Wilderness Wanderings

A special, extended Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings! The text is Romans 12:3-8 from the New International Version of the Bible. Dive In discussion questions are below for further reflection!

To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it here on YouTube. Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC: immanuelministries.ca

DIVE IN

1. How might the chicken and pig story lead us astray?
2. How should we apply the story? (two things)
3. What is Paul's overarching concern regarding the 'Christ Community'? How should we view ourselves? What is the common denominator? Name some ways in which inequality can creep into the church.
4. When Paul introduces the image of the body for the church, what is his main concern? How have you lived into this reality during COVID?
5. When it comes to spiritual gifts, how have we often missed the point?
6. How is God calling you to serve the 'Christ community'? How is Jesus calling you to change your attitude?

I call to you, Lord, come quickly to me; hear me when I call to you. May my prayer be set before you like incense; may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice. (Psalm 141:1-2)

God designed humanity with the capacity to think, feel and experience. The Psalms contain expressions of anger, relief, grief, praise, despair…all reflecting the dynamic nature of how God made us in His image. These capacities were given to us by our Creator God and so should be reflected back to him. He knows us better than we know ourselves, so we should not be afraid or hesitant to let Him see what is truly inside of us. The Psalms show us what it looks like to come to God in truth at all times.

The Psalms are designed by God for us to use in prayer and worship. St. Athanasius said, "the rest of Scripture speaks to us, but the Psalms speak for us." The Psalms give us language so that we can pray honestly and openly with the expectation that God will hear us and respond. I'm not going to go into why we don't always receive a response or the response that we want when we pray. That is not the focus of today's devotional. But just as David expected God to hear him when he prayed, as we see in the first verse of Psalm 141, God will also hear us when we pray to Him. And He will respond in His own time and His own way. We are simply called to be attentive because God's response often does not look like what we expect. Even silence can be a response. Through the silence of God I have personally been convicted, taught, and filled with the peace and love of God on numerous occasions.

A temptation in prayer is to reduce prayer to a monologue. We pray to God but don't first listen to what He is saying to us. We want to hear the voice of God but with little intention of responding. We even pray from our current emotional state, allowing our prayers to be driven solely by feelings instead of rooting our words to the Words of God found in the Bible.

We are also tempted to pray in familiar narrow patterns of relating to God that come most naturally to us whether it be thanksgiving, or protest or petition. But God wants an intimate and abiding relationship with us. He wants to be in conversation with us as we would talk to a trusted friend or spouse. "Prayer is the expression of a human heart in conversation with God. The more natural the prayer, the more real he becomes. It has all been simplified for me to this extent: Prayer is a dialogue between two persons who love each other." – Rosalind Rinker

And so, prayer is a dance of love. We talk to God from the deep places of our heart and He responds from the depths of His own heart and His love for us. He nudges and at times urges us to give Him more than the scraps from the tablet of our hearts. He created us. He knows us. He loves us. We can give Him more than the familiar paths of prayer that we often pray.

Throughout the Psalms we see widely varied emotions and experiences which are at times intense, and from the depths of those places, from the depths of the Psalmists heart flows a deep trust and reliance on God. That He is who the Bible says He is and that He will respond to prayer when it is offered up in honesty and truth.

So, feel free to even experiment in prayer. No matter how large or small, silly or awful, He wants to hear it all. God can handle whatever we bring Him. He's God! See what it feels like to give your anger to God, to praise God, to lament with him, to honour Him and tell Him how great He is, to simply sit with Him and wait on Him in silence. Prayer is the door to a deeper relationship with God, to a deeper knowledge of our world and to what is truly inside of us.

"Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world" (John 17:24).

When the Heidelberg Catechism discusses the ascension of Jesus (which the church celebrates today) it begins with this question, "How does Christ's ascension to heaven benefit us?" In a court of law, this might be ruled a leading question and not permitted. The authors of the Catechism meant it as a leading question. They wanted their students to understand that Christ's ascension is not merely a topic for theologians to debate, nor is it simply the conclusion of Jesus earthly life.

The church has come to understand that Jesus' return to heaven has significant pay off for Christians. On Tuesday, we considered Jesus' intercessor ministry on behalf of us sinners. Today, a second benefit. Just before his arrest and crucifixion, Jesus prayed for himself, for his first disciples and then for all who will believe in him. Our text comes from that part of the prayer.

