Sermons – Grace Evangelical Free Church // Wyoming, MN

Genesis 23 Sarah lived 127 years; these were the years of the life of Sarah. 2 And Sarah died at Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went in to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her. 3 And Abraham rose up from before his dead and said to the Hittites, 4 “I am a sojourner and foreigner among you; give me property among you for a burying place, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.” 5 The Hittites answered Abraham, 6 “Hear us, my lord; you are a prince of God among us. Bury your dead in the choicest of our tombs. None of us will withhold from you his tomb to hinder you from burying your dead.” 7 Abraham rose and bowed to the Hittites, the people of the land. 8 And he said to them, “If you are willing that I should bury my dead out of my sight, hear me and entreat for me Ephron the son of Zohar, 9 that he may give me the cave of Machpelah, which he owns; it is at the end of his field. For the full price let him give it to me in your presence as property for a burying place.”

10 Now Ephron was sitting among the Hittites, and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the hearing of the Hittites, of all who went in at the gate of his city, 11 “No, my lord, hear me: I give you the field, and I give you the cave that is in it. In the sight of the sons of my people I give it to you. Bury your dead.” 12 Then Abraham bowed down before the people of the land. 13 And he said to Ephron in the hearing of the people of the land, “But if you will, hear me: I give the price of the field. Accept it from me, that I may bury my dead there.” 14 Ephron answered Abraham, 15 “My lord, listen to me: a piece of land worth four hundred shekels of silver, what is that between you and me? Bury your dead.” 16 Abraham listened to Ephron, and Abraham weighed out for Ephron the silver that he had named in the hearing of the Hittites, four hundred shekels of silver, according to the weights current among the merchants.

17 So the field of Ephron in Machpelah, which was to the east of Mamre, the field with the cave that was in it and all the trees that were in the field, throughout its whole area, was made over 18 to Abraham as a possession in the presence of the Hittites, before all who went in at the gate of his city. 19 After this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah east of Mamre (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan. 20 The field and the cave that is in it were made over to Abraham as property for a burying place by the Hittites.

INTRODUCTION

What are we to make of this passage? It’s kind of strange, isn’t it? It gives us a few short verses reporting Sarah’s death and then lets us look in on an ancient Middle Eastern land negotiation. Perhaps the biggest question before us is why this story is in the bible. In fact, as I worked through the text this week I became increasingly convinced that answering that question is probably the best way to help you see the meaning and implications of this passage. For that reason, this sermon is structured around explaining why this passage is in the bible from a historical, theological, and practical perspective. Ultimately, as I think you’ll clearly see, all three come together to show us the unwavering faithfulness of God even through death. Through this text and this particular approach to it, it is my great hope to help you see the glory of God in new ways and therefore hope in God in new ways as well. Let’s pray that God would make these things (and more) so.

THE REASONS FOR GENESIS 23

As I mentioned above, it seems to me that the best way for us to understand and apply this passage is to consider the various reasons for its inclusion in the bible. Let’s start with the historical reasons.

The Historical Reasons

Certainly there were countless events between Abraham’s calling and the Israelites taking of the Promised Land that are not included in the bible. Once again,

Genesis 22:1-19 After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 2 He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” 3 So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. 4 On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. 5 Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.” 6 And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together. 7 And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” 8 Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together.

9 When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. 11 But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 12 He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” 13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called the name of that place, “The LORD will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided.”

15 And the angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time from heaven 16 and said, “By myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, 18 and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.” 19 So Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went together to Beersheba. And Abraham lived at Beersheba.

INTRODUCTION

The main question this text forces us to consider is this: Is there anything you would refuse God? Many in this room, I know, have made significant sacrifices as followers of Jesus (financial, relational, chronological, vocational, etc.). Truly, I know that most in this room earnestly desire to surrender entirely to Jesus as His followers. And yet, I also know that everyone in this room (and everyone on this side of heaven) is still holding back in certain ways as well. Some of the ways we’re holding back we know and some we don’t. Some we’re actively fighting and others we’re tolerating. But once again this is the question before us: If directly confronted by God, is there anything you would refuse Him? Is there a line you just wouldn’t cross concerning your finances, career, marriage, kids, friends, health, home, or family?

