. The fool attempts to fool himself and wont face the facts.

If you asked me today why Im a Christian, I would say it is this more than any single other thing: Christianity faces reality in a way that nothing else does. It faces the farthest look. Do you know in this world if youre trying to get ahead financially, you plan for your future. I always chuckle that over 90 percent of Americans have no more money when they die than when they did at age 18. Why? Incredibly poor planning. They dont look ahead.

The Russians, under Stalin, they had their five-year plans and bankrupted the entire country. They couldnt look just five years in the future. They only looked so far ahead.

Christians, God tells and challenges Christians to take the long view, the eternal view. I chuckle at this phrase from The Humanist Manifesto, which says, Knowledge is based on the scientific mesh and observations by many impartial witnesses. Now if that is true, and youre honest, what are we all going to face some day? Every single person sitting here will someday face death. You say, Well, I hope the Lord comes back.

A while ago, it dawned on me that theyre basically the same thing. If Im ready to die, am I ready for the Lord to come back? Yeah. If Im ready for the Lord to come back, Im ready to die. Its essentially the same thing. Wise people think about that.

Now heres something interesting. They say the only way that you can know anything is observation by many impartial witnesses, so lets take them at face value. How many people in white coats have ever experienced life after death or observed it? Never experienced it, never observed it, but we can know for sure that it doesnt exist. On the other hand, and one of the questions Larry asked, whats the difference between Judaism, Christianity and every other religious myth? The reality is history. One of the degrees I have is in history. I am a history geek; Im a history nerd; Im a history junkie. Friends, if I were going to plan my future on something that I wasnt sure that existed, I would like the witness of somebody thats been there, done that, right? So all our experts with letters after their names running around in white coats, they havent been there after death, but I know somebody that has the audacity to claim that He did. Why is Christianity different than every other religion? Because it claims to be historically accurate. One of the most brilliant historians in the British Empire in the last hundred years said, There is more evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ than any single other historical event.

Good historians, good experts-people that are willing to study the facts-find out time after time after time that the Bible is true. I could go on and on and on telling you about the greatest British archeologist over the last hundred years, Sir William Mitchell Ramsay, who went to the Middle east to prove-he was knighted by the Queen of England-he was such a touring intellect. He went to the Middle east to prove that the Book of Acts was false. After he retraced the steps of Paul and Luke, he came to the conclusion and wrote that Luke was a historian of the first degree. His Book set the scholastic word on edge. It knocked peoples socks off. They never would have dreamed that, and Ramsay became a Christian as a result of his study of history and the facts. I could go on and on and on and tell you a litany of people who have come to that same conclusion from Lee Strobel, who is an editor of the Chicago Tribune, to CS Lewis, one of the greatest authors of the last hundred years. I could tell you story after story-doctors, scientists, geophysicists.

My absolute favorite is Lou Wallace. Ive told a little bit about him before, but Ill tell you this: Lou Wallace was a lawyer from Indiana. He was so brilliant that at 34 years old, he was made a general in the union Army-one of the youngest generals in the Civil War. He was blamed for some of the catastrophes at the Battle of Shiloh and lost his position, but he came to the defense of the City of Cincinnati and set up its defenses; and as a result, he re-attained his rank of general. After the defense of the City of Cincinnati, he came to the attention of the President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln called him to Washington, almost as his special envoy, and Lou Wallace became a Civil War hero because he is credited with defending Washington, D.C., against confederate attack and saving the capital. Lou Wallace in his 30s became a national hero, credited with saving Washington, D.C., from capture. You probably didnt know that, did you? He went on after the war to become an author. After he wrote several books, he was writing across the country with one of the leading agnostics of the day-a man named Robert Ingersoll. Ingersoll, in a long spiel in which Wallace says he was charming, eloquent-hed never heard anybody talk like Ingersoll had before-was so logical. Ingersoll challenged Wallace about Christianity and Jesus Christ. Wallace began to research whether, in fact, Christianity was true and that Jesus did in fact rise from the dead. Do you know how long he spent studying that? Lee Strobel spent two years studying Christianity before he was convinced that it was true. Lou Wallace spent seven years, after which he became overwhelmed by the facts, overwhelmed by the evidence. The lawyer, the general, the author could not deny it any longer. He gave his life to Jesus Christ and ended up writing the best seller, Ben Hur. If this guy was alive today, his name would be making headlines almost every single day because Lou Wallaces play, Ben Hur, ran on Broadway for 26 straight years. It was so huge that the chariot race with eight horses was actually redone on stage. He became world famous in an age where Christians didnt read novels or go to the theatre. Christians read Ben Hur. They went to see Ben Hur. It affirmed their faith as it had with Wallace. Again, I could go on and on talking about people like that. The evidence is overwhelming.