Let us assume that what Jesus said in his prayer would actually come about. The implication is that when Christians die, they go to be with Jesus. This is corroborated by Jesus' reassurance to the penitent criminal on the cross, "Today you will be with me in paradise" (Luke 23:43) and by Paul's statement that when Jesus returns, he will bring with him all who have died in him (1 Thessalonians 4:14).

Death is frightening. It is the great unknown. It is the end of life as we know it. All are hopes and dreams die with us. Those we leave behind will shed their tears. I have conducted several funerals (before COVID) which hardly anyone attended. They were as sad as those with a large gathering. When I was a child, my parents attended a funeral of a neighbour. I remember vividly my mom's summary of the event, "They had no hope."

Christians are people who have hope. We may have many questions about what exactly life will be like after death, such as, how can we live without a body? The Bible largely leaves our questions unanswered. But there is one thing God wants us to know: when we die, we will be with Jesus in heaven. Jesus went ahead of us. He will take us home.

He identified with us in our humiliation, therefore He will take us to be with himself in his glory. When we find ourselves afraid of death, Jesus invites us to see himself in human flesh, sitting at God's right hand. He went before us, we will follow. Whatever questions we might have, they will become inconsequential because we will be with Jesus. All will be well.

The ascension marked the completion and success of Jesus' earthly mission. During this mission, his glory was veiled. At his ascension, he was welcomed into glory by God the Father and God the Father declared Jesus Christ the King of the universe. The one who was dead is now alive; more than that, he is King, and he is human. Because the Father welcomed this Human home, we can be assured that he will welcome us as well.

If death frightens you, then Jesus invites you to lift up your chin and see him, the human who was dead, now alive and seated on the throne of glory and power. Death could not hold him; therefore, it cannot hold anyone who believes in him. Satan would have you forget this. The Holy Spirit reminds us and helps us believe it is true.

The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes. They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold, they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the honeycomb. (Psalm 19:7,8,10)

There is freedom in the words of Scripture and nourishment for our souls. When we read the Bible we are engaging in a feast. We are feasting on the Word of God! Just as honey is sweet to the taste and nourishes our body, God feeds us through the truth of His Word, a sweeter word than honey from the honeycomb. We need only posture ourselves to receive what He freely offers us.

The Old Testament instructs the Israelites to "Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up" (Deuteronomy 11:18-19). The essence of these words is to direct the mind and thoughts toward the word of God repeatedly and regularly. In so doing we are turning away from the patterns and habits of this world and are being transformed day by day as we actively engage with the words of Scripture by reading, talking about, meditating on, and praying through them.

In Scripture, Jesus makes it clear that the truth will set us free. Jesus said, "You will know the truth and the truth will make you free" (John 8:32). We can easily get tripped up in our spiritual walk simply because of lack of knowledge of the truth. Just as athletes must train their bodies to excel at their sport, we must train our minds to think as the Spirit does. Paul tells us in Philippians 4:8 "whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things." When we focus on the truths found in Scripture and on God's promises for this life and the life to come we start to be formed more and more into His likeness, our identity is found increasingly in Christ and our thoughts are renewed by the truth of His Word each day.

The Israelites were to take the words of God with them wherever they went by fixing them in their hearts and minds. When we repeatedly immerse ourselves over and over with Scripture it will start to seep into the very core of our being, teaching, convicting, and training us in godly living. Repetition channels the mind in a specific direction, ingraining habits of thought. Scientific research has more recently proven the principle that has been known for centuries, that is, that regular repetition of specific words and deeds will over time result in modified behaviour. That is why speaking positive affirmations daily can be so life changing. It is also why repeatedly watching violence on TV trains the mind toward destructive thought patterns.

Reading the Bible isn't simply about "getting in" a daily dose of Scripture. Each time we open Scripture it is as though we are opening it fresh for the first time. When we focus on not simply the act of reading Scripture but on the words themselves and the meaning behind them, we start to change from the inside out. As we read and engage in Scripture, we learn about ourselves and God, and the Holy Spirit teaches, rebukes, corrects and trains us in righteous living so that we are equipped for the works that God is calling us to (see 2 Timothy 3:16-17). Scripture is meant to be chewed on until it enters our most inward parts, repeated in our minds and out loud, taught to our children, rehearsed in the actions of our lives. The Word of God is perfect, refreshing our soul, it is trustworthy, giving us wisdom, it is right, filling our heart with joy, it is radiant, giving light to the eyes. Because as we fill ourselves with the truth, it starts to pour out of us to such an extent that even our eyes shine brighter and there is something about us that others simply "need" to have for themselves. That "something" is the truth that is only found in the Word of God. The truth that when we take it in, is as food for our soul, as the blood in our veins, running through what we think, say and do. Scripture is where every other discipline flows from.