That’s the main question. Here are the main takeaways: (1) Obedience to God is always right, (2) obedience to God is the only path to true treasure, (3) obedience must be carefully discerned, and (4) Christ obeyed because we did not. I hope to show you each of those things as we wind our way through Genesis 22. Let’s pray that God would help us see them, believe them,

Colossians 1:15-20 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

How many of you hear this passage and think, whoa, that’s a lot in six verses? Me too. I’ve felt that all week. The great London preacher, Charles Spurgeon had this quote about the passage: “The text is a great deep, we cannot explore it, but we will voyage over its surface joyously, the Holy Spirit giving us a favorable wind.”

Will you pray with me that God would indeed give us a favorable wind?

Father God, we thank you for this morning. Thank you for life, and the ability to gather here today. We thank you for your son who is the Word and head of your church. Thank you that your Word, like you, is inexhaustible. I can’t possibly squeeze out everything this passage has to say or to speak eloquently enough to capture the glory that is here. I pray that your Holy Spirit would do what it does and speak through the preacher. Convict the areas where we are not worshipping Jesus properly. Comfort those who are hurting with the glory of Jesus. Save those who are still lost in their sins. May we all have a greater understanding of who Jesus is now and forever, and the result would be greater love for him and greater love for others. Father, I truly can’t preach apart from your help. Please send your Spirit to illuminate this text, empower this sermon and embolden us as a people. Oh Lord, with so many things swirling around us in lives, in our families and in our world, may we have greater faith that you are near, you are at work and through Christ hold all things together. Please speak to us now through this weak tool. Do great things. Amen.

Well, it’s good to be with you and have the honor of preaching. For those who are visiting my name is Mike, I’m one of the elders. I’m glad you’re with us this morning. This marks the fourth and final Sunday of advent. It also marks the final Sunday of standalone and topical sermons. For those who are new this Fall, you have experienced an unusual stretch for our preaching. Our usual diet of preaching is to work through a book of the Bible and let that determine the point of each sermon. It’s called expository preaching. But for a number of reasons, it has been a long stretch, going back to October that we haven’t been in a book for our preaching. Next week, Lord willing, Pastor Dave will get back to Genesis and working through the book passage by passage.

For the last four weeks we have had a different elder preach on Jesus the Messiah from a different genre of scripture. We saw the prophets and the Psalms promise the coming of Jesus, last week we saw how those promises were fulfilled with the coming of Jesus in the gospels. But even in the gospels, even when Jesus would speak about who he was, lots of people didn’t understand. The gospels are filled with stories of people, including Jesus’ closest disciples, who didn’t fully grasp who Jesus was or what his mission was. The prophets predicted a messiah would come. When he did come as an infant born in Bethlehem, it wasn’t how many expected it to happen. Even when he predicted things like dying on a cross and rising in three days, people didn’t really grasp that.

It wasn’t until after Jesus died and rose again that some understood. Here’s how Luke describes it in chapter 24 of his gospel:

Luke 24:24-27 Some of those who were with us wen...

My goal this morning is to help us see how Zechariah’s prophecy draws upon imagery from the Old Testament, promising fulfillment through God’s coming to his people through John the Baptist and Jesus Christ, the Son of God. We will then see how Jesus fulfilled these prophecies during his earthly ministry and what this means for us today, in light of Jesus’s promised Second Coming. For we celebrate Jesus’s first advent because we know he is coming again—the advent that we long for, as the Israelites of old, anticipated his first advent.

We’re going to look at a lot of Scripture passages this morning because Zechariah’s prophecy is rich with allusions to the Old Testament which are fulfilled throughout the New Testament. I’m not going to list all of my references this morning, but they are in the sermon text you’ll be able to find online.

Zechariah’s prophecy was calling all Israel to remember the promises of God. Through all the Bible God had been making and fulfilling promises. God’s faithful found hope and purpose in these promises—they clung to them in the face of slavery, famine, persecution, betrayal, and exile. What are you holding onto? What gives you hope and purpose? I pray that you will be encouraged this morning to turn to God who is faithful, whose word is sure, whose promises never fail.

The Horn of Salvation in the House of David

As we dig into Zechariah’s prophecy, we need to begin by recognizing that it is grounded in the language of the Old Testament. God made promises that Zechariah saw were being fulfilled. From the time the Jews returned to the land of Israel, out of the Babylonian captivity, several hundred years passed with no prophetic voice—no word from the LORD. But suddenly, while a priest was burning incense in the temple, “an angel of the LORD standing on the right side of the altar of incense” appeared to him.

