Trinity Evangel Church

Automated transcript of the sermon audio, generated with OpenAI Whisper (small.en). It has not been checked against the recording and may contain errors, especially in names and Scripture references.

The author of Hebrews reminds us to not neglect assembling together as is the habit of some, but to encourage one another all the more as we see the day of the Lord drawing near. And so we have gathered to encourage and to be encouraged as we come to corporately worship our great God. And as we do so, we remember that our help is in the name of the Lord. Our call to worship comes from Psalm 22, 27 through 31. All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you. For kingship belongs to the Lord, and He rules over the nations. All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship.

Before Him shall bow all who go down to the dust, even the one who could not keep himself alive. Posterity shall serve Him. It shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation. They shall come and proclaim his righteousness as to a people yet unborn that he has done it. Let's pray. Father, we come this morning as an assembly of families to worship you and proclaim your excellencies. The day will come when all nations shall bow their knee and acknowledge you as Lord of all. Until that time, we will proclaim your righteousness to this generation and the generations to come. until the whole earth is filled with your glory.

May you find our worship this morning acceptable in your sight. We pray this in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen. You may have heard the saying, hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times. The theme you'll pick up on in today's liturgical pieces is generational faithfulness. It's appalling how often Israel was rebuked for repeating the same sins their fathers had been disciplined for. The pattern was repeated over and over until God finally gave them over to a spiritual hardness that persists to this day. In this Jewish version of the Bill Murray movie Groundhog day, we see a trio of sins that are not unique to them and serve as a warning to us. These sins are neglectfulness, self-rule, and forgetfulness. These sins build upon themselves, leading to the situation we find in Judges 17-6 where everyone did what was right in its own eyes.

The pattern we see starts when we are neglectful to read God's word, pray as we ought, give give him thanks, keep his commands, and repent when we don't. This results in an increase in sinful dependence from God where we begin to self-rule. We live without any real reliance on him. We become the foolish man mentioned in James 4 who makes his own plans without thinking, if the Lord wills, I will do this or that. It isn't long before this self-rule causes us to forget what God has said, and we find ourselves deeply ensnared by sin and often oblivious to it. This neglect, self-rule, forget pattern doesn't usually contain itself to a single person.

It slowly spreads across a generation who then fails to teach the next generation and its groundhog day all over again. Generations don't fall into this pattern overnight. It comes about slowly, almost imperceptibly. C.S. Lewis made the following observation, in Mere Christianity, good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance. It's the little foxes that spoil the vineyards, we're told in Son of Solomon. What spiritual habits are you neglecting? In what ways are you exerting your will over his? Have you forgotten your first love and rejected it with an inordinate love for this world?

If these or any other sins are coming to mind, now is the time to confess them to the Lord as we observe a moment of silence. And so if you are able and willing, you're invited to get on your knees as we privately confess our sin to him. So let's take that moment now. Father, we confess that too often, we profess with our lips what is not in our hearts. We put too much confidence in the flesh to accomplish what only the Spirit can produce. We vacillate between hot and cold in our desire for you. If it were not for your long-suffering patience, we would be undone. Forgive us for our neglect of basic spiritual disciplines.

Forgive us for times we choose our will over yours. Forgive us for allowing ourselves to forget how good and sweet it is to walk in obedience. And forgive us for not proclaiming your goodness as often as we should. We long to be set free from the sin that weighs us down. Thank you that greater is he who is in us than he who is in the world, and for your never-ending love for us. Thank you that when we confess our sins, you are faithful and just forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. May we not cheapen these promises by failing to take our sins seriously. And may we strive to walk in truth and obedience.

We pray this in the name of your son by whose stripes we've been healed. Amen. You're invited to stand. And our assurance of forgiveness comes from Isaiah 57. For thus says the one who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy. I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite. For I will not contend forever, nor will I always be angry, for the spirit would grow faint before me and the breath of life that I made." How amazing it is to think that God, who dwells in the high and holy place, also dwells with the lowly and the contrite.

That is true for us if we have made sincere confession and should make our sin this morning all the gladder and heartfelt. Today's scripture reading will be Psalm 78, verses one through eight. Psalm 78, 1 through 8. A Maskell of Asaph. Give ear, O my people, to my teaching. Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings from of old, things that we have heard and known that our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord and his might and the wonders that he has done.

He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments, and that they should not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God. Father, as we now take some time to reflect on your word, may you bless us from it, may we be encouraged, may we be exhorted where we need to be exhorted, As we reflect on generational responsibilities, where we're doing well, encourage us, and follow where we are in laps, may you challenge us to do better, that we might be found faithful to pass on the baton of faith as you've called us to do.

We ask this in Jesus' name, amen. When you consider Christianity's influence in our culture today, what do you see? Is it growing or waning? What examples would you use to make your point? Is there a recognizable trend? Various research organizations, such as the Pew Research Center, the Barna Group, and LifeWay Research have tried to answer that question. And here are just some of their brief observations. They note there is an increasing number of people leaving the faith of their childhood. And of course, the study was done within America. Fewer people in America identify as Christian or attend church. Many church-raged young adults are disengaging from the faith.

More churches today are closing than are starting. So some of that data would then, or all that data, would suggest that there is a general decline in the religious life of Americans today. Where you do see churches growing numerically, and there are some churches that seem to be thriving, it is often the result of Christians playing musical church rather than new converts being added to the faith, just people moving from church to church.

If you broaden the question to include Europe, it isn't very encouraging. Those who study religion in society now describe as post-Christian countries such as United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and France. They cite Canada, Australia, and New Zealand as being on the same trajectory with the United States not very far behind. Now this would all be very discouraging if it weren't for Christ's declaration that he will build his church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it, Matthew 16, 18.

The church has seen great revivals and major lapses in various times and places in its 2,000 year history, nevertheless there has always been and will always be a remnant preserved by God until Christ returns. This ebb and flow of the church has been noted by many pastors and theologians for hundreds of years, and churches have grappled with these cultural trends and sought ways to stem the tide and advance the gospel. For nearly 80 years, American evangelicalism has experimented with successive approaches to reaching the unchurched. And Dave, you're going to recognize a whole bunch of these. Evangelism Crusades, the church growth movement, seeker-sensitive services, attraction models, the home church movement, large multi-site campuses, and lately online church.

Many of us older saints in the room have participated in or at least seen these movements come and go. Despite these efforts, the broader trajectory of Christian belief and practice in American culture has continued to decline. Someone once observed, one generation believes the gospel, the next generation assumes the gospel, the third generation denies the gospel. If this observation is true, and it generally seems to be, then the ability of any local church to carry and advance Christ-honoring culture to their community is problematic. How can churches make a lasting impact on their communities if they can't strain three generations of faithful and fruitful believers together within their own fellowships?

Now, the main thought that I'd like you to take away today is this. If you're going to go to sleep, stay awake for the next sentence, and then you can go to sleep, OK? So here's the main thought. And kids, this isn't the three points you've got in your things. I'll tell you when we get to those. But here's the main thought. A lasting Christ-honoring culture is built when the generations within a local assembly work together to make disciples and build the body up in love. And let me repeat that again. A lasting Christ-honoring culture is built when the generations within a local assembly work together to make disciples and build the body up in love.

All other strategies for maturing a church and impacting the local community for Christ will likely fizzle out over time if a church's generational linkage is weak. Now, first blushes does not sound profound, but the more you unpack it, the more evident it becomes that most churches do a poor job of it, which is a major factor contributing to the current trends cited earlier. A good example of this generational influence is found in 2 Timothy 1.5 where Paul wrote to Timothy, I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and now I am sure dwells in you as well. The concern isn't merely about shrinking denominations or declining attendance. It's about whether our children, our our grandchildren, and those who come after will be blessed by God and who will be faithful witnesses to and blessings in their community. Recently I spent two weeks in Spokane visiting my son Chris and his family.

He's a teaching elder of a church about twice the size of TEC. One evening he and I got into a discussion on this topic and the typical generational dynamics you find in the local church as it pertains to passing on the faith. If you were to visit his church today, you would find a very vibrant and loving community of believers that's literally busting out at the seams. They keep expanding the building. What you wouldn't see are many adult children of the older saints who attend that fellowship. Now, there's various reasons for that, but too often it's because the baton of faith was not successfully handed off. And Chris acknowledged that this is a painful regret of many of the older believers in his church, but they're not unique in this problem.

I use this example to illustrate something that is far too common in many churches today and that the next new culturally relevant program that comes along isn't going to fix it. What would making disciples look like if all the generations within the fellowship put their collective efforts into it? How much more wisdom could be passed on if the generations were better involved in the disciple-making process? Both within the Newcater family and among the broader local church community. How much richer would the fellowship be? This weakness in intergenerational disciple-making is a significant contributor to the failure to make disciples who are growing and maturing.

Making disciples of Christ is something much bigger than just teaching people to get their Bible verses right and obey them. A lot of the effort in churches today is just about getting your verses right. Kids programs are very famous for that. Think of what Paul had in mind when he wrote to fathers in Ephesians 6-4. Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Paul uses the word pideia, which emphasizes forming the child, not just informing them of things. It includes teaching, skills training, correcting, encouraging, forming habits, as well as moral and character development. When you think about all these aspects of what Pidea entails, disciple making becomes a much bigger task than we typically think of.

He lays the responsibility for this training at the Father's feet, but it doesn't mean that the Father is the only resource for that training. This is where intergenerational and disciple making really helps. In addition to better discipleship, better intergenerational involvement would make for a healthier and more unified local body as all the members are built up in love. So with the time remaining, we'll look at each of three generations found in the typical church and consider both what that generation's focus should be and how that generation plays a role in supporting this disciple making process. So what is the primary role of that generation and how do they contribute to the disciple making process?

It's helpful to think of each generation as a season of life with a primary calling and when these callings are lived out, the church is built up and the goal stated in Colossians 1.28 is better met. Him we proclaim warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ. So these generational seasons I'm going to call the season of preparation, the season of production, and the season of preservation. Now while you won't find a Bible verse listing these seasons, they do help encapsulate the kind of work the Bible calls us to do over the course of our lives. Of course any generation can have elements of preparation, production, and preservation, but these callings do seem best to describe the primary calling of each generation.

So now kids, your first point on your kid's corner is the season of preparation. So we're talking right at you, young people, you kids. This is your season we're going to talk about. It's a season that covers childhood to early adulthood. This is a season to receive, to learn, and to become. It's a time for acquiring wisdom, developing life skills, cultivating unique gifts and talents, and growing in obedience from the heart. The book of Proverbs is about a father giving his son instructions for wise living. Proverbs 1, 8 through 9, here my son your father's instruction, and forsake not your mother's teachings, for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck.

Proverbs 4 and 1 through 4 shows the generational passing on of this wisdom. Hear, O sons of Father's instruction, and be attentive that you may gain insight. For I give you good precepts. Do not forsake my teaching. When I was a son with my father, tender, the only one in the sight of my mother, he taught me and said to me, let your heart hold fast my words, keep my commandment, and live. This This season of preparation is crucial and sadly often squandered, partly because of a child's own sin, partly because of a parent's neglect, and partly because of modern society's low expectation of youth. This low expectation was impressed upon me several years ago when I was at a bookseller's convention in Dallas, Texas.

I was talking to a distributor who was bringing into print Puritan authors. I asked if he had any books that were suitable for older youth. And so as he was showing me what he had, and he currently marketed to teens, he mentioned that when they were first written by those Puritan authors, they were writing them for their six and seven-year-olds. But we marketed them to teenagers today. The notion of adolescence is another example of lowered expectation for our youth. Historically, youth were generally expected to make the transition from childhood to adulthood around the time of puberty. There was no culturally recognized phase between those two stages.

That began to change as factors such as industrialization, compulsory education laws, and urbanization that distanced relatives from each other came about. And in 1904, the psychologist G. Stanley Hall published a work called Adolescence. His ideas were based on evolutionary theory, and he considered adolescence as a quote, a critical period that needed to be properly managed and guided through organized sports, scouting, character education, and separation from adult vices in order to produce healthy and morally upright adults, end quote. And I asked myself, well, how did that work out?

When you combine lowered expectations with man's sin nature, you see the problem that arises in this season of life. This season of preparation is a time for developing things such as character, sound doctrine, work ethic, friendships that uplift, vocational competencies, preparation for marriage, and commitment to church and civic community. Clearly, there's much work to be done during this season since it will lay the foundation and build much of the scaffolding that the young person's life to come. Parents, as disciple makers, need to examine if they are expecting too little of their children and repent of failing to diligently and thoughtfully prepare them for the next season of life.

Are you relying too much on others to give your children the wisdom, knowledge, and skills they'll need in life? Are you proactive in these things or merely reactive when a problem crops up? Are you training them beyond some minimal set of standards? If you don't know what I'm talking about, are you seeking to learn from those who have raised godly kids? This modern era has created countless ways for youth to spend their minutes, but are those minutes building towards something, or are they just using up time until the child magically comes of age and is expected to be a functioning adult? That is a problem, is we somehow just keep them alive and keep them fed and keep them dressed until 18 and say, bing, you're an adult, go out and do.

And they're like, look and check, what happened? To those of you under the age of 18 and still living with your parents, what is your attitude during this season of preparation? Say, kids, listen up. What is your attitude during this season of preparation? Do you grumble and complain about school? Do you despise the instruction of your parents? Do you push yourself to the limits of your giftedness? Or do you only do the minimally acceptable amount of work to keep parents and teachers off your back? Some of you kids are very gifted and you can get through life with your charm and just your natural talents. That's not good enough.

You push to your best that God's given you, which may be exceptional. If your best effort, if you work hard and your best effort, your best grade in school is a C, I applaud you. That's your best effort. But if you can coast and get an A and you're satisfied for that, that's a problem. You need to push. Do you embrace the faith you're being taught or are you just a good little parent who can quote verses?

Can you defend what you say you believe? Or could a good atheist pick it apart? And they do find that to be a problem today, is that kids that grew up in the church and they got all the IWANA awards, they go into the universities, and it turns out they can't really defend their faith at all. And a good atheist professor just shatters her faith in just a couple debates, because they don't know how to stand up and defend it. Are you taking dominion over your areas of responsibility? Your bedroom, what's it look like right now? Your chores, your schoolwork, your relationships. Are you becoming the kind of, I've got to stop and apologize for a minute, but this stroke still has some weird effects on me.