My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:1-2).

This week, the focus of the church shifts from Easter to Pentecost. But in between these two events in Jesus' ministry is His Ascension to the Father's right-hand side. Probably, because the Ascension is celebrated on a Thursday, rather than a Sunday, the church has not given it nearly the kind of attention it should.

If you highlight the references to Christ's ascension in the New Testament letters, you might need more than one highlighter (if you are still using a paper copy of the Bible). I will take several editions of Wilderness Wanderings to explore why this event is giving such biblical weight. To find a very brief rundown you can read answer 49 of the Heidelberg Catechism.

So, this Thursday, we will celebrate Ascension Day, marking Jesus' official movement from earth back to heaven. Just as at Christmas we celebrate Jesus Incarnation, God taking on human form, with Ascension, we celebrate, Jesus, still God in human form, sitting down beside the Father's throne in heaven. The point is: our human flesh is in heaven. The Bible says that this is important.

Our text gives us one reason why: But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. This is a deep biblical theme begun in Isaiah 53:12, worked on in Romans 8:34, Hebrews 7:25 and here in our text.

In all these passages, Jesus' intercession is on behalf of sinners. At first glance we may conclude that somehow Jesus' death is insufficient, that only by his continued prayers are we actually saved. But that is not what is going on in these passages.

The thing is, we do not take sin seriously enough. We live in a culture in which the idea of sinning against the gods has simply been erased. And many Christians are so steeped in the doctrine of grace that we only give a fleeting glance at our sinfulness. How often do you take time to ponder how to live holy before the Lord? The Bible takes sin seriously. Ancient civilizations did too. People spent excessive time and money appeasing the gods. The gods were simply cantankerous. One was never totally sure if one had done enough to please them.

For the ancients, this new doctrine of grace proclaimed by the church was too good to be true. How could one man's one sacrifice of himself bring forgiveness to all who believed in him? That was just too much. More than that, it seemed that these forgiven sinners kept on sinning. Could they really claim this grace? Could they really be assured that God would not come down on them in judgement?

As the church reflected on these things, she came to understand that Christ's ascension into heaven, the fact that he was sitting at the right hand of God was a matter of great comfort and reassurance to the struggling Christian. Just as Jesus had prayed for Peter (Luke 22:32), so he now prays for all God's children as he sits beside God the father.

Sometimes we feel estranged from God. At other times we feel accused by Satan or our own conscience that we are not good enough. We might even come to think that Christ's death is not enough for us sinners that we are. In those times, we are invited to see Jesus, with nail scarred hands, sitting at the Father's side. God will never forget the cost he experienced to make us his children. Its not that if Jesus stops praying, God will forget. Jesus' very presence is intercession.

Jesus' intercession is not something added to his death and resurrection. Rather, the crucified one is now crowned in glory. All the power and glory are his. He has the final say in all things. He has said that through faith we are redeemed, and we are the children of God himself. His ascension is the crowning glory of his work. It is the exclamation mark of his cry from the cross, "It is finished!" No longer a cry of agony torn from a dying man, but now the word of triumph from the throne of heaven itself.

When ever you doubt your place with God, look up, see Jesus, covered in the scars of crucifixion, interceding for you at the right hand of God. Do not be afraid, Jesus has you covered

Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives' tales; rather, train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come. (1 Timothy 4:7-8)

Instant gratification is both a societal problem and a spiritual problem. We want what we want when we want it. In our relationships, material possessions, solutions to our problems, and even our spirituality. We want a quick fix. We also often find ourselves in a place of busyness—whether through "make-busy" activities such as social media habits, or through work, volunteering or any other number of things in our lives that we remain focused on. The problem is that often these busy places keep us from doing what we could be doing instead. Like training in godliness.

Godliness involves a devotion to a Godward focus in our lives and seeking to do that which is pleasing to Him. But being godly is not a natural inclination of the human heart. "For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing." (Romans 7:18-19). Paul tells Timothy to train himself to be godly. It takes dedication. And it means letting go of those things in our lives that would hinder that training.