The altar of incense was located in “the Holy Place, an inner room of the Temple, just on the other side of the “Holy of Holies.” The name of this priest was Zechariah. He was alone, “troubled,” and “fear fell upon him.” This was the first word from the LORD since the prophet Malachi, a contemporary of Ezra and Nehemiah, shortly after the end of the Babylonian exile, centuries earlier.

In Luke 1:13, the angel spoke to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijiah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.”

But Zechariah responded with a question of doubt, asking “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.” The angel rebuked Zechariah, announcing, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.”

Elizabeth did conceive. In her sixth month of pregnancy, Gabriel visited another—this time, a young woman named Mary. Mary was an unmarried virgin, betrothed to a man named Joseph. Gabriel told her she would conceive and bear a son. Mary responded, not in doubt as Zechariah, but in humility and willingness. Mary went to live with her cousin Elizabeth, and Elizabeth’s husband Zechariah for three months. I encourage you to read the account of their encounter in Luke chapter 1.

After Mary left, Elizabeth gave birth to a son.

O LORD, our Lord,

    how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory above the heavens.

    2 Out of the mouth of babies and infants,

you have established strength because of your foes,

    to still the enemy and the avenger.

3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,

    the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,

4 what is man that you are mindful of him,

    and the son of man that you care for him?

5 Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings

    and crowned him with glory and honor.

6 You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;

    you have put all things under his feet,

7 all sheep and oxen,

    and also the beasts of the field,

8 the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,

    whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

9 O LORD, our Lord,

    how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Psalm 8

There are two ways to approach this sermon series on Advent. Last week Pastor Dave covered a wide array of passages from the prophets to help you see how they foretold the coming of Christ. The same could be done with the Psalms. The New Testament writers are frequently quoting from the book of Psalms. The Psalms are used to establish Jesus’ suffering, to prove his messianic claims, the show his priestly ministry, to point towards him being the Son of Man, and to tell of the coming judgement. The authors of the Psalms longed to see the day in which salvation and redemption would come. We can see that now through the incarnation of Jesus, the crucifixion he suffered, the resurrection he promised, and his ascension into heaven.

So we could cross through a litany of passages in the Psalms and see how they point to Christ. That would be going wide. I have chosen to go deep. We are going to drill down into one passage. We will spend our time in Psalm 8 and see how it points to Jesus and his incarnation.

The beginnings of this sermon will not feel like an Advent sermon, but stick with it. We will be winding up a wooded trail where the view may be blocked, but we will end at the vast overlook of the glory of Jesus Christ. As we work through Psalm 8 this morning, we will see how it lays a foundation for the incarnation of Jesus Christ that will hopefully give you greater affection and delight in the incarnation as you sit under the glory of it. Just as the shepherds sat under the glory of the Lord as a host of angels sang praises to God.

In Hebrews 2:1 we are told to pay close attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. We are in danger of being so familiar with Advent and the incarnation that our minds will drift away from it. Neglect of thinking will lead to a wayward heart that will forget the majestic truths of God. Let’s be like Mary and ponder these truths in our heart. Proper, God-exalting feelings find their roots in powerful, God-revealed truths. So let’s think and ponder majestic truths this morning, so that we would revel in the glory of the incarnation of Jesus.

That is what Psalm 8 does and that is what we are going to think about this morning. Pay close attention as we work through five things that I aim to draw your attention to. There is massive glory here. There is Advent fuel here to make your heart burn with delight in Jesus.

1. God has displayed his majesty in his creation.

“O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” Verse one begins by using the word “Lord” twice. The first time it is used it is in all capital letters. The second time it is used it is not. The first LORD, means Jehovah. This is Israel’s personal name for God.

INTRODUCTION

As I’ve mentioned a few times already, for the four Sundays in advent each of the elders are going to preach on Jesus from a different part of the bible. This morning I’m going to preach on Jesus in the Prophets. Next week Kyle is going to preach on Jesus in the Psalms. The following week John is going to preach on Jesus in the Gospels. And finally Pastor Mike will preach on Jesus in the NT letters.