So if I slur my words or my emotions, see me in ordinate, it's just the strokes don't have a weird effect, so be patient. Are you becoming the kind of person you want to marry? Are you the kind of person someone would want to hire? Are you self-starting or does someone have to push you to get you to grow in any area?

These are questions you and your parents should be honestly asking. Nobody is saying you must be an adult now, but you should be actively becoming one now. Age doesn't make you an adult, training does. There's some of what I'm saying sounds overwhelming. This is where the benefit of intergenerational discipleship comes into play. Exposing children to saints who share their lives, stories, and wisdom helps build continuity of faith.

It broadens their perspective, shows them their problems aren't unique, and encourages them with stories of what God has done. The children can also learn many useful skills to spend time with older Saints. We're becoming a generation where we go hire somebody else to fix things. A lot of these old people in this room here know how to fix things. So we just get our kids to hang out with Mr. Massey. They can learn a lot of good life skills. To the parents of the nerve, I would suggest weaving more intergenerational relationships into your family's lives with a purpose to facilitate real life on life discussions, the benefits and blessings will flow both ways.

I should point out that this intergenerational benefit isn't one way. I say to the young people and kids, here you have no idea the power you have to cheer up an older person with a smile, a hello, or some simple act of courtesy. Don't be afraid to make eye contact and greet an older person. For many older saints who live alone or whose own children live far away, your simple act of kindness can really brighten their day and increase their joy. And so those in this season, they should always be thinking, what can I learn? So moving on to the next generation, I'm going to take a drink of water. I really don't like this, but it is what it is.

Thank you for your patience. All right, let's see. I'm getting my notes all discombobulated, right? OK. So let's move on to the next generation. This is a generation in kids. This is the next line on your kids' corner. This is the season of production. This is a season to build, serve, and multiply. And now I'm targeting what we would just call the normal adult phase of life. you're raising kids, you're out there. You're not old yet. Many biblical responsibilities find their foolish expression during this season of life. It's during this season that believers ordinarily marry, establish households, raise children, exercise dominion through their vocations, and serve the church and invest in the next generation.

This is the season Adam and Eve were created into and to which the cultural mandate found in Genesis 1.28 finds its fullest expression in the version of well. And God said to them, be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth. This generation's focus is to fill, subdue, cultivate, protect, and build. This ordinarily entails getting married, having children, running businesses, providing leadership, showing hospitality, caring for the young and infirm, and defending against all threats.

Proverbs 2029 cites strength as one of this generation's advantages. The glory of young men is their strength, but the splinter of old men is their gray hair. The work for people in this generation is to take whatever talents God has bestowed on them and work to be fruitful with them and multiply. The caveat is that this must be with the goal to glorify God and not simply pursue the good life. The wealthiest men today have achieved great things that we all benefit from, but they have missed the mark. Jesus asked the disciples, what does a prophet a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? The parables of the rich man call him a fool.

The fool calls him a fool who builds bigger barns simply so he could hoard more riches for himself. Simply working hard and gaining much is not the point. The wise man considers what he's doing that will bring lasting blessing to others. He builds for a god-pleasing future for himself, future that he himself may not live to see. His motivation isn't to accumulate enough wealth so that he can take an early retirement and cease from his labors. he has the generation following in his mind.

I often encourage men in this season of life with what I call the kiss principle. You may have heard the keep it simple stupid. I've modified it. It's keep it spiritual stupid. Every decision you make, every promotion you consider, every major purchase you make, the educational choices you make for your kids, whether to encourage your wife to work or not, All of it should be run through the filter of what is in the best spiritual interest of your family. Not what will let you retire earlier or let you live the definition of the good life, your definition of the good life. I suspect if men lived by the KISS principle, it would alter a lot of decisions that they make.

In addition, the wise man understands that one of the greatest works God has entrusted to him is building people. He and his wife labor to raise children who know, love, and obey Christ. They recognize that one faithful disciple will bear fruit for generations after they are gone. Unfortunately when it comes to discipling children, many Christian homes are failing to prepare them well for when they join their productive generation. It is tragic that so many young people reach this season with little to no preparation for it. Many are deferring marriage and vocation into their 30s simply because they are not ready or willing to embrace it this season.

This is often because parents fail to train the child and prepare them. We've already discussed the problem of low expectations. Those who study the labor market, as an example, report that of men aged 25 to 54, 11% or about 7.2 million men in America, 7.2 million men have simply chosen not to participate in the labor market. They're not even looking for a job. And that is up from around three to 4% in the early 60s. So from the 60s, we're three to 4% we're not participating. Now we're up to about, what I just said, 7% are not participating. That's a huge labor force going on. Just a side note, as an example, the CEO of Ford out in Michigan, he's got jobs right now that don't require a degree that pay $150,000 a year to work on the assembly line, and he cannot find people to take those jobs.

It's crazy. The concern raised by economists and sociologists is that these men are less likely to marry, engage in civic duties, or religious communities. They also self-report low levels of personal well-being. But the good news is that they're experts in Minecraft.

These effects are not surprising given that these men are missing out on their God-given calling for this season of life. Research into the religious beliefs of these young adults raised in Christian homes isn't very reassuring either. Studies show a large number of these kids come out of our churches do not hold a biblical worldview by the time they leave home.

Now it's tempting to roll our eyes at all these statistics and dismiss them as someone else's problem, but they are too common among our kind of people. I am currently addressing those of you in the productive generation. How are you doing discipling your kids? Who is discipling your kids? Are you relying on Sunday school and youth gatherings to do the work? I would suggest you quiz your kids on the fundamentals of the faith and see how they answer. Is it their faith or your faith they embrace? If you do not understand the fundamentals of the faith yourself, are you seeking to learn so you can teach them to your children?

As parents, your generation is the most influential when it comes to making strong disciples.

And conversely, you're the best generation mess them up. Several years ago the question was asked at a Christian conference with over 8,000 in attendance who introduced them to Christ. Not surprisingly well over 98% of the attendees said that it was their own childhood home where they came to faith in Christ. So the home is by far the has the biggest impact on a kid as far as how they're going to turn out in relationship to Christ. Once again intergenerational relationships can help you in the process. As your children relate to saints from all generations who demonstrate a genuine faith, it will help deepen their own faith. The key word in that last sentence is relate. Just seeing old man Jones in the second pew every Sunday isn't going to have much impact. They need to relate to old man Jones. Stories from older saints who have gone through deep trials has a way of reaching the hearts of your kids in a way that veggie tales just can't do it. Another benefit to having real relationships across the generations is

they can help with your blind spots. This is especially true between those who are raising kids now and those who have raised kids. For whatever reason there's a tendency for each generation to keep reinventing the wheel. By that I mean they choose to figure things out for themselves rather than benefiting from those who have gone before. I'm thinking of things like parenting, marriage, or finances. Now this isn't to say the preceding generation got everything right. My adult kids have said to me plenty of times, okay boomer, when I've gone off on them about the good old days. The previous generation got plenty wrong, but would it be better if you could build on lessons learned rather than always starting over by yourself again? So a person in this generation should always be asking, what can I build in terms of things and people? And that leads us then to the final generation. The generation I call this the generation preservation. So kids that's your third line on your kids corner. Ideally this

generation serves to provide wisdom and support to the previous generations. Culturally it is mostly assumed that this is the time to retire and and take it easy. Retirement, as it's typically viewed in practice in our culture, goes against the part of the Genesis mandate to take dominion. It is true that strength is coming to an end. These people have raised their children and perhaps wrapped up a career, but that does not mean there isn't work to do. There is much benefit to be derived from this generation. Some of what, hopefully, some of what they hope they've acquired over their life is wisdom, perspective, wealth, and godliness.

Of course, they now have more time as well. With regards to wealth, economists are now talking about the great wealth transfer that will happen between now and the year 2048. They project about $124 trillion will change hands during that time. Between now and 2048, over $100 trillion is going to shift hands. 105 trillion will go to heirs, and about 18 trillion will go to charities. That's a lot of money being passed down. This generation should be thinking how to use their wealth wisely to benefit succeeding generations. Proverbs 13.22 says, in part, a good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children. The point is that this generation should be actively thinking two generations down the line in how they can help.

Don't be just thinking about your retirement. Are you thinking about your grandkids and maybe your great grandkids that might not even exist yet? What are you laying out to help them get going? Economists note that today's younger generations are less likely to surpass their parents economically, reversing a trend that started post-World War II. After the war, each succeeding generation was economically doing better and better, but that trend has reversed, and now our kids are having a harder time economically, certainly in areas like this. This will become an increasing problem for the church as economic realities force younger generations to migrate to more affordable locations, thus impacting regular intergenerational connectedness.

It's just the bugaboo we deal with. Off to college they go, they find somebody, they get married, they live somewhere else, or economic sports and have to go somewhere else and the generations keep getting blown apart and we lose that intergenerational connectedness. The generations ought to have conversations about how they can mitigate against these trends. Two solutions that are gaining traction are passing on inheritance before death and multi-generational living. And this church does well on the multi-generational living front.

There are great benefits, of course, but also, of course, sacrifices involved. But are we older generation thinking about how can we maybe be passing on some of that generational wealth now to make it so that we can help our kids get into their first homes and begin getting established in this community? And then again, even if possible, multi-generational living is a tremendous way to do that. I mean, just as a side note, I have my daughter and her husband. They've been with us for three years into a one-year agreement. And it's been great. We think we're going to make it permanent. But in the three years my mindset's been, pass on generational wealth.

So I've not charged rent and just let them live there. But the son-in-law has been able to save enough money that he can literally take a year off and build his own business if that's what he chose to do. So just in three years, he's accumulated enough wealth to take a whole year off and just focus on building a business. That's exactly what I want to be able to do. The point is there's a need to come up with creative solutions into these economic realities. And I know there's a few people in our church that are already chewing on that problem. But beyond the need for economic preservation, there is a greater need for knowledge and wisdom preservation.

There are well-known examples of practical knowledge that have been lost to history. In just a few examples, Greek fire, which was nearly impossible to extinguish, Roman concrete, which can last for over 2,000 years. The concrete we make today decays in 40 years. They had concrete that could go 2,000 years under seawater. Damascus steel, which was known for its strength and flexibility, and the stratovarius violin, its unique tone. Modern science has been trying to figure out how to reproduce these. They can't figure out how did they do it. Somehow they got lost to history. So it's unfortunate that those technology losses may be far worse as the wisdom, the knowledge, and the testimonies of faith that our ancestors won't have had it.

Won't have had it? The sad fact is that as each generation passes, more is lost than is received. The old people in this room will take far more to the grave than they will have handed on to the next generation. The preservation generation has a duty to labor to make sure they are passing on the wisdom and knowledge they have gained over a lifetime. We would be foolish to make light of failing to pass those things on. Consider Judges 2, 7 through 12. In the span of six verses, we see all the people of Israel transition from worshiping the Lord to serving false gods. Verse seven, and the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua who had seen all the great works that the Lord had done for Israel.

In verses eight through nine, we read about Joshua's death, then picking up in verse 10, and there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord for the work that he had done for Israel. And then finally in verses 11 and 12, and the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the bales and they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers. Five verses. Scripture doesn't tell us exactly how long that period of time took, but it suggested that was probably about 50 years that it took from all the people worshiping the Lord. to all the people worshiping the Bales. We read something like that and think that couldn't happen here.

Really? What would an American Christian who died in 1960 think about our culture today, even our Christian culture? Politically, the Republican Party today looks very much like what the Democratic Party was in 1960, meaning both parties today have slid further away from the Christian values. Many of you weren't alive to see this change, but some of us here today did, which is another benefit to intergenerational living. Some of us frogs in the kettle, notice it's getting a little warm in here.

There are two observations pertaining to the preservation generation in relationship to the other generations. The first is that many in this season have largely bought into the retirement culture. The general mindset is, I've done my time so let the younger generation take over. At a time when they are freer than ever to serve or participate in discipleship gatherings, they opt out. This feeds the cycle of each generation figuring it out for themselves. They fail to lend their experience and wisdom to or work to the discussions. There's little to no contact with the preparation or production generations, and so there's not much transmission of anything.

At a time when perhaps they should be leading discussion groups, they are either not present or remain a largely silent presence. The second observation is that some in this generation would like to be more involved but withhold either thinking that they have nothing to offer or they sense that the other generations don't value what they have to say. Perhaps personal regrets such as waivered adult children or squandered opportunities when they were in the productive generation, holds them back now. Even if that describes you, your stories of lessons learned can benefit the next generation. Now conversely, if you are someone younger who looks at the mistakes of the older generation, thinking you don't want that, be careful with your judgments.

Focusing on the highlights or lowlights of a person's life rarely gives you a complete picture of the person. Provided those who came before you are humble and can honestly assess their wins and losses, there will be some valuable lessons to be learned. So a person in this season should be thinking, who can I prepare to replace me? Almost done. Hey, Niner. I must admit, this has been one of the hardest messages I've ever prepared. hard in the sense of what I want to say but trying to say in a compelling way.

My goal has been to both encourage and exhort us. I ask the Lord to help me not do that but I guess he never wants. I've just wanted to exhort us to think about these things. While this has not been an expository message, I believe it has been faithful to point out what the scriptures call us to. It's a topic that's been nagging me for most of my adult life. I remember being in my mid-20s when a young man much older than I am now, or not much older than I am now, stood up in a church meeting and announced that it was time for him to step aside and let the younger generation take over. I don't recall why he felt compelled to say that, but I do do remember thinking, Lord help me to never. My reaction to that moment in time was not based on a knee or desire to hang on anything. It's simply an aversion to the idea that there is ever time for a believer to say I've done my time. Yeah, I've done my time with the intent to step away from everything. So I hope this This message has found ears to hear, even if it was clumsily delivered.

I do believe this weakness in intergenerational relations within the Church, universal and to a degree at TEC, is a real problem, and a major reason why the Church struggles to sustain an upward trend over time. The goal of our life is simply, is not simply to arrive safely in Heaven, having believed the right things. The goal is to leave behind a people who know Christ better because we lived. Every season of life is a stewardship. Those in the season of preparation steward potential. Those in the season of production steward responsibility. Those in the season of preservation steward wisdom.