If I come to face death some day, I want to be in the hands of someone who has been there, done that, and conquered death. Right? I dont want to base my hopes on some, Well, were not quite sure. We havent observed it. The reality is that Paul in his day, speaking of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ-this is almost like an Eastern sermon-maybe were climbing out of the valley-said that Jesus was seen by over 500 witnesses at once, most of whom were still alive. How would that hold up in a court of law today? [Do you] think 500 witnesses on the witness stand might reinforce your case? Paul was so confident of the fact that he said, If youre not sure, go ask Him because most of them are still alive. You can check it out.

As Pastor Jeff said last week, Christianity has never been afraid to say, Hey, check it out. I dont have to set my reason aside to embrace faith. In fact, the whole reason that I am a Christian is because I grew up in a very intellectual home. The Christian world view answers all my big questions. Its more logical; its more reasonable than any other philosophy of life Ive ever come across.

So God calls us to embrace Truth, to embrace wisdom. What do you know about little kids that is simple? Humanism says you have to test everything out before you can find out if its true. Thats a nice way of saying you have to learn everything the hard way. How many little kids do you know that love vegetables? Maybe there are a few. How many little kids and grandkids do you know that would eat candy non-stop, 24 hours a day, if you allowed them to do that? What would they be like after 25 years, if they were still alive-which they probably would not be? But you need somebody older, wiser who gets the bigger picture a little bit better than they do to say, No, this is not good for you. If you set aside genuine truth and reality, you have to learn everything the hard way, and thats incredibly sad. Christianity is the ultimate look ahead.

Paul in Romans 10 says that if youll confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, youll be saved.

I love the Passage in Romans 2:7 where he says, There are those who will win eternal life if they continually seek glory, honor, and immortality. I love that phrase. Whats God called us as Christians to do? He calls us to seek for glory, honor, and immortality because all of us are going to face eternity one day. Im banking on someone whos been there, done that-not, Well, were not quite sure. In fact, were pretty confident that this is all there is.

That leads us to the next point. My wife shared this Verse with me knowing that I was going to preach about the fool and secular humanism. Isaiah 44:20, we wind it down here, it says these words (page 721), The poor deluded fool feeds on ashes. He trusts something that cant help him at all, yet he cannot bring himself to ask, Is this idol that Im holding in my hand a lie? In spite of all of the arguments, all these protestations that we are impartial observers, secular humanists believe in a religion. Dont buy that nonsense that they are impartial.

I always think of Francis Crick, the discoverer of DNA. Ill show you what a geek I am by saying that DNA stands for deoxyribonucleic acid. There, Im a total nerd. In 1983, Francis Crick discovered DNA. Hes an agnostic-pretty confident that God doesnt exist though, and its amazing that as he looks at DNA and studies even more and finds out that in every single cell, there are miles of human DNA. It boggles his mind, and Francis Crick the agnostic, says, Dare we say the word miracle, but of course, Pull the covers over my head cause it couldnt be God. He even uses the word miracle, but, Well, that doesnt fit in to my world view, so Im gonna cross out all knowledge or understanding that God couldve created this because it doesnt fit. Impartial observers? Youve got to be kidding me.

Kids believe everything that theyre told. Thats why Jesus said that a child is the model of faith. They believe easily. Sometimes this gets thrown in our faces, You Christians, youre simple. Youre naïve. You believe in God. You also believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, and when you grow up a little bit more and get more of the facts, youre realize that Gods just like Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. Hes made up.