The overall aim of this series is twofold. First, it is meant to help you grow in amazement at the fact that Jesus’ birth was foretold in significant detail, long before—centuries before—it actually happened (first two sermons) and that it happened exactly as foretold (second two sermons). Second, it is meant to help you grow in amazement at the significance of the One who was born and what He accomplished (all four sermons). It is one thing for a person’s birth to be predicted long before it happened (that’s one kind of awesomeness), but it’s an entirely different thing (an entirely new kind of awesomeness) when the one whose birth is predicted is the Son of God and the everlasting savior and ruler of the world—which is what all of the Law, Prophets, Gospels, and NT letters promise and describe.

In short, the overall aim of this series is to fill your worship tanks with all the worship fuel the bible offers in order to help your Christmas celebrations to burn white hot—and to do so by showing you Jesus throughout the bible.

Likewise, the specific aims of this sermon, a sermon on Jesus in the prophets, are to (1) set the stage for understanding the way the OT describes Jesus (present and promised) and (2) give you a taste of the specific glory of Jesus as told by the OT prophets.

For all of these ends, and whatever other ends God has for us, let’s pray—humbly declaring to God our desire for His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, even as we acknowledge the great glory of Christmas as the highest expression of exactly that.

JESUS TAUGHT THE WHOLE OT POINTED TO HIM

The first two sermons in this series are based on a critical assumption. The assumption is that Jesus really is in the Old Testament; that we’re not wrongly reading Him back into the text. Clearly Jesus’ existence, incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection are critical parts of the NT teaching. And clearly Christians have always understood the OT to generally promise a Messiah. But does the OT really speak of Jesus? Is right to read the Law, Prophets, and Psalms as speaking of Jesus specifically? Jesus himself answers that question for us directly in the both Luke’s Gospel and John’s.

On the day of Jesus’ resurrection, as two of His followers were still trying to make sense of His death and empty tomb, Jesus came alongside of them …

Luke 24:27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

Similarly, in John’s Gospel, after healing a man on the Sabbath and being rebuked for it by the Pharisees, Jesus said to the unbelieving religious leaders …

John 5:39, 46 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me… 46 If you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me.

Again, the simple point for us to see is that Jesus Himself taught that the Law and the prophets—the Scriptures—acknowledged His OT presence, told of His nature, promised His NT coming, and described His saving work. Grace, Jesus made clear that He is in the OT; that the OT spoke of Him. Therefore, while the NT further explains Jesus, and while Jesus’ NT presence is of a different sort, we cannot miss the fact that He was every bit as much in the OT as the New. The question is, then, “What does the OT say about Jesus?”. For God’s glory and our good (for our worship fuel), the next two sermons are designed to help us look at some example...

INTRODUCTION

For the past couple of years Pastor Mike and I have acknowledged (too-late each year) that advent really sneaks up on us. More significantly, we’ve realized that it’s really difficult to fully embrace advent when you don’t hit the ground running. For those reasons, I’m going to preach this morning on preparing for advent. In other words, this week is about preparing for our preparation—as advent is the season of preparation for the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. In particular, I’m going to share with you five simple passages that ought to shape the way each of us engages advent. Two passages help us to see how NOT to approach advent and three help us to see how we ought to approach it in light of what advent really is.

Grace, before I pray, stop for a minute to consider what I’m saying. This morning I’m calling and trying to help you to spend the next seven days preparing well to spend the next 30 days preparing well for a birthday party. That’s pretty crazy, isn’t it? Preparing for a week to prepare for a month to celebrate?! It would take someone of extraordinary significance to warrant such measures. In fact, there is only One of such significance. What I’m calling you to only makes sense for Jesus Christ, for He alone is worthy. But Grace—really hear this—it’s the only thing that makes sense for Jesus Christ, for He is glorious beyond measure. Let’s pray together, therefore, that God would help us to understand that preparing for advent as a means of preparing for Christmas is good and right. And let’s pray that God would help us spend the next week preparing well to prepare well to celebrate the birth of His one and only Son, the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ.

LUKE 2:10 – DON’T LET ADVENT BE LAME

The first passage that I offer as an advent shaper (for yourself, your family, your DG, and your church), is Luke 2:10.

Luke 2:10 And the angel said to [the shepherds who were in the field near Bethlehem where Jesus had just been born], “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people.