What each generation embraces, when each generation embraces his calling and equips the next, the church becomes resilient, families become stronger, neighborhoods become healthier, and cultures are built to last. There are many things that mitigate against this vision. Personal sin, children who don't know their elders, adults who prefer to go it alone, retirees who are on perpetual vacation, and a broader culture that lures us swipe after swipe to live alone in in alternate realities. The church must look radically different than this. When civilizations collapse, it isn't primarily because of economics or politics.

It's because of families of a failure to pass on godly faith and wisdom from one generation to the next. Let's pray. Well, Father, that was different. I hope and pray that through the blubbering and the slurring that that point was made and that you will have applied to our hearts what you want us to hear. As Phila prayed, thank you, that it was your design to have generations, teach successive generations and Lord we confess that our churches and our culture don't do a very good job of that these days and so help us fathers that really take to heart these things and to start doing a better job. That we will start hearing stories of five, six, seven, eight generations of continual progressive faith being kept.

As we continue now with our time of worship, may you just be pleased, Father, with all you see and hear. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Depending on how you define a generation, there have been roughly 70 generations of Christians that have gathered to celebrate the Lord's table since the time Jesus gathered with his disciples in the upper room. During that time, empires have risen and fallen, philosophies have come and gone, political systems have gained prominence and vanished, entire civilizations have disappeared. Yet for 2,000 years, Christians have gathered to teach the scriptures, baptize, and share communion.

A few other movements have lasted as long in name, but none other has lasted as long as we have, holding over time the same core beliefs. That's because the church isn't man-made. It is founded and built on the solid rock of Jesus Christ, and because of his spirit, and because his spirit is keeping the torch of faith passing from generation to generation through ordinary, but faithful people such as us. There is both comfort and discomfort in that thought. The comfort is knowing that generations from now, the church will still be gathering if the Lord tarries. The discomfort is in wondering if our particular thread in the gospel cord weaving through history will still be present or will it have been severed.

Your charge today is simple. So kids, you're first, listen up. If you're a child, go find an old person, smile at them, and say, have a good afternoon. And it has to be somebody besides Mr. Massey. But you can greet him too. If you're an adult of any age, don't be in a hurry to rush out of here. Greet someone you don't normally greet. agree. Consider including someone not in your usual fellowship network or generation the next time you are hosting a get-together and get to know their faith story and see how you might build one another up in the faith. To all of you consider seriously the generational season you are in and how you can own it better for the sake of passing on the faith. So the Lord will bless those who fear him, both the small and the great. May the Lord give you increase you and your children. May you be blessed by the Lord who has made heaven on earth.

If the theme of Luke’s gospel is that the found would be faithful, then we’d benefit from an example of being faithful. Before that, actually, we need one who is faithful for us, faithful when we were lost. We need a faithful representative, someone who is better than Adam, someone faithful from beginning to end.

We learn a lot in the account of Jesus’ temptation in Luke 4:1-13. Luke includes it as part of the preparation section before Jesus begins His public ministry. Starting in Luke 3:18 the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus at His baptism fulfilling Isaiah’s prophecy. Then the Father spoke His pleasure in the Son establishing identity. Then the genealogy showed Jesus’ human ancestry, not only with royal blood, but human blood, a “son of Adam” (3:38). Now Jesus will be tested in a spiritual battle against the great and ancient rebel. It is a battle of wills. Can the devil get Jesus to act on His own will instead of His Father’s?

The devil got the first man to fall. He didn’t beat Adam by force, he pulled at Adam’s will; Adam preferred his own way over God’s Word. The first man was in a garden with all sorts of food and with a woman to help. Jesus is alone, in the wilderness, hungry. Adam was tempted at a point of strength, Jesus is in a position of weakness. This comparison between men partially explains why Luke put the genealogy before the temptation account. The two sons of God are similar, and thankfully, also not.

Scripture records only a few direct battles between the devil and a man: Adam, Job, and now Jesus. But the devil came at Adam through a serpent, and he came at Job from behind the scenes; neither man saw his enemy. Only here does the devil come face-to-face.

There are three final temptations that come at the end of 40 days without food. Mark and Luke indicate that there had been testing throughout the 40 days (Matthew 4:1-11; Mark 1:12-13), but these three appear together at the end. Matthew and Luke have the same three, but put in a different order. Matthew ends with the devil promising kingdoms, Luke drives toward Jesus in Jerusalem.

It stands out that incarnate Word quotes the inspired Word in response to all three tests. God’s Word is relevant. It’s also remarkable that Jesus uses three quotes from Deuteronomy. I’ve thought many times about this question from Howard Hendricks in Living by the Book,

“When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1–11), He defeated the devil three times by saying, ‘It is written.’ All three responses are quotations from the book of Deuteronomy. I’ve often thought, If my spiritual life depended on my knowledge of Deuteronomy, how would I make out?”

There is more here than all the demons in hell can stand, so it’s worth our time to meditate. We’ll take the first temptation in context today. The question to keep asking: whose will wins?

The specific test doesn’t come until verse 3, but it depends on the context. Jesus hadn’t eaten for almost six weeks.

And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry. (Luke 4:1–2 ESV)

Not only had Jesus done nothing wrong to be in this position to be tempted, He was in this position to be tempted by divine appointment. He was full of the Holy Spirit, and being led by the Spirit. Could the second Person of the Trinity ever be disconnected from the third Person? Not in deity. But in His humanity, the Spirit descended on Him like a dove and was part of this testing outside the public eye.

Remember that Israel was tempted for 40 years in the wilderness, in between the exodus from Egypt and the Promised Land. The wilderness was “great and terrifying…with fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground” (Deuteronomy 8:15). They also hungered, and complained, and made idols. “They soon forgot [God’s] works; they did not wait for His counsel” (Psalm 106:13).

Verse 2 says the length of time and that during that entire time He was being tempted by the devil, an ongoing, or at least reoccurring thing.

Devil is diabolos, from which we get the diabolical. This name emphasizes him as the slanderer, the accuser. Matthew also refers to him as “the tempter” (Matthew 4:3). He twists words to lead astray.

Halfway through verse 2 a new sentence starts. Jesus ate nothing during those days, so when 40 days were done he was hungry, “famished” (NET). Matthew wrote that Jesus had been “fasting” (Matthew 4:2), intentionally food-less for sake of prayer and communion with God. Would He keep on depending?

It’s good to avoid triggers to temptation. Don’t put yourself in the way of evil. As we sing, be careful little feet where you go. And, in this case, not only was the environment Spirit chosen, Jesus had been faithful to this point. Faithfulness had put Him in a position to test His faithfulness. We need Him to not make excuses now.

They know each other. They’ve been at it for a while. What have the temptations been so far? Did the devil mock His servant suit (Philippians 2:7)?

The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’” (Luke 4:3–4 ESV)

This taunt is not a test of Jesus’ identity. It tests Jesus’ motivation. There are different ways (in Greek) to form a conditional if/then statement, and the way it’s phrased assumes as true that Jesus is the Son of God. The devil isn’t asking for a show of supernatural power in the miracle of turning a stone into bread. The devil is asking Jesus to use His power to serve Himself, like the Father isn’t providing.

“Don’t worry about the Father. Do what you know you need for you.”

This is why Jesus answers the way He does. He doesn’t respond to prove who He is, He responds to prove that He is submissive.

It is written, leads to a quote from Deuteronomy 8:3. And in context, Moses reminds the people that the Lord took care of them in the wilderness. He gave them manna, but they had to depend on Him. They had to trust His Word, that He would provide, and He did, every day. Matthew quotes the rest of the verse: “but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). Would you rather have a tent full of bread over God’s promise to give daily bread?

Note: “Your word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against You” (Psalm 119:11). The Word is a shield, a light, and food. Deuteronomy 8:3 affirms it’s a type of food. The Word was part of Jesus’ arsenal. How much more do we need the Word for as food and sword against the evil one?

The deeper point is stronger than “know your Bible”: all three replies to temptation come from Deuteronomy 6–8, Moses' sermon to Israel about their wilderness testing. Jesus isn't reaching for random proof-texts; He's consciously standing where Israel stood, forty days for their forty years, retaking Israel's exam and passing it. The LORD tested them to know what was in their hearts, whether they would obey or not (Deuteronomy 8:2).

It was a battle of wills. The devil wanted Jesus to act on His own will instead of His Father’s.

Whose will wins? That was the battle, and it is still the battle. Jesus passed the test that Adam failed in a garden of plenty and that Israel failed in the wilderness. The devil wanted Jesus to act on His own will; the Son would live on nothing but His Father’s Word.

Don’t let the devil convince you that he can get you a good thing faster than your Father in heaven. We know we can’t eat devil’s food, but we are tempted to get good things that it seems God is slow to give. Think: a spouse, vindication of your reputation, fruit from sowing and sacrifice.

So for your own battles, two things:

And trusting God in the trouble is not the easy road. Resisting is the only way to find out how strong temptation is.

“No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good. A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all, you find out the strength of the German army by fighting against it, not by giving in. You find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down. A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later.” (Mere Christianity)

Jesus resisted to the very end, so He is the only one who knows temptation’s full strength, and He is the one who helps the tempted.

For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. (Hebrews 2:18 ESV)

Don’t give in, AND, don’t think that being faithful is easy. Follow in the footsteps of the Faithful One.

Jesus said that in this world we would have afflicting trouble. He knew what He was talking about. He walked into and against the fiercest storm the devil could hurl at Him. Jesus also said, TAKE HEART, I have overcome the world (John 16:33). Beloved, He is faithful, so walk right behind Him.

Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. (1 John 4:4 ESV)

Automated transcript of the sermon audio, generated with OpenAI Whisper (small.en). It has not been checked against the recording and may contain errors, especially in names and Scripture references.

But in Marysville, we're celebrating life We're not celebrating pride because we worship the Lord of life our Lord is Life and we come to him for life That's why we gather every Lord's Day and to receive life from him and to be filled with his goodness we are nourished, we eat from Him. And as we start every week, so we start today, we are in assembling to look to our Maker and remember that our help is in the name of the Lord. Amen. And our scriptural call to worship comes from Habakkuk chapter 3. O Lord, I have heard the report of you and your work, O Lord, do I fear. In the midst of the years revive it, in the midst of the years make it known, in wrath remember mercy.

You marched through the earth in fury, you threshed the nations in anger, you went out for the salvation of your people, for the salvation of your anointed, you crushed the head of the house of the wicked, laying him bare from thigh to neck, Selah. Father, we gather as one people before you today to lift up your praises and worship you in spirit and truth. You have redeemed us from trouble and we can say with confidence that your steadfast love endures forever. We are here to celebrate your name with praise and prayer, remembering the Lord of life. Here we are before you on this Lord's Day to refresh our souls in the rest that you have brought us into. To come and drink of your word, to eat at your table, Lord injustice surrounds us, but we put our trust in you. Bless our worship. May it be acceptable in your sight. Use us to magnify your name. Amen.

The Apostle James exhorts us to be quick to hear and slow to speak. Proverbs 10-19 says, And words are many, transgression is not lacking, but whoever restrains his lips is prudent. And Proverbs 17, 28 says, even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise. When he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent. There is wisdom in silence and there is folly in many words, much folly in many words. The Bible is full of such exhortations. We've all encountered the sort of person who we would like to tell or advise to talk less and listen more. Sit down, be quiet. Maybe you'd like to tell me that. Maybe more often than not, that person is us.

The foolish man is only interested in venting his spirit. The world around him knows all of his thoughts because he holds none of them back. Some tongues are just too eager to open the door to the knocking thoughts. A little restraint will keep the household safe. Maybe we need a principle to combat the tongue that is too eager to speak. Maybe the principle should be just don't do it. When you want to say something, just don't. If you talk, there's a risk that you'll sin, so just don't talk. Also if you talk, people are going to expect something of you, so just don't talk. But actually, there are times when the sin is not in the words.

There are times when our silence is the sin. Specifically for us men. God was the one who gave us tongues. Words are God's idea. We did not invent speech. God opened our mouths so that we would use them. Yes, our tongue has been twisted and perverted into all sorts of sin. Men get creative in how they sin with their tongue. But sinning in our silence is no less destructive than sinning with our words. What was Adam's initial sin? It all happened so quickly, as sin does. Before we know it, we've gotten ourselves into a huge mess. Genesis 3, 6 is the explosion verse. This is the big bang, if you may. Genesis 3, 6.

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate and she also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate. Eve sinned by eating the fruit. But what was Adam's sin? So much happens here in just the one verse. In Genesis 3.6, the course of human history was changed forevermore. Verses 1-5 is humanity's watershed moment, right? The spring, the river is coming to a watershed. And as the serpent approaches Eve, Eve converses with him. The serpent gets her talking. He twists her words.

He twists God's words. And at that watershed moment, while the serpent is deceiving Eve, we could either go down the river as was initiated, that is, naked and unashamed. Adam and Eve were created to be in fellowship with their maker and in fellowship with one another. They were made for perfect joy and full delight in God and his creation.

could either reject the serpent's offer and continue down the river of delight, or it could steer the boat of history down the left side of the watershed into grief, despair, anger, and shame. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate. Eve took and ate the fruit of the tree. That was her sin. She then gave Adam the fruit that he ate. That was his sin. But was that his initial sin? God commanded Adam to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The instruction was given to him in chapter 2 verses 17 before God created Eve. Then in verse 21 God created Eve with Adam already holding that instruction. God took a piece of Adam and out of it made Eve, bone of his bones, flesh of his flesh. The instruction God gave to Adam, Adam was responsible to keep him and everyone that came out of him including Eve and

all of her children. Adam was responsible for keeping that instruction. It was Adam's responsibility to ensure Eve was protected from deceit. What does it say just before the last three words of verse 6? We generally attribute Adam's sin to those last three words of the verse. And he ate. That's where we think we see the fall of mankind. But But was that Adam's initial sin? Eating the fruit was Eve's sin, but where was Adam while Eve was conversing with the serpent? Adam was right there with her. She also gave some to her husband who was with her. Before Adam decided to join Eve in eating the fruit, Adam's sin was his silence.

He refused to speak in the precise moment when speaking was what he needed to do. In that watershed moment, what steered the boat to the left instead of staying course on the right, changing the history of the world forevermore, was not Eve's deception. It was Adam's silence. It was Adam's silence that destroyed his family. No matter what he thought in that moment, Adam could not get away with being passive. He did not have that option. Adam's passivity was active. It was Adam's passivity that actively steered the boat. None of us men can get away with staying silent in the moment that we must speak. If you speak when your wife is angry, you risk making her more angry.