There are many things of value in this life. One such thing is physical activity. Sports and physical fitness tones and strengthens our body, improves circulation and strengthens our heart. These are all good things. But they are not lasting things. These are only valuable as long as we continue to live in this tent of the flesh in this world. But training in godliness is unlike physical training. Godliness trains not only our body, but our spirit as well. This type of training lasts into eternity. Even when our earthly body is no more, our spirit will live on.

Over the coming weeks I am going to be walking through practices of spiritual disciplines. Training in godliness. The spiritual disciplines aren't some rigid form of religious piety. If we view them as such they will likely have little effect on our lives as a whole because a life that is pleasing to God does not involve a series of religious duties, but rather an intimate and abiding relationship with God. Joy is a focus of the disciplines and a liberty from slavery to fear and self-interest.

Spiritual disciplines are not only for those who we expect to lead more godly lives—pastors, church leadership or the prayer warrior in the church. The disciplines are within the reach of any believer, new or seasoned. They allow us to be learning and growing up into a deeper relationship with God our whole lives through. Thomas Merton says "We do not want to be beginners. But let us be convinced of the fact that we will never be anything else but beginners, all our life!"

The disciplines are not difficult and in fact are best practiced by everyday people who go to work and school, who care for children, wash dishes and mow their lawns. Disciplines are best practiced in the context of our relationships and our day to day lives.

All that is required is a longing for God and the things of God. A longing to live a godly life that pleases God. As we choose to make good decisions in our lives and to do that which pleases God instead of pleasing our own sinful nature and selfish inclinations, we will also develop a more intimate knowledge of and relationship with Christ. As we continue training in godliness we will live more and more in obedience to the direction and guidance of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

A special, extended Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings! The text is Romans 12:1-2 from the New International Version of the Bible. Dive In discussion questions are below for further reflection!

To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it here on YouTube. Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC: immanuelministries.ca

But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart and he would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had said to Moses…When Pharaoh saw that the rain and hail and thunder had stopped, he sinned again: He and his officials hardened their hearts (Exodus 9:12, 34).

In Wednesday's Wilderness Wanderings (say that 10 times fast), I referenced the Biblical idea of hardened hearts. That was a set up for today's edition.

The story of Israel being redeemed from Egypt is set up as a battle between God and Pharaoh. The Egyptian ruler understands himself as a son of the gods, thus he cannot allow this Hebrew God to have power in Egypt. He cannot show weakness. If he caves in to this interloper, the entire Egyptian religious and political landscape and Egypt's place in the international scene will disintegrate overnight. Thus, Pharaoh resists God. However, everything he fears happens anyways. Egypt never recovers from its encounter with Israel's God.

As the writer of Exodus relates this story, a central issue is the hardening of Pharaoh's heart against God. Our text leaves a question: who hardened Pharaoh's heart? Was it Israel's God or was it Pharaoh himself? A brief google search indicates that many have laboured to answer this question. And sorry, I am not going to attempt an answer here.

The story illuminates an issue we ourselves need to address about our own hearts. Our hearts can harden towards God, and we have a part to play in that. Hardening our heart means that we close ourselves against another person. Let us use scripture to illustrate this:

If anyone is poor among your fellow Israelites in any of the towns of the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward them. Rather, be openhanded and freely lend them whatever they need (Deuteronomy 15:7-8).

Today, if only you would hear his voice, "Do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah in the wilderness, where your ancestors tested me; they tried me, though they had seen what I did (Psalm 95:7-8).

Pharaoh 'hardened his heart' by refusing to give in to God. He refused to allow God to be God because he thought that he was a god. I do not presume to imply that any of us want to be God. But we can still close our hearts towards God. There are various reasons why we might do this. Allow me to mention three:

• Spiritual Neglect: over the course of time, we pay less and less attention to God and the welfare of our relationship with him.
• Shattered Trust: when bad things happen to us, it becomes more difficult to trust God. This can lead to a closing of our hearts towards him.
• Deliberate Disobedience: it happens that a Christian wants something that is wrong. We may close our hearts towards God so that and walk that road of disobedience.

As we read about Pharaoh's war against God, we may get fixated on who hardened his heart. But then we would miss the invitation to explore our own hearts. Take some time to allow the Spirit to expose the places you have grown cold towards God. The Holy Spirit is in the business of turning hearts of stone into hearts of flesh, eager to follow God.