Friends, this is my challenge to you as we wind it down and finish. This is my challenge to you: the God of the universe has the audacity-Isaiah 1-to say, Come now and let us reason together, says the Lord. You dont have to set aside your brain; you dont have to set aside your intellect. You dont have to set aside your logic. One of my favorite courses-you dont have to set aside your wisdom when you come to God. In fact, I am a Christian because wisdom, intellect, logic, and reason buttresses everything in the Word of God. The more I study, the more I see, the more I learn, the more I understand, I am amazed at the Truth of this Book and the wisdom of the Holy and Almighty God.

God challenges us to think. In fact, I shake my head at our loss of history. When we have schools precisely in America because schools were built to teach young children how to read the Word of God, and 9 out of the 10 Ivy League schools-you can check it out and look it up-were started as? Religions seminaries to train preachers. Everywhere the Word of God goes, what happens? The advancement of science, wisdom, human reasoning, and logic follows. Why are dictators so afraid of the Word of God? Why are they so afraid of Christianity? Because they know that everywhere Christianity goes, it brings freedom. It brings real thinking. People dont just dumbly sit and go, A-ha, a-ha, a-ha, a-ha. They actually learn to think for themselves.

One of favorite moments as a dad-one of my proudest moments as a parent-my oldest daughter was invited to a home of some Jehovahs Witnesses to discuss religion, and it was really interesting. Going back to the second one, one of the questions they got in to a discussion about was Heaven and hell, and the Jehovahs Witnesses believe there are three levels and 144,000 go to the highest level of Heaven. Then theres the middle ground that the rest of the Jehovahs Witnesses go to. Then theres the new earth, which all the good people go to. If youre really horrible, you just get annihilated. I was so proud of my daughter. She said, You know? If youre right and Im wrong, big deal. The worst that could happen to me… Remember for some of you in management, if youre planning, what do you plan for? You always plan for worst case scenarios; so worst case scenario, what happens? I get annihilated. Whoop-de-do. But if Im a pretty good person, then where do I spend eternity? On new earth, not so bad. Then she said, But if Im right, and youre wrong, youre in trouble.

Then they said, Well, you believe what you believe because your parents told you that. The young lady who was my daughters age said, You know, the only reason I believe what I believe is because my parents told me that, and I was so proud of my daughter. She said, No, no, no, no, no, no. I dont buy it just cause my dad says it. In fact, she said, My dad tells me all the time, Dont you dare believe it just because I tell you that. She said, My dad tells me all the time, Look it up. Check it out. Search history; search science; search the facts; search ethics; search logically; search the Word of God. You find out if its true. I was so proud of her!

Friends, thats what Im telling you. Im telling you follow in the footsteps of CS Lewis. Follow in the footsteps of Lou Wallace. Follow in the footsteps of Lee Strobel. Check it out for yourself. Dont you buy it just because Jerry Dean says it or Pastor Jeff says it-even though I love Pastor Jeff, sorry. Thats not blasphemy. Paul said, If I or you or any other angel preached you anything other than the Word of God, let them be accursed.

It used to just trip my trigger in a church I was at before. I was there for a couple years, and Id walk by groups of people and hear people say, Well, Jerry said this, and Jerry said that. Thats why I have no hair anymore. Id pull it out. Id go, No, you dont get it! Its not Jerry said this or Jerry said that. The only reason to buy it is if God says it. If God doesnt say it, you can check everything else Jerry Dean says.

Friends, I conclude with this: truly wise people search. Truly wise people think. Gods not afraid of the big questions. Revelation 1:6 (page 1215) says that God has called us to be kings and priests. I love the Passage in Proverbs [25:2, page 650] that says, Its the glory of God to conceal things. Its the glory of kings to search them out.

As a king and a priest in Gods Kingdom, what does God call you to do? Search for Truth. Hit the books! Pray like Solomon, God, give me a large and understanding heart. Open my mind. Teach me Your ways. Teach me wisdom. Give me knowledge. Give me understanding. Im not content with where I am. I want answers! Teach me. Show me. And you can bank on it that if you do that, He will.