So you choose to stay silent. And in your silence, you abdicate your responsibility to lead your wife. A man's passivity is always active. If you speak when your 15-year-old daughter can't figure out her emotions, you risk making a bigger mess of the situation. So you choose to stay silent. And in your silence, you make an even bigger mess than you would have otherwise. A man's silence speaks. And if you speak when those in charge are leading the people astray, you risk the metaphorical or maybe even at times literal gallows. The leaders will hang you for speaking up. And in your silence, you allow the people you should have stood up for to be taken advantage of.

A man's silence condemns him. Maybe some of you saw the news story this last week about a pastor in Louisiana who got arrested for beating up a heckler who threatened his wife, kids, and grandkids. This neighboring heckler has been jeering and slandering the pastor and this church for a few years, even during the COVID times they're having a lot of problems. And then this last week, while the pastor was outside of his church fixing a bus, the young heckler started yelling profanities at him, and then started saying that he will rape his wife, rape his grandkids, and murder his family the next time the pastor is out of town, and he won't be able to do anything about it.

So as the pastor approached to confront him, the heckler started swinging punches. So the pastor responded with his own punches and beat the heckler up for threatening to rape and murder his family. Whatever your judgment is of the pastor's actions, One thing you cannot condemn him of is staying silent while his church and family were under attack. The tongue is a burden of responsibility. And like any responsibility we bear, abdicating it is never the right thing to do. Should we be wise with our words? Yes. Are there times, many times, when it's better to stay silent, to choose to remain silent? Yes. But know that that is a choice that we make. The man chooses. He chooses to speak, or he chooses to remain silent. The man makes that choice. So it's not actually a right to say, when in doubt, just keep silent.

The man has no option but to choose, and the consequence of his choice, stay with him and remain with his family. Yes, we do sin with our speech, but we also sin with our silence. So if this brings to light sin, that needs confessing, or maybe there are other things that need to be dealt with now is the time that we can confess those. So you're invited, if you desire, and able to kneel in humble confession before the Lord and then all pray for us corporately. Father we confess that we are fools in our speech and cowards in our silence. We speak when we should stay silent and abdicate when we should speak up. Forgive us Lord for our silence forgive us for thinking we can get away with being passive. Lord because of our silence we've let the world take ground The culture around us steals and murders and gets away with it.

And still, many Christians refuse to speak. Grant repentance to your church. May Christians in our city, state and nation rise up for your honor as the line-hearted before. May we use the tongue you've given us to confess the Lordship of Christ over every domain. It's in His name that we pray. Amen. You're invited to stand for the reminder of the assurance of your forgiveness. Our text is from Psalm 32, verses 1 through 5. "'Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.

For day and night your hand was heavy upon me. My strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Selah. I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity. I said I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah. As we sin in our silence, so we are forgiven through our speech. We open our mouths and confess with our tongues. It's in response to our words that the Lord forgives our silence. In our silence, like David, we waste our way. In our silence, our strength is dried up. But if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

And that's the reason for us to sing. The reading this morning is from Habakkuk chapter 2 verses 1 through 3. I'll be out of the ESP. So Habakkuk chapter 2 verse 1. I will take my stand at my watchpost and station myself on the tower and look out to see what he will say to me and what I will answer concerning my complaint. And the Lord answered me, write the vision, make it plain on tablets so he may run who reads it. For still the vision awaits its appointed time. It hastens to the end. It will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it. It will surely come. It will not delay. Father, as we open your word, open our eyes to see your wonders. Amen.

SB 6346 imposes a 10% tax on a Washington state taxable income exceeding $1 million per household in order to pay for more government entitlements and handouts and other administrative expenses. More socialist endeavors that are already driving many productive business owners out of the state and leaving our state worse off. Washington State government contracts incorporate DEI metrics into project awards and hiring decisions demonstrating the sort of unjust partiality the Bible speaks against. Gay relationships are not only promoted and celebrated in Washington, but those who oppose such unions are vilified by the highest holders of our office.

The SHIELD law defines gender-affirming treatment on minors as protected health care. And SB 5599 passed in 2023 let our state take children away from parents who object to mutilating their kids. Washington state doesn't just encourage but forces fathers to sterilize and mutilate their own children. Our state calls evil good and good evil. The Washington state government paid half a billion dollars in legal claims in a single year for wrongs our government was proven in doing and is facing another $2.5 billion in pending liabilities. The state is sued and convicted by its own citizens and where does it get the money to pay the fines?

the same citizens through taxes. Where is the justice? If a crime is committed against you and the criminal is convicted, he does not pay any sort of retribution to you. Instead, you pay for his housing, his food, and fund his wages for however long his prison sentence is, not in order to bring justice, but in order to attempt rehabilitation. So you're stolen from, and then you're stolen from again. Abortion is enshrined as a fundamental right in Washington under RCW 9.02, the Reproductive Privacy Act. Our state maintains a stockpile of abortion pills, and just this March passed SB 5917, removing the requirement to recoup the cost, turning our state provider into a kill-pill distributor.

And then past SB 6182, it insured tax to fund abortion. Our land is defiled with blood guilt of child mutilation and child sacrifice, and the blood spring is still pumping. Washington state is full to the brim of injustice and corruption. These are just a few of the recent examples of the explicitly visible demonstrations of injustice. If we just scratch the surface a little bit deeper into land zoning laws, mandatory housing affordability fees, teacher unions, and backroom political back-scratching, the iceberg becomes a bit more visible. The injustice in our state is in good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over. So what are we to do? The book of Habakkuk is a relevant example for dealing with injustice.

Sean preached through the entire book a couple of years ago. You can find those sermons online. And I thought the book was relevant to bring up again for us on this June Life Jubilee as we meditate on the injustice being done in our state. So you can open up your Bibles to the book of Habakkuk. We'll be in that book. The book is Habakkuk's cry to God about injustice in the land of Judah, which is seemingly going unpunished and not dealt with. God replies to Habakkuk that he will punish Judah with the fierce sword of Babylon, of the Shaldians. And that did not give any sort of relief to Habakkuk. It only made things worse.

What kind of justice was that? Babylon is not the prime example of an upright ruler bringing the sword of justice on the rebels. Babylon is even worse than Judah. His sword is one of murder, rape, and destruction. So Habakkuk cries out to God again and then receives another answer. The interpretation of the book is fairly straightforward. The parties are all identified. There's no mystery about who or what Habakkuk and God are talking about. As the Lord commanded him, Habakkuk made the vision plain. So even though it's not about us, there is plenty of application for us in this short gem of a book, especially for our time living here in Washington state in the year of our Lord 2026.

It's hard not to grow callous, having to constantly tolerate injustice. We grind our teeth, we groan when we keep living our lives in this swamp. What can we do? And maybe that's the worst part of it all. What can we do? Not only do we see and are affected by the injustice, but so much of the time we feel helpless about all of it, not able to effectively do anything about the thing. That's the sort of situation that Habakkuk was in. In our helplessness, we too often respond by just venting about our condition, either to the people around us or on social media. We make our grievances known to whomever we think is listening.

Maybe on social media it's a little bit easier because We don't know if people are listening or not. But Habakkuk doesn't start there. He doesn't start by venting to other people. Habakkuk cries out to the Lord. He starts that way right away in chapter 1. O Lord, how long shall I cry for help and you will not hear? Or cry to you violence and you will not save? Why do you make me see iniquity and why do you idly look at wrong? Destruction and violence are before me, strife and contention arise.

arise, so the law is paralyzed and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous, so justice goes forth perverted." What can we do when there's nothing that we can do? We can cry out to God. Too often, God is our last resort. After everything we've tried doesn't work. After everything else when we've put already all of our chips into the middle of the table after all of our tactics have failed then when nothing else is left for us to do we cry to God in our desperation and that is good that's good if we eventually get there if eventually we do cry out to the Lord that is a good thing lest we forget that God is our deliverer sometimes God doesn't allow what we're working for to produce immediate fruit in order to bring us to our needs. So when we do that is a blessing. But how much more blessed would we be if our first action, not our last, would be to cry out to the Lord?

Habakkuk starts his cry by saying, oh Lord how long shall I cry for help and and you will not hear me." He's been praying for a while. He's been coming to the Lord about this repeatedly. This is not his first time opening his heart before the Lord. So with us, crying out to God should be where we start, not where we end up. If we're going to complain, if we're going to complain, we should complain to the Lord before we do so to others. God then gives Habakkuk an answer, which like I said, only made things worse for Habakkuk. So he calls out to God again. Habakkuk is an example for us when in the face of injustice.

We're going to be in chapter 2, verses 1 through 3, the verses that Jim read for us. And so if you're paying attention, I'm going to have three main points as we draw from Habakkuk's example in chapter 2 verses 1 through 3, 3 points. Habakkuk 2, I will take my stand at my watchpost and stationed myself on the tower and look out to see what he will say to me and what I will answer concerning my complaint. And the Lord answered me, write the vision, make it plain on tablets so he may run who reads it. For still the vision awaits its appointed time. It hastens to the end. It will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it. It will surely come. It will not delay.

The first thing that we can take from this passage is the need for us to stand. That's point number one. Stand. I will take my stand at my watchpost and station myself on the tower. When Christians read Jesus say, blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth, a lot of times they think that means that they should sit down. I'm supposed to be meek and humble, so I should get out of the way. But what sort of men were the men who the Bible described as meek? Although there were a lot of others with characteristics of meekness and humility, there were only two men specifically for whom the word meek was used in the Bible.

The first was Moses, Numbers 12.3. Now the man Moses was very meek more than all people who were on the face of the earth. Moses, the man who stood in the face of the sovereign of the Egyptian empire, the man who stood in the middle of the Red Sea as it parted and all the Israelites walked through just before stretching his hand over the sea so that the sea came down to kill all the Egyptians. The man who stood while the people he was leading were ready to kill and overthrow him as He asked the Lord to open the earth to swallow up Korah, Dathan, and Abarom with their wives, sons, little ones, and all that belonged to them, and they all went down alive to shew," the Bible says.

This is the man that the Bible calls very meek more than all people who are on the face of the earth. We don't define meekness. The Bible does. The second person for whom the word meek is used to describe was Jesus. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Jesus, the man who took a whip and beat people with it while overturning tables and driving them out of the temple. The man who when the lawyers confronted him about insulting them when he was speaking against the Pharisees, like he didn't know that he also insulted them, doubled down his insults against the lawyers.

The man who refused to back down to the point of torment and death. Both Moses and Jesus constantly refused to sit down when others would have had them too. And these are the particular men whom the Bible decides to call meek. We are to be meek before the Lord, so that we can stand before men when we must. But we can see where Habakkuk takes his stand. He takes his stand, he says, at his watchpost and stations himself on the tower. So there's a few things for us to draw from where Habakkuk is deciding to stand. First, Habakkuk calls it my watchpost. I will take my stand at my watchpost. This was his station. This was his place to stand.

This was the role God assigned to the prophet, and so that is where he stood. The role God has for us is where we should stand. In whatever domain God has placed us in his providence, whether or not we think we belong there, that is where we are. And that is where we must stand. Second, Habakkuk stations himself on the tower. Stationed myself on the tower. This is an elevated vantage point for Habakkuk and is different from where everybody else is standing. Nobody else is there. He's stationing himself apart from the rest of the people. Some might look at that and call it pride or arrogance. Who put you up in that tower? Who allowed you to be up there?

The way maybe they would have accused Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego for standing when everybody else fell down to worship the idol. And because those three men remained standing in the public square, they also remained standing in the fiery furnace. In a world going downstream, Christians must be accused of standing in arrogance, although that accusation must be slander. Christians mustn't stand in arrogance, but they must stand at an elevated vantage point. They do have a perspective the rest of the world does not. In a sense, they do stand above because God has raised them. We are to be differentiated. And third, Habakkuk takes a stand in a watchtower.

What does a watchman do in a watchtower? The watchman looks out for danger for the sake of everybody in the city. The watchman stands apart from others, but he does so for their sake, not to distance himself from the people, but in order to serve them. And so are we to do. In our assigned role, we are to stand apart from those around us in an elevated vantage point for their own sake. We may not yield or give ground. We are to remain standing. Thomas Watson said it this way, as feathers will be blown every way, so will feathery Christians. We aren't to be feathery Christians. Instead, as Paul said, we are to be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.

That's point number one. In the face of injustice, we stand. The second thing we take from this passage is that in the face of injustice, we see. That's point number two. See. I will take my stand at my wash post and station myself on the tower and look out to see what he will say to me and what I will answer concerning my complaint. What does the watchman do in the watchtower? He's watching, right? He's looking. He is seen. And what exactly is Habakkuk looking to see? Look out to see what he will say to me. Habakkuk has made his cry to the Lord and now he stands to see what the Lord will answer him. The seeing that Habakkuk is doing is not generative seeing. He's not choosing what to see.

This is receptive seeing. Habakkuk is patiently waiting for what the Lord will show him, what the Lord will answer. He is open to God for whatever answer God will give. And so there are three applications here for us. First, when we are standing to see what God will say, where are we to look? We are to look into God's Word to see what the Lord has said to us. We put our eyes to God's Word as we look to the Lord for His answer. The Christian who is not letting the Bible pour over him, who is not patiently looking into the word for God's answer, who is not searching and studying to find what the Lord has revealed, is not in a position to receive the answers that he's looking for.

And he's not in a position to be asking the questions that he is. God has revealed to us every answer that he intends for us to know. Deuteronomy 29, 29, the secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children, that we may do all the words of this law. So yes, there are many things that God has chosen not to reveal to us. Much of God's decorative will we won't understand. But we find solace in the fact that everything that God does want us to know, He has revealed to us. We are only to look. And we know that with the Holy Spirit abiding in us, we have the ability to see what God wants us to see.

God has given us His word and has empowered us with His Spirit. We are only to look and see. Second, the watchman looks to see, but he doesn't decide what he sees or when he'll see it. Like I said, his seeing is not, is receptive. It's not generative. And that means that the watchman's job is one that requires patience. The watchman sees and looks with patience. As we look into God's Word, not everything becomes clear to us right away. But we keep looking into it, wrestling with the text, letting the Word pour over us day after day, patiently looking to see what the Lord will say to us. And look at what Habakkuk is ready for.

