Grace in Tullahoma

Wk 2 | True Freedom

John 8:31-36

Not only is God good, but His commands are intended for our good and the world’s good.

Psalm 19:7 – The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple;

Deuteronomy 10:12-13 – 12 “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, 13 and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good?

There is a real right and wrong.

Romans 2:14-16 – 14 For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15 They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them 16 on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.

But, what if people disagree with you? Doesn’t that make truth relative? No!

C. S. Lewis famously noted how belief in objective right and wrong is inescapable:

“Whenever you find a man who says he does not believe in a real Right and Wrong, you will find the same man going back on this a moment later. He may break his promise to you, but if you try breaking on to him, he will be complaining, ‘It’s not fait’ before you can say Jack Robinson.”

The pastor, Voddie Baucham, explained it this way. The moment you hear someone say morality is relative, punch them in the face. When they ask why you did, just tell them that it’s what you really wanted to do. It’s what you felt was right. They will immediately disagree.

Objective morality is not always seen from our actions, but always from our reactions.

The moral law that God has written on each person’s heart and in His Word is inescapable. It can be denied. You can try to live contrary to it. But just like if you try to overcome the law of gravity you will get hurt, you will get hurt if you try to overcome the moral law that is on your heart.

Living the sexual ethic of Jesus brings true human flourishing.

But, doesn’t it often feel like it’s a hindrance? Following what Jesus says? It goes against what we want. We want freedom. What does it mean to be free? Is the person who does whatever they want free? I’m not sure they are.

Is an alcoholic, someone who is free to drink whenever they want free? I want you to think about this: are they free not to take a drink? No. They are a slave to their passions and pleasures.

Titus 3:3 – For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.

The truly free person is the one who is able to say no to alcohol. The free person is the one who is able to say no to looking at porn. Who is able to say no to sexual activity outside of marriage.

Freedom is not doing whatever you want. It is cultivating the right wants.

If freedom is doing whatever you want, nobody is truly free. People can’t fly or see through walls or become an elephant. If this is what freedom is, nobody is truly free.

Is freedom doing what you want without restraint? I’m not sure here also.

Think about this: Are you freer if you bang on piano keys without restraint, or if you follow the guidance of a teacher who disciplines and guides you? You know the answer. The instructor helps restrain your actions so you can use a piano as it was meant to be used. Discipline and restraint are necessary for producing beautiful music.

The same is true in sports. I used to think this in terms of people who knew the Bible well and things of the Bible, how they could just spout them out. I wanted that freedom. Now that I’ve been in PhD work myself, I see how they got there. From reading book after b

1 Timothy 6:11-16

Wk 1 | Trust God

Will we choose a pleasure-centered life focused on self-fulfillment, or will we give our lives away for a greater cause?

God invites us to ask what we are really chasing in life.

Jesus tells us we are to seek first the kingdom of God. (Matt. 6:33) How is this done? By loving God and loving our neighbor. (Mark 12:28-31)

How is this done? Jesus modeled it. Through sacrifice. (1 John 3:16)

*Story of a little boy who made a boat, lost it, and bought it back.

We know God’s love not just because He made us, but because He sacrificed for us.

The contrast between what Jesus has done and what the world offers couldn’t be more different. The world tells you to live for yourself; Jesus says to die to yourself. The world says to do whatever you want; Jesus says to cultivate the right wants. The world says to love yourself; Jesus says to love others as you love yourself. The world disregards truth; Jesus claims that truth is found only through knowing and following Him.

Who will you listen to? Who will you trust?

You have far more people speaking into your life than your parents or grandparents ever had at your age. Who will you trust?

How you answer this question influences every decision you make.

You may not understand why there are certain rules or why certain things happen, but you don’t have to. It starts with trust.

*GriefShare…talking about not having answers to our questions…We ask “Why? Why? Why?” Think about little kids and how they talk to their parents. What is the response when they ask “Why?” “Because I say so. Because I am the parent.” And that’s enough of an answer. We may fuss and throw a fit, but you know what? Our parents have a reason. And it’s rooted in their love for us.

We should trust our parents because they are older and wiser. They have been there and done that. You can learn from their mistakes instead of learning from your own. But there’s an even far greater reason you can trust them. Because they love you.

I want you to think about our heavenly Father for a second. Why should we trust God rather than what the culture around us is saying? Well, He is all-knowing, and all-good. But more importantly, He loves us.

1) He is all-knowing.

1 John 3:20 – For whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.

Psalm 139:4 – Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.

Psalm 147:5 – Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure.

2) He is all-good.

How do we know He is good? Well, first, the Bible tells us so.

Psalm 145:9 – The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.

Psalm 34:8 – Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!

Psalm 107:1 – Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!

Romans 12:2 – Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Secondly, we can tell He is good by how He loves us.

3) He loves us.

How do we know God loves us? Through His sacrifice.

John 3:16 – For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

1 John 3:16 – By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

Will you trust this God?

How you understand the character of God shapes how you evaluate His commands.

In the garden of Eden, Satan tempted Adam and Eve, the first humans, by trying to undermine their confidence in the character of God. He wanted to sow seeds of doubt in their minds and hearts about God. Did God really have their best interests in mind, or was He keeping them from something better? After all, the fruit they weren’t supposed to eat looked tasty to the

1 Timothy 6:1-10

John 20:1-18

wk 3 | Liar, Lunatic, or Lord

Mark 3:20-35

Intro and recap of series.

While many have asked and offered to answer the question, “Who is Jesus?”, no one can deny the evidence that He was a real historical person and that His life radically altered human history. As world-renowned historian Jaroslav Pelikan put it: “It is from His birth that most of the human race dates its calendars, it is by His name that millions curse, and in His name that millions pray.”