Ill close with one last Passage from the Word of God, Deuteronomy 17:18-19 (page 189). When a new king came to the thrown in Israel, do you know what his first official act of state was? God said, Hes supposed to write his own personal copy of the Word of God. Secondly, he was supposed to read in it every day all the days of his life. Friends, you are most like the king and queen that God chose you to be when you search and devour. Solomon said, If you search for wisdom and seek for her as for hidden treasure, then you will get real understanding. You will get real knowledge. You will gain real wisdom. Itll impact you both in this life and in the life to come.

Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for the Truth. We thank You for each one of these who are Your people. I pray that You would teach us, help us to grow and learn and challenge us to seek You, to pursue You, to not be afraid of the big questions. We thank You for the hope that we have in Jesus Christ and the way Youve changed our lives. I ask Your blessing on each one here, and if theres someone who doesnt know You, that maybe today they will confess that You are in fact Lord and trust that Jesus rose from the dead, even today, and find new life and a new hope. I thank You that we can pray in Jesus name, Amen.

Good morning. Happy Easter to you. Thank you for coming with us today. Were honored that youre here. We have started a mini-series called, The Rebel. Thats not a name or title that youd normally associate with Jesus, is it? I mean the average person on the street would echo the words of Sean Penns character when he said, Holy man. Did well. In Heaven. Turn the other cheek. Love your enemy. Not very dangerous-yet He was. He was a rebel.

He came into a world where there was a religious system that was oppressing the poor, that was corrupt, that was full of hypocrisy, and He exposed it. He went looking for a fight as weve seen. They didnt have to come and find Him. He found them. He taught as no man had ever taught. One time, this mild-mannered man made a whip and drove the money-changers out of the temple and overturned their tables in righteous anger. He was not afraid of them. He was not afraid of their power. He was not intimidated by them. He would stand up for righteousness, compassion, justice, and to the powerful. He would take away their power by drawing away from them the multitudes of people that were following them. He rebelled against their man-made rules, their man-made authority, to establish a new Kingdom based upon spiritual truths-the Kingdom of God. Thats what were going to conclude this morning when we talk about The Rebel.

This morning I want to ask you a few questions of mass confession here. How many of you have ever stood up for yourself even when you knew you were wrong or have been in an argument and though the person was right, you got angry when they pointed out your flaws? Let me see your hands. Look at that.

How many of you here today received good advice from somebody, a sound counsel, but because of the source it came from-because maybe you didnt like or respect the individual or didnt want to give that individual the benefit of being right-you chose to ignore that counsel even if it meant it was to your detriment? What were looking at are some stubborn folks this morning. How many of you are stubborn? Let me see your hands. Do you know what Im worried about? Im worried about the ones who didnt raise their hands because I know what theyre thinking. Theyre out there going, You arent going to tell me when to raise my hand. Ill raise my hand when I want to raise my hand. Ill wait till youre halfway through the sermon. Im just going to raise my hand for no reason. Youre not telling me what to do! We have some stubborn folks out here! Well, just like they are stubborn today, they were stubborn back then as well.

I want us to turn in our Bibles to Matthew 27. Look at the aftermath of the cross. Were going to begin reading with Verse 62 of that Gospel (page 989 of pew Bibles). It says, The next day, the one after preparation day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate…

By the way, this is the Sabbath. Now, what are you supposed to be doing on the Sabbath? Resting, right? You can only walk so far as a stones throw. These men are all bent out of shape because Jesus worked on the Sabbath and violated their laws on the Sabbath. Now, what are they doing? Theyre breaking their own rules.

Sir, they said, we remember that while He was still alive that deceiver said, After three days I will rise again. So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, His Disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that He has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.

What was the first deception? The first deception was that He was the Messiah. The first deception was that He was the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy, calling Himself the Son of Man and calling Himself the Son of God. That was a deception. No matter how many miracles Jesus performed, no matter how great the miracles-causing the eyes of the blind to see, the lame to walk, feeding thousands with a few fish and a few loaves of bread, or even raising a dead man, Lazarus-no matter how miraculous [of a thing] that He did or how incredible [of a statement] He said, they refused to believe. Its [almost as if] Jesus almost said, What do I have to do? What do I have to say? Youve seen the miracles. They were similar to the expression, A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still.

A man came home one day, and he said to his wife, Honey, I have some bad news for you. Im dead.