He says, I will look out to see what he will say to me and what I will answer concerning my complaint. Habakkuk is not only expecting for God to give him an answer, but for God to give him such an answer that Habakkuk will have to answer back to him. Habakkuk's heart is open for God's answer to correct Habakkuk's perspective. Habakkuk's cry to the Lord was not out of line. He longed for godly justice. He was flinching the correct way and it hurt and grieved him to see injustice getting away with it. But as he makes his cry to the Lord and then as he stands to see what God will say, he is ready for his perspective to be changed. The Lord showed Habakkuk that he wasn't looking at the full picture. No injustice will be left not dealt with.

And after God showed him what is to come in the remaining chapters, Habakkuk is no longer crying in desperation. Rather, he responds by praising the Lord and faith for his coming justice. Those were the verses for our call to worship this morning. In chapter 3, O Lord, I have heard the report of you and your work, O Lord, do I fear. In the midst of the years, revive it. In the midst of the years, make it known and wrath, remember mercy. You marched through the earth in fury. You thresh the nations in anger. You went out for the salvation of your people. For the salvation of your anointed. You crushed the head of the house of the wicked, laying him bare from thigh to neck. God has revealed to us that no injustice ever gets away with it. All wrongs will be made right. So third, when we look into God's word to see what the Lord will say to us, we ought to look with a humble receptivity, ready for our own perspective to change.

In our seeing, we look to God's word, we look patiently, and we look with humility. And that's point number two. In the face of injustice, we see. And the third thing we take from this passage is that in the face of injustice, we say. So there's three S's for you. I did not go to seminary. I did that all on my own. Point number three, say, we stand, we see, and we say. I do it for my kids. That way it's easy for them to remember. Stand, see, and say. And the Lord answered me, verse 2, write the vision and make it plain on tablets so he may run who reads it. Christians don't have an option to remain silent. We may not. We are commanded to speak.

Teach, proclaim, declare. These are different words the Bible uses to command us to speak. No matter how dangerous our tongue is, no matter how much sin it produces, not speaking is not an option for the believer. We need to learn to speak well, to speak without sinning, But we must speak. We must say. When we look into God's Word, we see that it tells us to do so. Just like He instructed Habakkuk to make the vision plain on tablets so he may run who reads it. So in this section of say, first we are to say what we see. The Lord told the watchman, write the vision. What we see in God's Word is what we are to say.

Second, we are to make it clear. Make it plain, God told Habakkuk. But what about being winsome? What about nuance? What about caution and charity and patience? If a lack of nuance makes the message less clear, then yes, let's use new ones. And if a lack of winsomeness pollutes the message, then yes, make it winsome. But the goal that we're after is clarity in our saying. We are to make it plain. People shouldn't have to decipher what we mean or where we stand on the subject matter. It should be clear to them. Will others get offended? Maybe. But that's not what we should be concerned about. Our first concern is to clearly say what God showed us in His Word.

To say what we see. We are to make it clear. Third, we are to make sure it's not ignorable. On tablets is what Habakkuk was told. Not scrolls that could be rolled up and put away. not paper that could be burned or destroyed, but tablets that could be posted permanently, are saying should not be easy to ignore. It should be bold and potent. And fourth, it is to produce action in others, so he may run who reads it. Whether this running is a herald who is to run with the message, or the people who are to flee from the city about to be destroyed, the point is that the message produces a response in others. Our saying should lead others to act. That's the whole point. In the face of injustice, we are to stand, see, and say. We're just talking about this at our life to life this last Friday. What Glenn pointed out was that what What Christians ought to do is stand and speak and then remain standing.

When a world around us is giving way and falling apart, when injustice reigns and the innocent are destroyed, when the authorities are not only not protecting their people but are the ones whom we need protection from, Christians are to stand, to see, and to say. We are to stand where God puts us on an elevated vantage point for the sake of others. We are to look into God's Word to see His answer, doing so patiently, being ready for our perspective to change. And we say what we see, clearly, in a way that is not ignorable in order to bring others to action. And then what? What do we do then? We stood, we saw, we said, not like Caesar, I came, I saw, I conquered, a little bit different.

But still very close. There's also a conquering endeavor. The meek shall inherit the earth. Habakkuk 2, 1-3, I will take my stand on my watchpost and station myself on the tower and look out to see what he will say to me and what I will answer concerning my complaint. And the Lord answered me, write the vision, make a plate on tablets so he may run who reads it, for still the vision awaits its appointed time. It hastens to the end. It will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it. It will surely come. It will not delay. After we stand, see, and say, then we wait for it. We wait on the Lord. If it seems slow. Wait for it. It will surely come. It will not delay. The Lord is about to tell Habakkuk that he will judge not just Judah but the Shalden's. It seemed far away for Habakkuk but he was told to wait. The Lord fulfilled his word. Where There is Babylon today.

It's a desert. Who even are the Chaldeans? Trump is dealing with the Iranians. That's how surely God's Word was fulfilled. It will surely come. And that's how surely it will be fulfilled in our future. What God revealed to us, we are to wait for, knowing that it will surely come. Justice will come. Mercy will come. We stand, see, and say, and then we wait for it. And how do we do that? How do we stand where God puts us on an elevated vantage point for the sake of others? How do we look into God's word to see his answer patiently being ready for our perspective to change? How do we say what we see with clarity in a way that is not ignorable and brings others to action?

How do we keep saying that? How do we wait for the Lord? We do so by putting our faith in the sovereignty of our Lord. The very next verse is what triggered the running of so many in the history of the church. From Apostle Paul being ignited to spread the gospel to the Gentiles, to Martin Luther igniting the fire of the Reformation, Habakkuk 2.4, Behold, his soul is puffed up. It is not upright within him. But the righteous shall live by his faith." The righteous shall live by his faith is the fundamental cry of the Christian worldview. We've played around with the rallying cry, viva fide, live by faith. And that verse that Paul and James both quote in the New Testament, the righteous shall live by his faith, is given in the context of waiting on the Lord to fulfill his word, to bring about judgment on the wicked.

The context of that foundational verse in all of Christianity is putting our faith in God in the face of injustice. Whatever God has revealed to us, that's what we are to believe. And that's how we are to live. We are to live by faith. God didn't reveal all the things to the Old Testament saints as He has to us. So the object of their faith wasn't yet complete in the way that ours is. But as much as the Lord did reveal to them, as much as He allowed them to see, they were to believe. And they were to live by that faith. And so are we. And we know so much more. We have so much more to stake our faith and hope on.

God has sent Jesus Christ to conquer Satan's sin and death. Christ has paid the price for sin by nailing it on the cross. He was buried and on the third day rose victorious. Christ is our Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth in whose name is our help. It's on that confession that we stand. It's by that confession that we see and it's that confession that we say. It's because Jesus is Lord that we can wait for it. Brooks Pottinger is a pastor in Washington, D.C. It's the church that our Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, attends. I wanted to close with a quote from an article that Brooks Pottinger recently wrote. I thought it was relevant.

The article is titled, Faith Like a Stone Wall. So maybe he's trying to be provocative.

probably is, not ignorable. This is what Brooks Pottinger says, here's my call to you and I especially have the men in view at this point. Be a stone wall. In these topsy-turvy days of cultural chaos which only promise to get wilder as the election looms, be a stone wall. Resolve to trust in God's providence with deep prayerful and unwavering conviction. But don't do it for your own peace alone. Do it as an intentional act of love for your people. Know that they are looking to you to see how to respond to the uncertainty of our day and will mimic what you show them, be it faith or fear. Offer them faith. Strong, sturdy, joyful faith in a strong, sturdy, sovereign Lord. He is perfectly in control and he is always writing a better story. The righteous shall live by faith, waiting on the sovereign Lord as they stand, see, and say, Father, our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth. And we know that name. You have revealed yourself to us. You have sent Jesus Christ to come and defeat and conquer. To come and win. It is finished. He has rose

from to death and has ascended to sit at your right hand. And in that context, Lord, is where we live, in that context is where we stand. Lord, help us to stand sturdy and resolute. Help us to see clearly, to look into your word. Help us to say what you have for us to say. Bless us, Lord, in Jesus' name, amen. The Lord has judgment in store for the wicked. God will not let any injustice slide. Every sin will be dealt with. Every crookedness will be made straight. We do take solace in that. It's supposed to give us comfort. We are to be encouraged when we hear that. God will judge the wicked. But what does God have in store for his people?

What does God prepare for us? A feast. Psalm 23, you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. In the midst of our battles, in the presence of our enemies, the Lord sets the table and invites us to have a seat. As we stand in the midst of battle, we sit at the Lord's table. With injustice surrounding us, our cup overflows with blessing. Do we see it? Can you taste it? O, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.

So much of the Psalms is the psalmist surrounded by injustice, violence, and evil, crying out to the Lord and rejoicing in the goodness of the Lord while he's still in the midst of the injustice. While the enemies still surround us, we are too delight at the table of our Lord. Wherever we stand, God invites us to sit at the table that he has prepared for us and to taste and see His goodness. If we cannot see the goodness of the Lord in the midst of our trouble, our eyesight is skewed. If all we taste in our mouth is the bitterness of this life under the sun, our palate is not yet set. If our troubles have clouded out the goodness of the Lord, Our vision is out of proportion.

Our troubles do not overshadow our Lord. They submit to him, the Lord is good, taste and see. That is what this communion table helps us to see every Lord's Day. It is real bread and real wine that we partake in in the midst of our trouble. We are celebrating while in the midst of battle. And this celebration is a sampler of the Lord's goodness to us. The table that God is preparing for us is so much more. Saints of Trinity Evangel Church, your charge today is this. Don't be silent. Speak. Sing. And bless the Lord. This week you will have trouble. You will witness injustice maybe towards others, maybe towards yourself.

And in the midst of that trouble, don't grow silent in cowardice or in bitterness. Stand before the Lord, see what he is showing you and speak. Use your words to bless the Lord in whatever circumstance God has prepared for you. The heavens are the Lord's heavens, but the earth he has given to the children of man. The dead do not praise the Lord, nor do any who go down into silence, but we will bless the Lord from this time forth and forevermore. Praise the Lord. Amen.

We're back for part two, working through the title that was given to me for a conference talk. We took a whack at the first two protein packed piñatas last week.

Abraham Kuyper’s quote hits it well:

"Oh, no single piece of our mental world is to be hermetically sealed off from the rest, and there is not one square inch/[thumb’s-width] in the entire domain of human existence, over which Christ, who is sovereign over all, does not cry, 'Mine!'"

The goal continues to be to show how comprehensive our confession of faith is, and to increase our confidence in that confession.

It turns out that Kuyper's famous quote came in an address titled, "Sphere Sovereignty." Convenient! Kuyper was speaking at the inaugural convocation of the Free University of Amsterdam in 1880.

In his context, the state funded, and so the state controlled, almost every sphere of life. There was a state church (which Kuyper eventually left and then started a new denomination in 1887, that not only called/installed but paid for their own pastors). Likewise, all education, primary and secondary, was under the state, and so the "free" part in the Free University meant free--before God and uncontrolled by state or church--to study and learn.

Because there is a Lord above the state, the state is not sovereign. There are two implications:

It's reasonable to question if Kuyper got all his application correct with political pluralism, but this basic principle of the spheres is gold (maybe we could call it, General Equity Kuyperianism, ha).

There are three big spheres of authority as made clear in God’s Word: the family, the state, and the church. While Kuyper never gave one complete list of additional spheres, he certainly thought Education, Science, Art, Journalism and Media and Entertainment, Business/Economics, Military, and more were spheres (or worlds) of life that, while overlapping in some ways, all have their own principles and that all answer directly to Jesus as Lord.

Some think we’re trying to make the church the Lord of all. But that’s not it.

Kuyper started his vocational life as a pastor, but he eventually quit pastoring for other important things. He started a daily newspaper, a university, and a new political party. He was in parliament and then served as prime minister in Holland for a term from 1901-05. He did not get everything right. I mean, he mocked Chiliasts (i.e., Premillennialists, let alone Dispensationalists), can you imagine? But he wore himself out in building and fighting in Jesus' name. From the same talk:

[God's sovereignty or man's sovereignty are] the only two mighty antagonists that plumb life down to the root. And so they are worth people risking their own lives for and disturbing the lives of others."

Though out of order from the title, I think we should consider reality then loves.

One of the sincere, but short-sighted, emphases of MacArthurian preaching is what I might call Epistolary Evangelicalism. It's more or less the same narrow vision found in a Desiring God mindset, a 9 Marks movement, the Together for the Gospel and Gospel Coalition guys. And I get it. Christians are supposed to be devoted to the apostles' teaching (Acts 2:42), and we get that in the New Testament letters. The church is a big deal, the Bible is the only inspired book and ultimate authority.

But the Bible is bigger than the epistles. What’s more, the Bible itself says not many should be teachers (James 3:1), which means that it must be possible to be a mature, complete in Christ sort of Christian (Colossians 1:28), and not have that spiritual maturity defined by how you can lead a Bible study. (In fact, those without the calling or gifting to teach would be less Christlike in trying to do so.)

I'd add to that, most of our good new worship songs are almost entirely about redemption, which is worth praising God about, amen! But is salvation the end, or are we saved unto better image-bearing in our bodies on earth, being equipped to work and rule in the coming kingdom?

I know Genesis 1 was before the Fall, but that is where we learn the story of nature's beginning. What is the most significant word in the creation account? You could make a case for the word "day," but I think more significantly is the word "good" (7x).

We've got some Christians today arguing that family/spouse/kids are not good, that they are idols. We've got Christians who act like God was wrong to give us bodies, or extreme cases of professing Christians questioning God-given gender and sexuality. We've got Christians failing, in rebellion, to call good what God calls good.

The nature of reality is that nature is real, nature is God's, nature is good. Reality is not limited to good being only in the invisible or heavenly. While adjusting for certain distinctions, the blessings of God as sung about in the Psalms are not so heavenly minded to refuse to recognize earthly good. (“Blessed the Man That Fears Jehovah”)

We take the comments about creation as a display of God's power, which is right (Romans 1:20), but not complete. We should also take the comments about creation as a revelation of God's pleasure. He has power to sustain the cosmos, and He has sustained interest in it. God likes telling the sun every morning, “Come up again!” (Per Chesterton).