People of all different religions speak highly of Jesus. One of the main things people say about Jesus who don’t believe in Him as Savior is that He was a good teacher, or a great prophet.

The first message of this series, we looked at who Jesus claimed to be—God. He didn’t just claim to be God, but He acted like it. Based on this reality, C.S. Lewis, in his famous book Mere Christianity proposed a trilemma. Three options of who Jesus could be based on His claims and actions.

C.S. Lewis said,

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to … Now it seems to me obvious that He was neither a lunatic nor a fiend: and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God.”

If this doesn’t make sense to you, he even wrote it into The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. After Lucy went into Narnia and told her siblings but they didn’t believe her, listen to what Lewis has the Professor say to them about the situation:

“Logic!” said the Professor half to himself. “Why don’t they teach logic at these schools? There are only three possibilities. Either your sister is telling lies, or she is mad, or she is telling the truth. You know she doesn’t tell lies and it is obvious she is not mad. For the moment then, and unless any further evidence turns up, we must assume she is telling the truth.”

Jesus was either liar, lunatic, or Lord.

Was Jesus a liar?

If Jesus knew He was not God and taught and acted like He was, He would be a liar.

If Jesus knew He was not God, then He was lying. But if he was a liar, then He also was a hypocrite, as He told others to be honest, whatever the cost. If that’s the case, then we can say that would make Jesus unspeakably evil, as He deliberately told others to forsake their religious beliefs and trust Him for their eternal destiny. And He even died for his claims and actions.

If Jesus was a liar, He was also a hypocrite and a fool.

Could such a massive deceiver teach unselfish, ethical truths and live the morally upright life that Jesus did? This notion is ridiculous.

In his book Cold-Case Christianity, cold-case homicide detective J. Warner Wallace lists three motives at the heart of any misbehavior: financial greed, sexual or relational desire, or power.

Jesus wasn’t interested in any of them. He actually denounced all of these in His teachings. The New Testament writers tell us that He taught His disciples to give to the needy, and to not store up earthly treasures. And no evidence exists that Jesus was motivated by lust or relationships, but was a single celibate His whole life.

The Gospels stress the respect that Jesus displayed toward women, including tho

1 Timothy 5:17-25

wk 2 | Prophet, Priest, and King

Revelation 1:5

Read Revelation 1:5 – and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood

Does who you were in the past define who you are now? In a way, it kind of does. It’s neat moving back to my hometown and being encountered with my past. I took Hudson to baseball practice yesterday and a buddy I played baseball with from the time I was Hudson’s age was there with his child. It was neat remembering the past, because it matters and has led to who I am now. It’s much the same with the Old Testament and its relationship with the New Testament.

The Old Testament points to the New Testament. Everything that happened in the Old Testament has deeper meaning in the New Testament. In Jesus, everything in the Old Testament finds its fulfillment. So, in thinking through who Jesus is, it has long been taught that Jesus simultaneously holds the three offices that were the most important in the Old Testament. This isn’t just stuff for our head, theology to learn, all of this matters significantly to us. Especially in regards to our sin.

THREEFOLD OFFICE:

Prophet, Priest, and King.

Each of these offices were the most important offices held in the Old Testament. Each of these offices mattered, and each of these offices had a function, an important function. So, in thinking through who Jesus is, we need to think through what He does. How does He fulfil the duties of these offices? We will say that out of this threefold office, Jesus performs a threefold ministry.

THREEFOLD MINISTRY:

Prophets:

Spoke God’s Word.

Prophets in the Old Testament did what? They spoke God’s Words. That’s how we have a large part of the Word of God. When referring to the Old Testament, the New Testament calls it the Law and the Prophets. So, prophets spoke God’s Words to the people. They were the mouthpiece of God.

Called for Repentance.

Prophets spoke words of indictment against the people for their sin (Isaiah 1:4). And they called the people to repentance (Isaiah 1:18).

Pronounced Pardon from God.

Prophets didn’t just pronounce God’s judgment, though that’s what it seems like they did most of the time. They pronounced God’s forgiveness, mercy, and grace. Think about the minor prophet Jonah. He was called by God to speak God’s words of repentance to the people of Nineveh, but he didn’t want to. Why? Because he knew if they repented, God would relent. God would offer mercy and grace. And Jonah didn’t want that for them, but God did. And He does for you as well.

Priests:

Mediated Between God and Man.

Priests were the mediators between God and man. Man is too sinful to approach God. Priests had to be set apart to bridge that gap. And how they did it was through sacrifices.

Offered Sacrifices for Sins.

As mediator, the High Priest would enter the Holy Place of the Temple, where God was, and offer a sacrifice to God on behalf of the people once a year on the Day of Atonement (Lev. 16:34). He sprinkled the blood of the sacrifice on the mercy seat “because of the uncleanness of the people of Israel and because of their transgressions, all their sins” (Lev. 16:16). He did this year after year after year after year.

Kings:

Ruled and Reigned for the Welfare of the People.

The purpose of kings was to establish peace, prosperity, and welfare of the people they ruled over. They were to protect them from enemies, lead their battles, and ensure that their needs could be met. King David was the greatest of these kings of the Old Testament. 2 Samuel 8:15 explains David this way: “David reigned over all Israel. And David administered justice and equity to all his people.” The Bible even calls him a man after God’s own heart.

So, you see, prophets, priests, and kings were essential and of utmost importance throughout the Old Testament, and what they did mattered in

1 Timothy 5:1-16