She said, What?

He said, Yeah, I died last night in my sleep. Its bad news. I feel bad for you and the kids. Youre a widow, and the kids dont have a dad.

She said, Well, I dont agree that youre dead, but I tell you what-you sure need help, so she made an appointment with a psychiatrist. He went in to see the doctor. He said, Doc, Im a dead man.

He said, I see. Well, this is an unusual case. Heres what I need you to do. He handed him a stack of books and medical journals. He said, I want you to go home and study, and I want you to answer this question when you come back to my office next week, Do dead men bleed?

He said, Okay. Ill do that. He went home, and the dead guy studied the books. He looked up the fact that when you die, your heart stops pumping, the plasma separates from the blood, and then you dont bleed anymore. That's it. It's done.

So he went back to the doctor, and he said, Did you study the manuals?

He said, I did. He said, So whats the answer?

He said, My conclusion is that dead men do not bleed.

He said, Very well, I agree. He opened his drawer, pulled out a needle, and said, Give me your finger.

The man reached out his finger, and the doctor pricked it. Instantly the man started to bleed. He looked down at his finger in shock, and he said, I dont believe it!

The doctor smiled, knowingly, and he said, Dead men DO bleed. Wow! These journals are wrong!

That was the mindset of these guys. What does Jesus have to do? What does He have to say in order for you to believe? Because to believe is to admit theyre wrong. Because to believe means theyre going to lose their power. Theyre going to lose their way of life. Well talk more about that in a little bit.

So Pilate is going to do what they say. If the tomb is unguarded, if nobody is there-even though this stone weighed tons-if enough guys showed up, if they work hard enough and have the right kind of leverage and pulleys, they could probably move the stone; so Heres what well do. Well do two things, Pilate says.

Take a guard, Pilate answered. Go make the tomb as secure as you know how. So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard.

It was probably a sting which had an official seal of the emperor on it saying, This is the property of Rome. Do not tamper. If you tampered with that seal, it meant the possibility of facing death. For the guards to fail at their post-four guards that would have gone in shifts, so there was no chance of them being tired-there wasnt just one guy. Its not some guy named Elmer standing out there by himself. There were four professional soldiers who are at attention and on the alert at all times. If they fell asleep on the job or somebody overtook them and the prisoner-or in this case, the dead person-is taken, then they would die as well. That was the consequence of failing at their post.

Now they were very confident the tomb was secure. Chapter 28, After the Sabbath at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.

There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from Heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.

You know how it is when youre frightened, right? You know what kind of emotions and what kind of physical reactions your body goes through. Weve never seen anything like this, so you can imagine how pale they became and how shook up they were.

The angel said to the women, Do not be afraid… Easy for you to say, they probably said. …for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; He has risen; just as He said. Come and see the place where He lay. Then go quickly and tell His Disciples that He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see Him. Now I have told you.

So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy… Quite a combination of emotions-fear and joy at the same time. For the soldiers leaving the tomb, it was only fear-not joy. Suddenly Jesus met them, Greetings, He said. They came to Him, clasped His feet and worshiped Him. Then Jesus said to them, Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see Me.

Now while they are doing that, the guards were reporting back to their bosses what had happened. While the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened.

They know theyre in trouble. They know that on their watch, the grave was now empty. What they had been assigned to protect is no longer in the tomb. Theyre afraid for their lives. They are also emotional and physical basket cases. When they arrive, they are trembling. Their voices are shaking. Their palms are sweaty. Their complexion is pale. There is a look of fear and anxiety about them as they tell the whole story. They talk about the shaking of the earth. They talk about the angel, the voice, and the message of the empty tomb-giving incredible evidence of the resurrection of Jesus. What do the chief priests do?

It says that then the chief priests met and said, We have made a terrible mistake. We have crucified the Son of God. May God have mercy on our souls. We now believe that Jesus is the Christ because of the overwhelming evidence of the Resurrection. No, no, no. A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still.

The Messiah doesnt bleed. This could not have happened. They met together and devised a plan, and its not that great of one, as were going to see. They gave the soldiers a large sum of money, telling them, You are to say, His Disciples came during the night and stole Him away while you were asleep.