The next verse, verse 11, is the key to all of this (we’ll come back to that in a bit), but the simple fact that advent is about an event of “good news of a great joy…for all the people” means that we can’t really approach advent appropriately and have it be lame. If advent is the season in which we prepare to celebrate the birth of the very Son of God, it ought to be filled with creativity and beauty and excitement and wonder and both physical and spiritual things to draw attention to its tremendous significance. It simply doesn’t make sense to lamely participate in something that is “good news” and “great joy” for “all people”. Again, the first thing to see here is that given what advent points to there’s no place for a casual, indifferent, or business-as-usual approach to advent.

Let’s ask ourselves, Grace, if an impartial observer were to look in on the way you engage advent would they be more inclined to think you’re celebrating something of OK news of a bit of joy for some people or good news of great joy for all people? Once again, the point of this sermon is to give you a chance to think about this with enough time to do something about it. Avoiding a lame advent requires planning and preparation, prayer and participation. Grace, give real thought to how you might make your time of preparation special. Give real thought to what events or decorations or activities you might try or what traditions you might start/continue to make advent truly appropriate to its meaning and significance.

ROMANS 10:2 – DON’T LET ADVENT BE WITHOUT KNOWLEDGE

It’s important to fight to keep advent from being “just another season”, but it’s at least as important to keep it from being exciting for the wrong reasons.

Hebrews 4:1-11 Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. 2 For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. 3 For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said,

    “As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest,'”

although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. 4 For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” 5 And again in this passage he said,

    “They shall not enter my rest.”

6 Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, 7 again he appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted,

    “Today, if you hear his voice,

    do not harden your hearts.”

8 For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. 9 So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, 10 for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.

11 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.

INTRODUCTION

We’ve just come off of several weeks calling on us to do various good, but hard things for the glory of God (missions, voting, and caring for vulnerable children). We’re still sifting through the presidential and senatorial wreckage of the election. In two weeks we begin advent which, for many, is the busiest, most hectic time of the year. What’s more, as you know full-well, for the better part of the last year we’ve been living in a time of exceptional uncertainty, fear, difficulty, isolation, division, and vulnerability. In other words, many of us are weary in fairly unprecedented ways. For all of those reasons (and, I’m sure, many more for each of us on a personal level), it seems good to me to preach on the biblical understanding of and call to rest.

In simplest terms, to rest means to abstain and recover from (mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual) work; to be replenished (in any or all of these ways); to be unproductive; to be at peace. Who doesn’t need a bit of that right now?! The bible has a good deal to say about rest. It is my aim in this sermon to highlight the most important aspects of its teaching and their implications for us. Specifically, the biblical keys for us to see are that God rested, God made us to need rest, God commanded us to rest, physical rest points to spiritual rest, and true rest is only found in Christ. And the biblical key for us to do is to rest; in every part of our being, rest; in Jesus, recover, be replenished, be at peace, rest. Let us pray, then, that we would all understand and find physical and spiritual rest in Jesus.

REST IN THE BIBLE

As I mentioned in the introduction, there are five keys to getting our heads around the bible’s teaching on rest. The first, and perhaps most surprising, is that God Himself rested. A biblical understanding of rest begins with the first person and place rest is found—God in the first pages of Genesis.

God Rested Even though He didn’t Need To

Before we get there, however, let’s be clear on something: God is omnipotent; all powerful. He has unlimited energy that never gets depleted. In other words God never had, has or will have a need for rest.

Isaiah 40:28 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary

Jeremiah 32:17 ‘Ah, Lord GOD! It is you who has made the heavens and the earth by your great power ...

Matthew 5:14-16 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to orphan Sunday. Our aims this morning are to help you see (1) God’s heart for and actions toward vulnerable children and (2) His charge to us (His people) to join Him in both (His heart and actions), (3) in order that every one of us who are calling on the name of Jesus would gladly work to bless kids who desperately need our blessing.

I’m going to attempt to help you see those things in a somewhat roundabout way. Our passage for this morning, for instance, isn’t obviously or directly connected to vulnerable kids at all. In other words, we’re not going to start talking about caring for kids by talking about caring for kids. What we are going to do is take a look at Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:14-16 because they provide a direct path from the nature of being a follower of Jesus to caring for the fatherless. Specifically, we’ll take eight steps together through these few verses which will lead us straight to Psalm 68:4-5 (God’s heart and actions toward the orphan) and James 1:27 (God’s call on our lives toward the orphan).