The Lord cares how the grass grows in fields no man can see and how hair stops growing in places a man himself can’t see. The Lord is interested in how generations honor each other, how neighbors, even in a nation, love each other. He likes how many hours are in a day, what type of clouds form in the sky. He likes thumbs that strum guitar strings, He likes thumbs that hold pencils and hit the spacebar, He likes thumbs that snap and pinch and hold paintbrushes and put bandaids on your kids knees.

As image-bearers made to reflect God, what does "likeness" to God look like? Or we could ask more specifically for believers, what does it mean to be "complete in Christ"? Confess that He is Lord, submit to Him as Lord, yes, and amen. And there is more.

Think about the great ministry mission in Colossians 1:28, to preach Christ, teaching and warning in all wisdom so that we and our people are like Christ. It’s near the end of the same chapter that includes verses 15-17.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 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. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. (Colossians 1:15–17 ESV)

Why does that context matter?

I used to think that it proved His preeminence, so you better pay attention, and that it demonstrated His power, so you better pay attention...or else. It’s a brute fact of brute force.

Those things are true, but isn’t it also to reveal what He cares about? If we are to be complete in Christ, won’t we care about what He cares about? We are finite, so we’ll never quite catch up. But our delights ought to grow in extent and depth more and more.

This is not exactly what ordo amoris refers to, but it is not unrelated. Ordo amoris means “order of love.” The idea is often credited to Augustine, who did use the phrase (and who was also one of the first and most influential Christian dualists, ironically, prioritizing the “spiritual” over the material). But it means there is a hierarchy of affections. We should love things according to their true worth in relation to God.

“it is a brief but true definition of virtue to say, it is the order of love.” (City of God, Book XV, Chapter 22)

Augustine’s Latin is: virtus est ordo amoris.

Love God first, love those who are in front of you next: your wife and your family and your neighbor, even your enemy. Love the ones whose sin affects you. Love the ones in the spheres God has you in. Love the ones you can put your thumbs on. Love local politics first, then your own nation's.

The Lordship of Christ over every thumb's-width matters as a first principle, and it’s comprehensive. So as a first application, remember that you answer to Christ in every sphere of life because He made the world to work one way not another, and He is causing our love to abound still more and more in reflection of His own cares. You not only are allowed to love what Christ loves, you must.

The ground is His, every thumb’s-width is His, and we are with Him. This is what drives courageous Christians for battling and building.

Don’t punt your loves. You will be tempted not only just to go through the motions, you will be tempted to see the weight of the glory of loving what God loves and think it too heavy. Christian, it is what He made and saved you for. Love the Lord, love all the things of the Lord.

Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. (Colossians 2:6–7 ESV)

This (almost puritanically long) title was given to me for a talk at a conference, which I am glad to take a swing at. By my count there are at least five parts in the title that demand our attention, and, if we do it right, our affections. The five parts are like five piñatas bursting with some kind of smoked meat; it'll be hard not to hit something tasty and full of protein for our faith.

So the goal for what I'm about to say is to show how comprehensive our confession of faith is, and to give us confidence in that confession.

It will take us two weeks to knock the piñatas down, and before the main course meat, I do want to give us a sort of shish kebab appetizer.

Bondservants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality.

A few observations. The theology we’re talking about—about the Lordship of Christ—affects how we see reality, and it is practical for our most mundane, and potentially frustrating, work on earth.

One relationship is determinative above all, our relationship to the Lord Christ. He cares directly. This is given as encouragement. Paul’s point wouldn’t be as relevant if everything was going great. Knowing that Jesus is Lord means we can deal with directions from (lawful) authorities that we think are dumb, and not feel the need to be dismissive or discouraged. The repetition/reminders that Christ is Lord would almost be obnoxious, except we need this kind of reminding. This is truth that does good work for slaves, and by application for everyone else.

These are fighting words.

Jesus is Lord. It is the most basic confession of the Christian life. "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead you will be saved" (Romans 10:9). In context, in first-century Rome, this claim was a political heresy. Jesus rules over Caesar. The promise of salvation for our sins and eternal life in Jesus is good news, and it's also good news that Jesus is the Lord of lords.

A few decades ago, in our 20th/21st century context, the statement that "Jesus is Lord" was a controversial statement among Christians. John MacArthur was at the forefront of the Lordship Controversy, "unleashing one verse at a time" to show that Jesus rules over our individual lives (The Gospel According to Jesus came out in 1988). It is as obvious as the Great Commission; Jesus has all authority in heaven and earth, and to be His disciple requires learning "to keep/obey everything He's commanded" (Matthew 28:18, 20).

Friends, it is not fantastic that in the church we've had so many pastors and theologians arguing against Jesus' lordship as if somehow this ruins grace. That's affected two things. First, it's tended to narrow the definition of grace to mean a covering for sin alone instead of a covering and a catalyst for obedience. Second, it's tended to imply that Christ only cares about a narrow portion of our hearts.

But since Jesus is Lord, there are no neutral spaces, in our hearts, or homes, or anywhere under heaven, which is, you know, a big area. It's actually been a lot of effort to get Christians to stop acting like there are religious and other compartments in their personal lives, and so it shouldn't surprise us that there are Christians acting like there are a bunch of public parts in culture where Christ doesn't matter. Some of us have even convinced ourselves that there are areas of public life where Christ doesn't belong.

Do we really need Jesus to do math or practice medicine? (If the state is Lord, then 2+2=5 might be the new math.) The price of oil is the same for Christians and Muslims and atheists, right? Aren't science and faith as un-mixable as oil and water? Doesn't religious liberty mean that we should be left alone to talk about Jesus when we want, but not that we should want to talk about Jesus when it comes to defining religious liberty in the first place?

This was what I thought as a young Christian and as a young pastor. I got through seasons at three Bible colleges and graduated from the Master's Seminary still thinking that the lordship of Christ was relevant for my soul/the souls of men and irrelevant, maybe even unhelpful, almost everywhere else.

Little did I know how much this quote/phrase would cause me so many and better problems.

Who knows how many times you've heard it. I remember first hearing "every square inch" late in 2004 in a message that John Piper gave about “Sex and the Supremacy of Christ.” I used the quote myself in a sermon about Solus Christus a few months later. It’s a quote from the Dutch pastor/politician, Abraham Kuyper. It's quite a quote, and there is a solar system worth of suns that shine from it.

"There is not one square inch in the entire domain of human existence, over which Christ, who is sovereign over all, does not cry, 'Mine!'" (488)

That is good; that'll preach. It's also just the second half of the original sentence, and also, it's not a great translation. The sentence begins:

"Oh, no single piece of our mental world is to be hermetically sealed off from the rest, and there is not one square inch..."

Hermetic means airtight or watertight, so all our thoughts can't help but touch all our other thoughts (there are no disconnected or isolated thoughts, let alone neutral ideas).

George Camp was the first to translate this from Dutch into English, and it was picked up and repeated by some mid-20th century theologians, but it is a disservice. I happened upon the better translation in 2011 in a footnote in the introduction to a book by Kuyper about worship. I can't stop thinking about it.

Our "one square inch" is the Dutch phrase een duimbreed (pronounced: "uhn-DOYM-brayt"). In God’s providence we have a lady who was born in Holland and raised speaking Dutch, and she and her sister were having dinner at our house the week I first read the footnote. Trying to not give anything away, I asked them to tell me what een duimbreed means. Before using any words, one of the sisters held up the thumb on one hand, and with her other hand pointed back and forth, from one side of the thumb to the other. I said, "so, a thumb's-width?" She said, yes, exactly.

There is not one thumb's-width in the cosmos that is not claimed by Christ.

A little further investigation has revealed that een duimbreed is often part of a Dutch idiom that is similar to our phrase, "wouldn't give/budge an inch." It's not just a measurement, it's militant, it's fighting words. The entire field is Christ’s, and He doesn’t yield any part.

"Square inch" is fine, but as the kids say, meh. An inch doesn't exist, it's a way to measure things that exist. A thumb exists. It's meat and blood and bones.

You have never picked up anything that Christ doesn’t own, or thumb-texted anything that Christ does not govern. Trump has never given a rogue thumb's up. Presumably Jesus never hit His thumb with a hammer even as an apprentice carpenter to Joseph, but our Lord Himself has thumbs. He knows and claims every thumb and thumb's-width in creation.

(For more verses that establish this, just without the use of the word “thumb,” think John 1:3, Colossians 1:15-17, Romans 11:36, Hebrews 1:3, Psalm 24:1).

I am emphasizing this because the sovereignty of God is easy to keep in two dimensions. The category is up in the clouds with Plato's perfect ideals, and less in a handful of Aristotle's dirt. I did not grow up a Calvinist, but when I did ask Calvin into my heart (that’s just a fun way to say it, not a soteriological confession), I was still a dualist. I have preached Kuyper's quote to honor Christ's lordship without actually honoring the fullness of Christ's lordship. No more!

The truth of this is exhilarating. It is as exhausting as it is exhaustive. It means that what you do with your thumbs matters, not just when you're flipping pages in your Bible.

Do you happen to know the context of when Kuyper said this? More about this next time.

But these truths are gifts to increase our thankfulness. “You are serving the Lord Christ” (Colossians 3:24).

What we believe fuels how we behave; ideas have importance. As the Word became flesh, so get your confession into three dimensions. May God renew your minds and bless the work of your hands. When others see the thumbprints you've left behind, let it be “Jesus is Lord!”

The LORD bless you and keep you;

The last half of Luke 3 gives us the briefest account of Jesus' baptism and the longest list of Jesus' family tree. We might want the baptism part to be more extensive, we might want the genealogy part to be in an endnote, an appendix, a part of the book you don't feel guilty about not reading while still being able to say that you've read the whole thing. But both sections mean something, and both have significance.

All four Gospels give an account of the baptism. It takes place at the beginning of Jesus' ministry. Luke emphasizes more what happens after the baptism. Only Luke and Matthew provide genealogies; Matthew starts his Gospel by establishing Jesus as the end of the chosen line through Abraham and the royal line through David. Luke starts with Jesus and works backward all the way to the beginning.

Both sections define Jesus’ relationship to God, as well as His relationship to man. He is the Beloved Son, the better Adam.

John the Baptist is not done working, but Luke is done mentioning him. John was the one baptizing all the people, and we know that John was the one who baptized Jesus from the other Gospels. Luke moves the focus from John to Jesus, and moves the focus from the immersion in the river and to the announcement from heaven.

What was the purpose of Jesus being baptized? Matthew’s account includes that Jesus said, “thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15). He didn’t need to repent, He had no sin that needed forgiveness, but He did identify with Israel and with their need.

Jesus had been baptized, and now He was praying. Maybe the least appreciated part of Jesus' life on earth was how much He prayed. Reading ahead in Luke, we find Jesus praying at key moments, which is only surprising if we forget that He was praying at all kinds of moments.

What was He praying? Luke doesn't say. But heaven responds to Jesus' praying on earth. First, the heavens were opened, always a dramatic sign, and then the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove. It is the same Holy Spirit mentioned by John in Luke 3:16, but this isn't the Stronger-One baptizing others with the Spirit, the Spirit is coming on to Him. The language connects to Isaiah 42:1.

Behold my servant, whom I uphold,

I've yet to read a satisfactory conclusion on why a dove. After the Gospel accounts the dove has been used as a symbol for the Holy Spirit. Luke emphasizes the adverbial analogy, the manner of descending was graceful. Other writers suggest more the adjectival analogy, the appearance had a bird-form. Why a dove? Apparently, because.

The Spirit descended and at the same time a voice came from heaven. The voice is not the Spirit. And based on the content of what the voice says, we identify the voice as of God the Father.

He says, "You are my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased." Or we could read it, “the Son of mine, the beloved” (ὁ υἱός μου ὁ ἀγαπητός). Compare to a different Greek construction in Colossians 1:13, “the Son of his love” (τοῦ υἱοῦ τῆς ἀγάπης αὐτοῦ).

All three Persons of the Trinity together in one scene. Who was this Trinitarian display and declaration for?

The last time we heard from Jesus was 18 years ago. He was 12 years-old, He knew He was supposed to be caring about His Father's business in His Father’s house (Luke 2:49). Whatever it looks like for God to talk to God, the Persons with each other, the Son knew His role. The Father and Son had already talked about the mission. But isn't it reasonable to think that the Son already knew the Father loved Him and delighted in Him? Was Jesus tempted to doubt it?

There is nothing wrong with a paternal exhortation, even a public one. And there is also something powerful about paternal joy. A public display of affection is not useless for Jesus and of great use to us. If the hearts of fathers and children are to be turned to each other (Luke 1:17; Malachi 4), wouldn't it look something like this?

Fathers, be easy to please, even if hard to satisfy. Your son isn't Jesus, but you could do worse than imitate your Father in heaven.

On one hand, there are no "fun" inserts in this list. It's just 77 "son of"s in a row. Luke's readers might not have also had Matthew's list (Matthew 1:1-17) to compare to like we do, which for us does provide some edification. But the direction Luke takes and the location of his list do mean something.

Why put the list here? Matthew put it before his account of Jesus' birth in Bethlehem. The list which goes through David (Luke 3:31) would have fit nicely before or after Luke's account of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem, "the city of David."

But putting the genealogy here makes us deal with Jesus' fathers. He is God's Son (verse 22), He is Joseph's son (verse 23), which we know is by way of adoption. He was the son (as was supposed), of Joseph. Joseph took care of Jesus as his own. He took Jesus to the temple for His dedication (Luke 2:22), he took Jesus to the temple for Passover (Luke 2:41). Joseph taught Jesus his trade as a carpenter. To those who hadn't heard about how Mary got pregnant, Joseph appeared to be Jesus' dad.

But the very next name after Joseph, and actually the 40 names between Joseph and David, are all different than the names Matthew has. What gives?

There are a couple legitimate options. First, it could be that Joseph's father, identified as “Jacob” in Matthew 1:16, died and his mom remarried a man named “Heli” who was also in a different line of David’s sons, through Nathan (1 Chronicles 3:5) rather than Solomon.

The only reason for Luke to use this list of a “stepfather” would be a prophetic fulfillment about Jeconiah/Coniah (a name found in Matthew 1:11), a descendent of Solomon, who was cursed: "none of his offspring shall succeed in sitting on the throne of David and ruling again in Judah." (Jeremiah 22:24-30, especially verse 30). Heli's ancestry avoided the curse on Jeconiah, but still went back to David. But the curse is also avoided with the second option.