By the way, think about this for a second. The Disciples came and took Him away while you were asleep. How do you know what happened while you were asleep? Right? Think about that for a second.

Yeah, while we were asleep, the Disciples… How would you know? You were asleep! How do you know what happened? How do you know who took Him?

Then they make a promise that they cant keep. They say, If this report gets to the governor… Youre in big trouble. …we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.

They cant make that promise, and if they are going to make that promise, they better come up with a better excuse than this one. Is that going to get them out of trouble?

Yes, Pilate, we want you to know that the only reason the Disciples came and took the body of Jesus that they were supposed to guard was because they fell asleep, so its okay. Thats not a good excuse!

If you have something important on your desk that your boss has put you in charge of and its gone-somebody has taken it-and your co-worker says, Hey, Ive got your back. Im just going to tell the boss you fell asleep on the job. Everythings going to be fine. Thats not going to work! But you know what? These guys thought their lives were going to be on the line, and now they have a big wad of cash, so they were like, Okay.

So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day.

Were going to talk this morning about why people reject Jesus. Because the reasons they rejected Jesus are the same reasons why people reject Jesus today. The number one reason is emotional. It has to do with our emotions. They so hated Jesus because He contradicted their teaching. He exposed their hypocrisy. Every time they tried to trap Him, He made them look silly and embarrassed them. Every time they tried to trip Him up through an action or a teaching, He had just the right words to say, just the right actions to display, that caused them to look foolish. Just the mere mention of Jesus name caused an extreme response of hate. They hated Him. They hated Him so bad they plotted to kill Him, and they carried out their plan. Thats hate. When you premeditate on the murder of an innocent person, plot it out, put that much thought and effort in to it, and then carry out your plan, that is hate. There is no way in the world that theyre going to say that this man is right. Theres no way in the world theyre going to say the Messiah did bleed. Hes not the Messiah. Hes not our Messiah. We reject Him. Dont make your decisions on emotion.

What about Judas? We talked about this on Good Friday, but in case you werent here, why did Judas betray Christ when he did? Do you know why? Right before the Last Supper-near that time-there was a big party in Bethany. Mary was there, Martha was there, and Lazarus was there. Mary was so grateful that her brother had been raised from the dead, she took a jar of perfume that was worth a years wage, broke it, and poured it on His head and His feet. Judas was thinking about all the money that was lost, and he said, This could have been sold and given to the poor, and he embarrasses Mary. He yells at Mary. He lectures Mary for the waste of putting that perfume on Jesus. Jesus rebukes him in front of everybody and says, What she has done is good. The poor you will always have with Me…Me, you will not always have. She did this to prepare me for my burial, and from now on wherever the Gospel is preached, this story will be told.

Judas was upset. He was embarrassed. He lost face. In his anger, he went to the chief priests, and he said, Im going to help you get your guy. Anger, in his anger, he rejected Jesus. So sometimes our responses are based on emotion. The soldiers response was based on emotion. There was elation. They had all this money! This was going to change their lives! They would be able to pay their debts. They would be able to buy things they wanted to buy-maybe that new chariot that they saw in the window. This is going to change them-maybe buy some new sandals. Boy, Im telling you. There are some slick-looking sandals now. Maybe [they would buy] a nice tunic. Im going to be living large. This changes everything. As they hold that wad of cash, they suppress the truth to hold on to those riches.

Some people will reject Christ because they say, Oh, if I become a Christian, I cant do this. I cant do that. I cant say this. I cant go there because its going to change my lifestyle. They refuse to come to Jesus because emotionally they dont want to make that change. They think their life is fine the way it is. Coming to Christ would ruin their life, they say, because they want to keep that which is giving them pleasure.

For others, the rejection is based on intellect. Its an intellectual response. They simply would say to you that, as the man said in the skit, Dead men dont rise from the dead. What this boils down to is who is Jesus? If Jesus is the divine Son of God, if He is God incarnate, then it is not a miracle that He would rise from the dead. The biggest miracle would be that He would die in the first place if He is divine, not that He would rise again. If He is just a man, if He is just a good teacher, then I would agree that resurrection is impossible; but if He is the divine Son of God- which He demonstrated through His teachings and through His miracles-the greatest miracle would be that death could hold Him. Jesus taught as no man ever taught.