I’d like to say a very quick word before I pray. If you’ve been listening carefully to the sermons recently, and if you’ve done so (as you should) with an eagerness to live out everything God’s word calls you to, I imagine that you may be feeling a sense of overwhelmedness. Leave everything behind and hope in God in the face of the “impossible,” we’ve seen in Genesis. Give yourself, your money, and your kids to world missions, we saw during missions week. Scour the word of God for the will of God on every political issue, vote Christianly, pray for those who mean evil, and trust in God even if things unravel in our country, we heard last week before the election. And now, surrender your comfort and plans in order to care for vulnerable kids, we’ll hear this morning. Clearly God’s word calls us to each of these things, but actually doing any one of them—much less all of them—probably feels insurmountable. Three things: 1) It is. In our own strength this is impossible. 2) It isn’t. In God’s strength all things are possible. 3) The blood of Christ is sufficient for our every failure and the resurrection of Christ is powerful enough to change our hearts. Before looking to the vulnerable, then, let us look to Christ to be for us everything He requires of us.

Would you pray with me, asking God to fill us with His heart and a burden to obey His commands regarding the orphan, and all of that in and through and for Jesus Christ?

CHRISTIANS MUST SHINE – EIGHT STEPS

Beginning in Matthew 5 (and continuing all the way through chapter 7), immediately after Jesus began His earthly ministry, He took His first followers up to a mountain and shared with them what’s come to be called The Sermon on the Mount. Our passage, 5:14-16 was spoken near the beginning of the sermon.

Three verses, 69 words, one charge: Church, shine into the darkness in such a way as to bring glory to God. Let’s read the passage again and then follow it along its eight steps, straight to radical care for vulnerable kids.

14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

INTRODUCTION

I was born shortly before Jimmy Carter was elected president. I can’t remember politics playing much of a role in my family during my childhood. The first real memory I have of anything political was in 1992 when Al Gore made a speech at a community college near my home. I went because Bill Clinton had been on MTV (which I thought made him pretty cool) and it meant I could get out of school. I can’t recall anything he said, but I do remember realizing that it was kind of a big deal.

After high school I didn’t get involved in politics like many do in their young adult years. To this day, my main involvement is in praying for my leaders, doing my best to understand the issues and candidates when it’s time to vote, and thinking and teaching carefully about what God’s word has to say about how God means His people to engage in matters of civil government. In other words, because the bible speaks to the issues of civil engagement, government, and voting, I care about those things, but I’m a long ways from being a political junky.

With all of that having been said, though, it seems clear to me that in a time like ours—where virtually everything (including government and politics) is being de-tethered from a Christian worldview—it is especially important for us to learn what it means to think biblically about the issues that are front and center in our society. My aim in this sermon, then, is not to help you impress people with your whit or OWN THE LIBS or counter some mischaracterization of Christians as Trump worshipers or tell you who to vote for. Instead, my aim is to hold up the word of God for you in order that you might be “prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15) and know what it means to “be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution” (1 Peter 2:13).

For all of those reasons, you’re not going to hear alarmist rhetoric in this sermon. You’re not going to hear a call to vote for a certain candidate. You’re not going to hear me say that this is the most important election of our lifetime (even though it might be). Instead, you’re going to hear me try to carefully and faithfully bring the word of God to bear on this election; particularly as it relates to voting in a manner that is pleasing to God and responding in a godly way regardless of the outcome. In other words, the point of this sermon is to answer the question of what it looks like to for us to participate in this election season in a distinctly Christian way. To that end, let’s pray that God would truly open His word for us and His Spirit to us.

CHRISTIANS AND VOTING

This sermon consists of ten principles (with no sub-points! except #7) that, I believe, capture the essence of the bible’s teaching on Christians and voting. For your own sake and for the sake of your neighbors, I invite you to lean into each of them, pressing your current thinking and practice up against them. This isn’t everything the bible says about voting, but it is, I believe, very much the heart of it.

Voting as a Christian means…

1. God’s Word Is Your Guide

It is absolutely critical that we begin here. But this is not only the beginning of our understanding of voting, it is the beginning of a Christian understanding of everything. God’s word is our guide for life and voting.

I’ve covered this point recently—several times—and so I’ll simply restate the point and then share one verse to show you where I get the idea.

The point is this: God has given this world everything we need to know about God, ourselves, and all that He requires of us in the bible. It is our sufficient guide (we don’t need anything else) for living in a manner pleasing to God. Therefore, when it comes to voting God’s word must inform every circle we fill or lever we pull.