The more reasonable answer is that this list traces back through Mary’s line. The primary objection is that her name isn’t mentioned, which is actually something. But Luke has been emphasizing Mary since the start. Luke includes the angel’s announcement to Mary, Simeon’s prophecy to Mary, Mary is treasuring things in her heart. The as was supposed in verse 23 leaves open not just the virgin birth, but that Heli was Mary’s father. It’s even possible that Heli had no male heir, adopted Joseph as his “son.”

So Jesus had David’s royal legal status through Joseph, and Jesus had David’s royal blood through Mary. Of course Mary isn't named. That is indisputable. But the as was supposed means more than just household appearances. It allows that Heli is Jesus’ grandfather, Mary’s father. whether or not Heli took Joseph as his legal heir.

Unlike Matthew who starts in the past with Abraham, Luke starts in the present and goes all the way to the beginning. The names from verses 32-34 are basically the same as found in 1 Chronicles 2:1-15 and Ruth 4:18-22. From verse 35, the lists are found in Genesis 11 and 1 Chronicles 1.

Jesus is not just the seed of Abraham, He is not just the son of David, He is the second and better Adam. He is Son of God and Son of Man.

These are details that Luke "followed...closely" and put into his "orderly account" (Luke 1:3) so that we could have "certainty" (Luke 1:4).

By working in this direction, Luke finishes with Adam. The next scene (Luke 4:1-13) is Jesus being tempted by the serpent, the devil. Not to give too big a spoiler, Jesus will do what Adam didn't. He will pass the test, and so He will restore what Adam broke.

So when He began His ministry He was about thirty years of age (verse 23).

Jesus is the Son of God, He is the Son of Man. The Father affirms His pleasure in the Beloved at the beginning, and will do so again at the Transfiguration (Luke 9:35). His relationships are defined: the Beloved Son to the Father in heaven, the better Adam among men on earth.

The genealogy isn’t irrelevant minutiae, it’s the credentials of Jesus to save us from our sin in Adam, delivering us from the domain of darkness. As Christians, we give thanks to the Father who has “transferred us to the kingdom of the Son of His love” (Colossians 1:13). Praise God, He has adopted us to Himself as sons (Ephesians 1:5)! “He has blessed us in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1:6)!

Come behold the wondrous mystery

Beloved, remember, the first Adam became a living being, the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. We have born the image of the man of dust, but by faith we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. The perishable will put on the imperishable because Jesus lives. So live in Him!

Finally, brothers, rejoice. Aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.

When the word of God came to John the point was clear: get ready for Jesus. John was the forerunner. He was the turning prophet, turning the hearts of the children of Israel back to God, and through God's Son. John proclaimed repentance, and he practiced a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

Luke introduced us to John's ministry in Luke 3:1-6. He came to work in a crooked context. He came to tell sinners about salvation. He confronted the religious leaders who didn't show signs of repentance or faith. He exhorted those who listened on how to live.

In Luke 3:10-17 there are some application questions, an identity question, and then verses 18-20 summarize John's ministry unto death.

In the first part, three different groups of persons ask John what fruit of repentance looks like. In the second part, the people taken all together wonder if John might be the Messiah. In both parts, John points the crooked straight.

John didn't reject everyone who desired his baptism. He was baptizing when more of "the crowds came out" to be baptized (verse 7) and he rebuked them. The people who actually listened to John's exhortations, the people in whom God's Spirit was working, were convicted and asked questions about what repentance looked like. “Okay, we accept what you’re saying. Now what are we supposed to do?”

John answers nothing "religious.” There's nothing "sacred" or even what we might label "spiritual." There's no need to head back to do something worshipful at the temple, no special sacrifice to do.

In general the crowds wanted to know, "What then shall we do?" John gives a clear answer, with concrete action. And for our own clarity, we need to remember at least two parts of the context to the answer.

John says, give. Give what you have to serve those who don't have; the Haves and Have Nots. The items involve human basics: clothes and food (see 1 Timothy 6:8). The tunic was a layer of clothes next to the skin, what you'd wear under a cloak/jacket. You do not need to give the shirt off your back, but if you have an extra and someone has none, help a brother out. So also with food. Don't let a brother starve if you can help it. In this case words "Be warmed and filled" aren't enough (Jams 2:16).

The fruit of repentance is practical, it is also personal. So remember the first part of the context: this is local, not global economics. See a need meet a need is one thing, obedience is required. Watch a YouTube ad about a need on the other side of the planet, maybe there’s a way you can help, but that requires more wisdom. The context is also not a call to economic marxism; we're not sharing common underwear.

And remember a second part in context, this is what fruits of repentance look like, not the basis of salvation. John did not proclaim salvation by works. Good and sacrificial works are not a substitute for repentance any more than the liturgical sign of baptism can substitute for repentance. But what's in the heart comes out.

The second and third groups are more specific, not just society but certain jobs. They are also jobs that most Jews probably despised.

Tax collectors just hardly ever catch a break. They must come forward because they wonder if it's even possible to be a repentant tax collector at all.

The tax system in first century Israel was layered, and stinky, like fertilizer. A guy would bid for a taxable parish, so to speak. He promised to bring in whatever Caesar wanted, plus some. He had to cover his costs. And he hired collection guys, who had a quota to fill, but there wasn't anyone "watching" to make sure that they only took their fair/fare share.

John does not say that a man couldn't do the job, he said do the job honestly. Collect no more than you are authorized to do. You don't have to change the world, you don’t have to argue with your boss about how bad the system is, but you do have to be straight with your neighbor.

Another group on the do-not-encourage list were soldiers. These aren't Gentile/Roman soldiers, but Jews stationed in various places. They also want to know if it's possible to do their job.

And as he did to the tax-collectors, John does not say to get out of the army. They don't have to quit, they do have to quit using their power to shake down the ones they're supposed to be protecting. Do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation, and be content with your wages. They might not make a lot of money, but not trumping up charges to harass and intimidate and steal money from others was a big deal. Be content.

From vipers to honorable vocations. Love your neighbor, and do lawful occupations lawfully.

The vibe was shifting, and people started to wonder if they were living in unprecedented times (they were). Was John the anticipated Savior (he wasn't)?

That they were questioning in their hearts doesn't mean no one said it out loud, it more means that it was a deep hope.

There were three groups with questions, and now there are three comparisons between John and Jesus. Jesus is stronger, His baptism is better, and He Himself is the Judge.

John made clear that he was not just a turning-prophet but a pointing-prophet. Look for the Coming One. He who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. This "Stronger One" is not a formal title, but maybe it should be. He is strong and great. Rabbis taught that even Hebrew slaves shouldn’t mess with another man’s sandals, like we might speak about the stigma of scrubbing public toilets. John says he's not even worthy enough to be that low.

And this coming Strong One will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire, compared to John baptizing with water. The immersion into the life of the Spirit we know now came later at Pentecost, what does the with fire mean? The best option seems to be connected to the illustration in the next verse which refers to two ends. Some of the crooked are saved and given the Spirit, some of the crooked are judged.

There is wheat and chaff. The same activity separates them, and their ends are completely different. The wheat is gathered, the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire. The fire is inextinguishable. The Barn or the Burn Pile, either heaven or hell. This is what John proclaims, it's what the Strong One will produce.

Here's the end of John's ministry, as Luke prepares us to follow the beginning of Jesus' ministry (see Luke 3:23).

John had the gift of exhortation. He kept on urging people. He preached good news, though John didn't have the message of death, burial, and resurrection (as we see in 1 Corinthians 15:3-5). The good news was forgiveness of sins. The good news was fruitful repentance. The good news was in the Strong One.

John also spoke to power. Herod divorced his wife in order to marry his brother's (also named Herod, and their dad was Herod the Great) wife, Herodias, making both of them adulterers.

John told tax collectors and soldiers how to be righteous in their vocation. Herod had a vocation too, that of a ruler, and his sins were vocational sins: an unlawful marriage, abuse of power, jailing the prophet who confronted him. Herod got the same call to fruit-bearing repentance the crowds got, but he refused it. He stayed crooked to the end. That's why Herod is chaff.

Herod locked up John in prison, and John didn't come out alive. John is referenced later in Luke, but he does not appear again.

Luke’s purpose for the book of Luke (Luke 1:4) is to give certainty that the teaching is trustworthy. This section confirms that John’s message fits with “the way of the Lord” (Luke 3:4), as in, the law of the Lord in loving your neighbor (Leviticus 19:18), and in the Lord’s teaching about the Golden Rule (Matthew 7:12). We might take it for granted, but John’s exhortations were consistent both directions. The word of God that came to John (Luke 3:2) belongs in the story.

The fruit of repentance isn't a superpower, the fruit is a simplepower, power to do the simple things generously and honestly and contentedly. Practical over pietism.

Righteous living adds up, not only in your reputation but in your neighborhood. What if a whole city had honest tax collectors and law enforcement who don’t take bribes? Multiply that and you’d get a civilization. That said, righteous living also ruffles feathers, and can cause you to lose your head (as John did). But the Strong One knows, and the winnowing fork is in His hand.

Are there common sins in your vocation? Don’t do those. Can you be generous, honest, and content? That’s good fruit.

Do you have fruit? Maybe it’s not a show on the internet, but it would be known to your neighbor. The crooked are saved, and the saved walk straight in the way of the Lord.

If you were a fruit-bearing tree, you could be absolutely healthy and you’d still only bear fruit one season out of four. Sowing, watering, weeding, waiting, these are vital even though the fruit is not yet visible. You must work before the harvest for there to be a harvest. By the Spirit of God, sow!

In other words, most of the race is not the finish line, let alone the off season. But you can’t stop running.

Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. (Galatians 6:7–9 ESV)

God saves sinners.

He makes the crooked straight. He finds the lost. God purposed to do so, He sends prophets to announce it. The salvation of the Lord is sovereign, it is gracious. Sinners deserve judgment, we all have sinned and have earned God's wrath. We are crooked, but God makes the crooked straight.

At the right time, God gave His Word to a man named John who prepared the way of the Lord. He came preaching repentance, he came pointing to the Christ.

Between Luke chapter 2 and 3 about 30 years have passed. Luke's account opened with an announcement given to the old priest Zechariah. The angel told him that he would have a son, that he should name his son John, and that his son would "turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God" (Luke 1:16). Here at the beginning of Luke 3 John begins that work of turning.

The Word of God came to John (verse 2), and Luke recognized John as the preparing-prophet expected by the prophet Isaiah; prophet anticipate prophet. John proclaimed a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. We might call his preaching negative, harsh, fire-and-brimstone. But it is also full of the hope of forgiveness, and clear in fruit.

God makes the crooked saved.

The work of John covers verses 1-20 and we’ll take it in two parts. Today we'll consider the context of John's work (verses 1-6) and the opening confrontation (verses 7-9).

John came crying out when the culture was crooked. The word of God came to John when things were a mess. It was a moral wilderness, a religious low point.

Verse 1 is long, and unnecessarily long if the only thing Luke needed to establish was the date. A reference to the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar is enough to put it on the world timeline. It was about AD 29.

Luke names seven men, five in the political sphere and two in the Jewish religious sphere. The first five are sort of like Russian nesting dolls (a fitting illustration used by Garland), and from Caesar to Pilate to Herod and Philip and Lysanias, there are levels and layers of crooked men. Herod is named again in verse 19, a key figure in John's story, bookending this whole section (verses 1-20).

A caesar (like a king or emperor) over the empire, a governor appointed by the caesar with regional authority, and three local tetrarchs, rulers over assigned territories though still under Rome’s power. This isn’t just historical information, it’s a jumble of political jurisdiction.

Even the two religious guys set a crooked stage. There could only be one high priest at a time, and Annas was the father-in-law of Caiaphas. But Annas was maybe like a mob boss, the one with power behind closed doors. (cf. John 18:13-27).

The whole thing was a mess. It was a crooked state, dominated by crooked men.

This is when the word of God came to John. John was not a scribe, studying the Law. He was not a priest, following the Law. John was a prophet, proclaiming God's message.

He was in the wilderness (verse 2), which is where we last saw him (Luke 1:80). The next verse shows John nearer to the population. But the wilderness was not only a geographical place, it was a symbolic place. He would use wilderness analogies in his preaching (stones, snakes, trees).

He proclaimed that it was time to prepare. He proclaimed a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. This is not Christian baptism, and no one today still practices John's baptism. It was a liturgical event that showed a change of mind, which is what repentance means. They needed to change their thinking, to reorient their lives.

Since it’s the first time we’re seeing the word in Luke, do you know where our English word "baptism" comes from? It's what's called a transliteration, when you make a new word by taking the sounds of the word in its original language and writing it with the letters of the destination language. Here the the Greek noun is baptisma related to the verb baptizo. It means to dunk, immerse, plunge, put under. It does not mean pour or sprinkle. There are nice Bible guys who say that immerse is not the definition. But John's work around the Jordan let him do full-body dunks in the river.

Luke recognized John as the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy in Isaiah 40:3-5. Matthew and Mark reference one verse, but Luke quotes more.

Prepare the way of the Lord. What was Isaiah referring to? Initially he looked to Israel’s return from exile in Babylon. But the glory of the Lord did not re-fill the temple at that time, and the King did not come. The anticipation, and the theme, are still relevant.

John cried out. He called for men to get prepared as God was about to work. God was even coming. So get straight (verse 4), and this is what God will do, make the crooked (skolios) straight (verse 5).

God is going to save sinners. All flesh is a reference to the global target of the gospel, even as the gospel is the power of God to salvation to the Jew first and then the Greek (Romans 1:16).

Matthew said this confrontation was specifically with the religious leaders among the Pharisees and Sadducees (see the almost exact message in Matthew 3:7-10). Luke leaves it with crowds. They are Jewish crowds, and they were coming out to be baptized.

John calls them snakes, you brood of vipers. It's an image sometimes used in the OT, and not in an inviting way. It pictures snakes fleeing a field on fire, and John thinks that these people know that the fire is coming. What made him think that their hearts weren’t right? How did he know? He was filled with the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:15), and he may have picked up on their conversations and their vibes.

He exhorts them to prove their repentance. This is not just preparing for Jesus, this is pre-cross. Even still, John isn't offering a way to work oneself into salvation. He's saying that real repentance has real fruit. So, straighten up.

Those who heard him were thinking to themselves that they were okay because they were part of the right group. But being right with God has never been about genetics, even though sons of Abraham are more responsible because they've had the revelation about the Lord. “Don’t even think that.”