I will tell you here is the common ground: the enemies of Christ and the followers of Christ all agree on four things. Number one, Jesus died. He was crucified, number one. Number two, He died. Number three, He was buried. Number four, the tomb was empty. Remember the Creed that we recited at the beginning of the service with Jessie? Those four important aspects of Scripture and doctrine, they would agree with. They would salute and say, Yes, thats true. He died on the cross. He was buried, and the tomb is empty. The big question is why is it empty? Why was it empty? Did the enemies of Christ come and take Him? Thats the last thing they wanted to do. They would parade His corpse through the street if they could and say, Heres your risen Savior, but they could not. The Disciples are going to overcome the Roman guards? These same Disciples who scattered and hid for their lives are now going to overcome Centurions with swords and spears? No.

Well, it was a hallucination. He didnt really rise from the dead. There was a hallucination. The Bible says He appeared to over 500 men at the same time. Paul writes, Most of whom are alive today. So 500 men plus the Disciples had the same hallucination over the same 40 day period.

What happened that day? What caused that tomb to be empty?

What changed those men? People will die for something that they believe is true but is not. Terrorists will die because they blow themselves up thinking theyre becoming a martyr and going to Heaven. Its a lie, but they believe its true. But will you willingly die for something you know is a lie? Would these men perpetrate this hoax and then go to their death knowing its a lie, knowing He didnt really rise from the dead? But they are going to [willingly] put their head on the chopping block? Peter is going to allow himself to be crucified upside down? James is going to allow himself to be run through with a sword-all for something they know for a fact is a lie?

What changed these men from men who were cowering and hiding and afraid for their lives to men who would stand up and say to anyone who would listen, Beat us, imprison us, kill us-we cannot stop talking about what we have seen or heard. You have to decide-you have to weigh the evidence, and I encourage you to do that-why the reason was that the tomb was empty.

The third reason is an external reason. Youve heard people say this many times, Well, you know, theres scandal in the church. There is corruption in the church. Were confronted in our newspapers almost every week about the scandal with the Roman Catholic Church. They hear about the priests going from parish to parish and all the children that were hurt. Ill tell you what-Protestants, Catholics or non-church people-we all agree that that is terrible! Those priests need to be brought to justice. That corruption needs to be weeded out of the church. They should not be assigned to other parishes but be convicted and sent to prison. We all agree with that, right?

You know who feels really strongly about hurting kids? Jesus does. Do you know what He said in Matthew 18 about people who harm children, who cause children to stumble? He talks about a millstone. When you ground grain, there was a big stone and a smaller stone. Youd put the grain in there, and youd turn the smaller stone. Jesus uses the big stone, the big stone that takes a mule to pull. He says, Somebody who harms children… Now, Im not saying that you cant get forgiveness and restoration. You can. Were talking about a person who prays on children with no repentance and no remorse. He goes to another place and repeats it. He says, Somebody who has one of the millstones, tie it around their neck, and is thrown into the deepest part of the sea is having a better day than that guy will when I get a hold of him. Im paraphrasing, but thats what He says in Matthew. It would be better for that guy to have a millstone tied around his neck and be thrown in the depths of the sea than harm one of these little ones of Mine.

So you think, Well, Im going to reject Jesus because of the actions of His church… Why would you reject Jesus when these people are doing things that He condemned? Theyre doing things that Jesus Himself finds an atrocity? It would be one thing if the followers were doing what Jesus said to do and saying what Jesus said to say. Then you could say, Well, if thats what it means to follow Jesus, Im going to reject Him. But when theyre doing the exact opposite of what Jesus says and does, theyre not truly followers of Christ, are they? So why would you reject Jesus because of what they had done?

There is a lot of corruption in the church, a lot of hypocrisy and scandal, and what did Jesus do with it? He exposed it. He exposed it. He sought to rid the church of that. In no other walk of life do we apply that logic.

Ive heard so many people say, Oh, the church is full of hypocrites. Religion is no good. I want nothing to do with Jesus or Christianity. Okay, so there are corrupt police officers. They take money to get you out of a ticket, so does that mean all law enforcement is corrupt, and we need to get away from law enforcement?