"I say to myself 'The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.' The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him." (Lamentations 3:24-25)

Sometimes we forget that God is the center of all life and is present in every moment and in every day. Sometimes we forget Him and His love for us and this "forgetfulness" reaches all the way back to the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3 when Adam and Eve chose to do life on their own. But God is present in our everyday often in moments where and when we least expect Him.

Last week when I went outside to take out the trash and recycling was one of those moments for me. When I went out into my front yard I noticed the birds chirping and the stillness and freshness of the morning air. When I came back into the house I was struck by the harsh contrast of my son's teacher talking on his device as I walked through the living room, mixing and then drowned out by my daughter's class conversation on her device as I moved into the kitchen. I grabbed the recycling and headed back outside, first through one mass of sound, then another, then once I was again outside the contrast was palpable. The quietness. The beauty of the moment. Bringing to mind for me at that moment Isaiah 30:15 "In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength." I sat on the porch for a few moments revelling in God, who He is, and the beauty of all that He has made.

But my story doesn't end there. After a few moments, the stillness was broken as my dog pushed through the front door. Full of energy, pacing back and forth across the porch, up and down the stairs beside me. Don't I often live life like my springer spaniel? Frantically going, doing, trying to be, and forgetting that true life, peace and rest are found in God, in the small, simple moments where for a moment or a few the world stands still and I can see a glimpse of God in the ordinary of life. God is my portion. My hope is in Him.

Moments like this can happen anywhere. God often reveals Himself in the quiet, but also in the hustle, and in the mundane. Making dinner, talking to a neighbour, being caught in traffic, caring for a loved one. If we let our awareness wander and wonder even briefly, we often catch glimpses of the unexpected, even in something as mundane as taking out the trash.

As we learn to wait on God, we experience His goodness in ways that we may not have otherwise seen or experienced. As we seek Him, He will begin to reveal Himself in places that we had never thought to look. That is the Spirit of God at work in our lives.

We can rest our hope in this: that the Lord is our portion. He is in those precious moments when we feel at our end, and He is in those moments when we are filled with joy and expectation. God completes us. It is Him who fills our cup, it is in Him that our hope is found.

"For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. You have done a foolish thing, and from now on you will be at war" (2 Chronicles 16:9).

Our walk with God begins and ends in the heart. God is looking for a certain kind of heart. God probes beyond our credentials. These things are all true and are part of this text. However, it is possible to push these things so far that none of us feels spiritually safe. After all, who among us Christians can say that our hearts are fully committed to God?

Reading this verse in its context helps. But we must also read it alongside the rest of scripture. No verse in the Bible stands alone.

Asa has started his reign as king of Judah well. He called God's people to obedience. The land was purged of idolatry. Enemies were put to rout. In response, God caused his people to prosper in the land of promise.

But as time passed, complacency took root. When Judah's life of ease was threatened, King Asa sought the help of others rather than continuing to trust in the Lord. God had delivered Israel from Egypt and established them in their own land. He was always faithful and true. Asa forgot. That is what this text is about.

Last year our life of ease was threatened by a pandemic. How did we respond? What did we look to for relief? In Proverbs it says, "Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life" (4:23). That is true both in times of ease and in times when that ease is threatened.

But why do we have to guard our hearts? The Bible talks often about hard-ness of heart. Simply put, hard hearts are closed to God. Asa's life illustrates that hearts can grow cold a degree at a time. Thus, having spent little time nurturing our relationship with God, when we wake up to trouble, we do not turn to him.

Instead of seeking fellowship with the Lord and looking to our heavenly Father for help and provision, we leave our first love and turn to our bank-balance or earthly relationships to supply our need. To often we look to the government for help or rely on our skills; our education; our inner-self or personality! It is only after we have exhausted all the natural, worldly avenues of hope that we finally look to the Lord as our last resort.

God's warning to Asa about war should not be applied to everyone. That was meant for Asa. But we know from the rest of scripture that God is looking for people who are fully committed to him. After all, Jesus also said it when he talked about different forms of security. He concluded with, "put God's kingdom first. Do what he wants you to do. Then all those things will also be given to you" (Matthew 6:33).

But whom among us can say our hearts are this committed to God? That is why we need the rest of scripture. We can paraphrase the father who brought his possessed son to Jesus, "I believe, help my unbelief" (Mark 9:24).

If that is our prayer than we can draw encouragement from out text, "For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him." He will find us with our weak faith and strengthen us.