God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. The stones are not getting saved in this hyperbole, they are giving birth.

The image of the axe...to the root pictures being cut off, cut down, severed, ready for the burn pile.

The crowd was full of crooked men. They needed to be made saved.

John was a prophet preparing sinners to receive the Lord, not a pastor preparing saints to follow the Lord. He was a rough man with a sharp message.

Are there any “vipers” at TEC? Do we have those who think they’re good with God because they usually come to church on Sundays? By God’s grace, our flock is not quite in the wilderness.

And yet, like the Jews in John’s day, God has given many promises—and fulfillments—that people take for granted. There are many who profess faith in Christ who do not possess Christ, who are not possessed by Him. They do not give attention to the Word of God. Their lives are crooked even if they use the name of Christ. John’s call to repent in Luke 3 is to religious crowds, so do not be surprised if “Christians” need to be saved.

What kind of fruit does repentance produce? Verses 10-14 raise that very question, and John gives very concrete answers. We'll look at them next week.

God makes the crooked straight.

Christian, your life is in Christ. You are in Him, He is in you. You want to see fruit of your faith, and good. So abide in the Vine. Apart from Him you can do nothing. As you abide in Him and as His words abide in you, you will be much fruit, and so the Father is glorified.

And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. (Philippians 1:9–11 ESV)

In what is arguably the key verse in Luke, Jesus says, “For the Son of Many came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10). In this story, the Son of God is “lost,” at least to His earthly parents. They need to find Him, though He says He was right where He belonged.

Only Luke includes this story in Jesus’ life. It is also the only text of Scripture in which Jesus Himself speaks before He began His public ministry. Jesus is 12, on the front steps of manhood, an astonishing adolescent.

Why did Luke include it? So far angels have witnessed to the identity of Jesus, before and after His birth. Shepherds and strangers have witnessed to the identity of Jesus. And now Jesus Himself speaks about His identity. He knows who He is, where He belongs, who is Father is, and what He was supposed to be doing. It turns out pre-teens can know some things. This story is included so we can know about Jesus, and know those things for certain.

It was typical for Jewish boys to begin studying God’s Law in earnest around 12 years old heading toward Bar Mitzvah at 13, affirmed as a “son of the commandment” and so responsible to obey. This is a year before that, and Jesus shows a surprising amount of maturity and understanding. His behavior also reveals significant lack of understanding even from Joseph and Mary.

Men in Israel were called to Jerusalem for three feasts every year: Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. It's time for the Passover feast in the spring, and apparently Joseph and Mary made it their annual habit to go together. Whether or not they took their son with them on previous trips, Jesus came with them when He was twelve years-old.

They stayed until the feast was ended which meant staying for seven days. Then it was time to head home, but Jesus did not leave with them. It was a group trip, a caravan from Nazareth or at least the region. There were family members and friends. If they did not go through Samaria, the trip from Nazareth to Jerusalem was around 80 miles, about a four day journey at 20 miles per day. That's a lot of vulnerability, and going in a group made travel a bit more secure.

Luke doesn't say how many were in the group, but it was enough for a 12 year-old to get lost in. (They apparently didn't number off like we do for our Raggant Romps.)

Jesus certainly knew that the group was leaving. He'd have been with His parents every night, and they'd have discussed the plans. But in the morning as everyone had breakfast and made final packing choices, the boys must have been playing or doing something, and when the group started out Jesus stayed behind.

Joseph and Mary didn't concern themselves about it until finishing a full day of walking (verse 44). They assumed Jesus was just somewhere else in the caravan. But Jesus was not among them, and the relatives and acquaintances couldn't say where He was either. So in the morning they backtracked.

By the time they found Jesus it had been three days, counting day one out, day two back, on the third day found. And they found Jesus in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions (verse 46). This is presumably then the third day of Jesus having the conversations. Why didn't He do this while the Passover activities were happening? What was He doing at night, and how did He fend for Himself in terms of things to eat and a place to sleep? He didn’t notice that Joseph and Mary were gone?

This may be the nicest way Luke talks about the religious leaders in the whole book. This is the only time he refers to them as teachers, and Jesus is conversing not condemning.

Everyone is impressed. They are amazed at what the boy knew and the answers He gave (verse 47).

But Mary doesn't ask how He got His understanding, she asks how He could not understand how she and Joseph are feeling? Son, why have you treated us so? (verse 48) “What have you done to us?” A son should know better. They've been worried about Him. It caused them great distress that they didn't know where He was. How can He be so insensitive, even disrespectful? They’ve been “anxiously looking” (NASB).

There might be only one twelve year-old on the planet that could have replied the way Jesus replied and not have it be adding smart-aleck insult to injury. Kids: do not try this at church. We know Jesus did not sin, we see that His parents don't rebuke Him, nor do any of the "teachers." It's not sin, but it certainly is a kind of nerve. It looks aloof, though He's fully aware of where He belongs.

We’d expect a son to say something like, “Sorry, mom, I got lost in discussion, and sorry I didn’t tell you where I was.”

But instead He said, Why were you looking for me? This has to be rhetorical, not actual. He didn't think that they wouldn't care. Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?

Mary had just said, “your father and I” were looking, and Jesus refers to His other Father.

There is also a translation question, though it's more interesting than solving. There is a missing word: “in the … of my Father it is necessary (for me) to be.” There's an article (dative plural), but no (dative plural) noun, and that expects something as understood. One way to understand it, as the ESV, is that Jesus knew He needed to be in His Father's house, so the Temple. Another way to understand it, so the KJV, is that Jesus knew He needed to be about His Father's business, as in, learning and teaching the things of Scripture.

Doing the ministry isn't dependent on a place, but being in a place isn't where Jesus stays either. His parents must have understood His words, though they did not understand the saying that he spoke to them.

Even knowing what we know now, this provokes more questions than it answers. Why now? Why not when He was 11? Or 13? Why does He go home with them after this? What did He do for the next 18 years?

Jesus apparently got up, and they apparently started walking, and He followed them home to Nazareth. He was submissive to them. It's not that He was rebellious by staying behind, but they weren't sure. We don’t hear from Him again until He’s 30.

As she did after the visit from the shepherds 12 years earlier (Luke 2:19), Mary treasured up all these things in her heart.

The last verse in the opening section of Luke's book summarizes the first 30 years of Jesus' life. Jesus kept on growing. This is clearly the human nature, since in His divine nature He was God. Here, in the Second Person of the Trinity in the flesh, He increased in favor with God.

Jesus was truly man. He grew. He was twelve and then He was thirteen. He didn't skip childhood, didn't fake adolescence. He lived at home with His parents until He was 30 (though because he’s not mentioned, it seems Joseph passed away sometime during these years). Jesus was truly God. No other boy could say, “My Father” like this. It’s the first explicit Christological self-disclosure on record. The Son knew where He belonged.

Mary got her first taste of Simeon’s prophecy (2:35), though there is more pain to come. The three days of searching were a quiet rehearsal for a much harder Friday-to-Sunday.

Two final comments:

You don’t have to be Jesus in order to learn more about and love and talk about and obey God’s Word when you’re 12. For that matter, you don’t have to wait until 30 to “do” ministry. You might not amaze your teachers with your understanding, but you are capable of increasing your understanding.

If you have “lost” Jesus, look in the Word. You will always find Him there.

Beloved, you can increase in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man. You can, and, by God’s grace, you will. Read your copy of God’s Word, read it again and again. Pray to your Father in heaven, pray day and night. Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus.

[May your] hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. (Colossians 2:2–3 ESV)

Here we meet two surprise witnesses, hear a song about global salvation, a warning of personal pain, the praise of a prophetess, and track a twelve-year transition in one verse.

Luke has been threading parallel accounts of two boys up to this point. Announcement and announcement, then birth-circumcision-naming and birth-circumcision-naming. But Jesus has been getting more of the attention, we know why, and the rest of Luke 2 adds more.

It's been 40 days since Jesus was born, and Joseph and Mary travel with their Son to Jerusalem to fulfill God's law, a fact mentioned three times in verses 22-24. But it's what else happens while they're at the temple that really stands out.

Two strangers give witness to this special son, an old man named Simeon and a very old woman named Anna. Before now there were strangers to Joseph and Mary, and afterward they do not appear again. They say strange things, they see things about Jesus not everyone could. Though Luke doesn't quote it, the Law in Deuteronomy 19:15 required a minimum of two witnesses, and these two strangers leave no doubt in their witness. They had no relation, nothing to gain personally, but they gave witness by the Spirit to the salvation of the Lord.

This is a three-for-one. It's one trip to the temple to satisfy three different requirements. Under the Law a mother was impure for 40 days after giving birth to a son (Leviticus 12:2-6), then she needed to offer sacrifice. In addition, the firstborn was to be presented (Exodus 13:2). But presenting the firstborn didn’t require coming to the temple, so that suggests a third part as Joseph and Mary dedicated Jesus to the Lord’s service (as in 1 Samuel 1-2).

The plural of their purification is a surprise, since the father was not considered unclean. But maybe Joseph helped with the bloody delivery and so was included.

And here are the famous two turtledoves, as the offering of those who couldn't afford the lamb (Leviticus 12:8). No way that His parents perceived at this point that Jesus was the Lamb.

From the beginning Jesus’ parents fulfill the law, and we will see that Jesus perfectly does so Himself. He was “born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Galatians 4:4-5).

This guy is a stranger to Joseph and Mary, and there is nothing special about his person. He is not called a prophet or a priest, he is not said to live on the temple grounds, he is not a man of importance in the city. He is an otherwise random dude, living in Jerusalem, but living by faith.

The end of verse 25 says that he was waiting for the consolation of Israel. And in a moment it will be clear that the consolation is a person, the Messiah. We sing "Israel's strength and consolation, hope of all the earth, thou art." We read Isaiah 40:1, “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.”

Three statements about Simeon and the Spirit: 1) the Spirit was upon him, 2) the Spirit had given him a message, and 3) the Spirit moved him to go to the temple that particular day.

The supernatural message is unique. It had been revealed to him that he would not die before he saw the Lord's Christ. How long had he had this revelation? Months? Years? How many people had he told? Family? Co-workers? Kept it silent? How many people thought he was crazy, except for the fact that his reputation was that of being righteous?

God, by His Spirit, was giving witness to God the Son through this stranger, and feeding the faith of Jesus' earthly parents. Their obedience to the law is right, but in God’s providence it set them up to meet Simeon. He shows up, walks up, and took their six-week old son up in his arms and started blessing God.

Verses 29-32 are the third song in the opening chapters of Luke's book. We’ve read the Magnificat of Mary and the Benedictus of Zechariah, Simeon's song is often called the Nunc Dimittis, the first words in the Latin transition that mean “Now You let depart.”

Now, Lord, you are letting your servant depart in peace. Simeon doesn't need to see anything else. The Christ is born, that's what he was promised in his lifetime. His eyes have seen your salvation, even as the angel announced the birth a Savior to the shepherds (Luke 2:11). Simeon had eyes on salvation, and salvation was just a month and half old.

What has not been emphasized so far in Luke is the global nature of this saving mission. Verse 32 leaves no doubt: a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel. Also connected to the prophesies in Isaiah 40:5 and 49:6.

The prophets anticipated not only Messianic rule over all the nations, but worship of the Messiah among the nations. Joseph and Mary's Son would be light, He is truth, He is the one who shows the vanity of idols and in Him is the answer to guilt and the hope of eternity. But the explicit reference to the Gentiles would have sounded strange.

Even more so, their Son is the glory for God’s people, the Jews.

Quite a song, and Jesus' parents marveled at the stranger's insight.

Simeon wasn't done. He blessed them and then said specifically to Mary (perhaps as a hint that Joseph would not be around through the entire time), three things about Jesus: 1) Jesus will divide (fall and rise), 2) Jesus will pierce (Mary’s sorrow), 3) Jesus will reveal (hearts laid open). This is even more strange.

There are two groups, those that would fall and those that would be lifted up. It's similar to the Cornerstone, either a thing others tripped and stumbled over, or the foundation upon which building happens. There won’t simply be dismissal of Jesus, He will be a dividing line.

As for what would pierce through your own soul, that seems to be the heartache of seeing how her Son would be treated, even to death on a cross.

And the third part belongs with the first two, showing especially the enmity toward God and His law and righteousness; Jesus reveals hearts, in particular the hostility in many hearts. These are strange words from a stranger, but Simeon had eyes on salvation.

It seems that Simeon was old, such that he anticipated dying, not as if he heard at 27 that he'd not die before he saw the Christ. But this woman is over 100.

Verse 36 has a decent amount of detail about her, not that she was well known, but this is the sort of historical record that would be more difficult to invent and get past the fact-checkers. Though the ESV in verse 37 says that she was eighty-four, the Greek really does say that she'd been married for seven years and then she was a widow for eighty-four years. So if she was married around 14, her husband died when she was 21, she's now about 105.

Her life, for over eight decades, was given to worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. We don't get any quotes from her, but she also, by the Spirit, happened to come at the very hour, and began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.

It’s strange, not only that Anna is a stranger to Joseph and Mary, but even as a woman and a very old widow, that her witness helps make faith more certain. She’d been dedicated in her service to God for 84 years, and now she had eyes on salvation.

Simeon waited for the consolation of Israel and Anna speaks to those waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.

Another transition in verses 39-40. Joseph and Mary were obedient to God's law, and then went back home to Nazareth.

As for Jesus Himself, even more than John's growing and becoming strong in spirit (Luke 1:80), Jesus grows and becomes strong, filled with wisdom and with signs of God's favor all over Him.

Simeon's eyes saw salvation in his arms. Anna's eyes saw redemption in the temple. Mary's eyes would see her Son on a cross. Salvation has come, and strangers gave witness. It’s not a coincidence it is for the certainty of our faith.

Jesus is the Consolation and Redemption. He is the watershed, dividing line. In Him many hope, Jews and Gentiles. Toward Him many hate, Jews and Gentiles. Jesus is the Savior of the world, and still a stone of offense. He is light to the nations and glory for Israel.

Give thanks to God for His salvation in Jesus. Live as those who are being saved, live as an aroma of Christ. We are not sufficient for these things, but God gives us His own Spirit in order to lead us and to spread the knowledge of Christ everywhere.

But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. (2 Peter 3:18 ESV)