There are judges who take bribes. Does that mean all judges are corrupt, and we need to abandon our legal system, get rid of due process, and have the Wild West out there?

There are medical doctors who prescribe medications that are not legal to prescribe to junkies and drug addicts, so does that mean all doctors are bad and we need to get rid of the medical profession? Im not going to go to doctors anymore. I want nothing to do with medicine or doctors. We dont apply that logic anywhere else.

Are there bad eggs in the church? You bet there are. Evangelists went off and stole this money or did that or whatever it is, what does that have to do with Jesus? Please, tell me.

They say, Well, I just didnt want to be a part of that organized religion stuff, that man-made religion! I want no part of that! Neither did Jesus want a part of that. What do you think He was coming up against? What do you think this rebel was opposed to? Their man-made structure, their man-made rules. They were binding people down, holding people back, and oppressing the poor. That is what He was opposing. You have something in common with Jesus if thats how you feel! Why would you reject somebody who is in agreement with you on that very point?

You see, weve talked about reasons why we reject Jesus, but lets talk about accepting Him. When you accept Him, it is personal. Youre not accepting an institution. Youre not accepting an organization. Youre not accepting a denomination. Youre not accepting a creed. You are accepting a person. Jesus says in Matthew 11, Come unto Me. He says, You come to Me. All ye who are weary and are heavy laden. My yoke is easy; My burden is light. You will find rest for your souls. He says, You come to Me.

Matthew 23 is one of two laments that Jesus spoke of Jerusalem. He just got through reading the riot act to the Pharisees, just giving them the what for, telling them like it is, and then He turns to the city of Jerusalem and He says, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the Prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.

What is that a picture of, that word picture? Intimacy. The hen gathering the chicks is intimacy-unconditional love. He says, How many times Ive longed to do this, how often. So repeatedly I have reached out, and repeatedly you have spurned My love.

In Luke 19 at the triumphal entry, Jesus looks at Jerusalem-the Bible says He weeps. It is the strongest Greek word that Luke could come up with. It doesnt mean a tear rolling down His cheek. It says, He wept over Jerusalem. He says, I sent you Prophets. I sent you Godly men, and what do you do? You stoned them and you killed them. He says, Now youve rejected the time of your visitation, and He wept.

Ive cried many times in my life. I have wept very few. When you weep, its just gut-wrenching heaves. I wept when my parents passed away. There have been times in my life when I have wept and been broken.

Jesus wept over the condition of mankind, so its personal. Its personal. Were not asking you today to join a church or denomination. Were asking you to receive a person who loves you, who died for you, and its eternal. Jesus says, You will find rest for your souls. That part of you that survives death, youve been made it the image of God. Youve been made with divine purpose and design. He breathed into man the breath of life, and man became a living soul, and God is jealous for that soul. He wants that soul to belong to Him, so He invites you to come. He invites you to surrender your heart and life to Him. Make that decision today. I encourage you.

Would you bow with me in prayer?

Lord, some here today have fought You on the basis of emotion. Maybe somebody they dont like is a Christian, and because they dont like that person, they reject what that person stands for. They reject Christianity, but its not You theyre rejecting. Theyre rejecting on the basis of their feelings. I pray that You would help them, Lord, to respond to You for who You are-not because of what somebody else did, said, didnt do or didnt say. Lord, I pray that they would see that You are who You said You were, that You did what You said You did, that the tomb is empty, that Your resurrection has made eternal life and salvation possible. Father, help them as they grapple with the empty tomb, as they ask questions, as they seek truth. Help them to come to that realization that You are alive. Lord, for those who reject You because of the failings of man and those men who proclaim to represent You or claim to stand for the church, help them to know that You share those same feelings, that You too are against corruption and hypocrisy in the highest places to the lowest places, that You fought against that oppression. You fought against that sin. I pray Lord that they would not be a rebel, but they would bow their knee and surrender to the Lordship of Christ and receive You into their lives. Lord, as the chicks are received by that mother hen, Lord, might we allow You to put Your arms around us. Receive us unto Yourself. In Jesus name, we pray. Amen.