4 Pillars Of A Man's Heart

4 Pillars of a Man’s Heart

1 Kings 2:2-4

Rev. Brian Bill

June 18-19, 2016

Opening Video: You Got This

Guys, we got this, right? Right? By the way, that video is posted on the Sermon Extras tab at edgewoodbaptist.net if you want to watch it again.

On this Father’s Day weekend, some of us have been blessed with tremendous models of fatherhood. But there are others who have been ignored, neglected, abused or abandoned. Some of you have lost your dad or husband. And for you, Father’s Day is anything but happy.

I sincerely hope that you will allow our Heavenly Father to fill that void in your life. May you experience the truth of Psalm 68:5: “A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling.”

My guess is that some of us guys don’t really like attention on Father’s Day because frankly we know that we’re not doing all that we’re supposed to be doing. In many churches women are celebrated on Mother’s Day and men are slammed on Father’s Day. I don’t intend to do that though the Holy Spirit may lay some hurt on some of us today.

The message today is geared not just to fathers but also to men in general. Women, you get to listen in…as long as you don’t elbow the guy sitting next to you.

We’re hitting the pause button on our preaching from the Gospel of Mark and will jump back into it next weekend. Before we go much further, allow me to make some observations and applications from the terrorist attack last Sunday morning. Some of what I will say I first shared in an interview on Moody Radio Monday morning. If you’d like to listen to it, it’s posted on the Sermon Extras tab.

I recognize that the situation is still rather fluid, the investigation is ongoing, and I certainly don’t have any profound insight in the midst of all the perplexity and complexity. But I will say that our first response should always be to “weep with those who weep” as taught in Romans 12:15.

I was deeply grieved to hear what a Baptist pastor from California preached to his congregation last Sunday night: “I think Orlando is a little safer tonight. The tragedy is that more of them didn’t die…I’m kind of upset he didn’t finish the job.” He went on to say that he wished homosexuals would be put in front of a firing squad. That is absolutely appalling and his awful attitude does not reflect true Christians and those of us who call ourselves Baptist.

As a way to answer the “why” question and to counter any smug sense of spiritual superiority that we might have, Jesus offers these stunning words in Luke 13:4-5 – “Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

I’m grateful for law enforcement, first responders and all the medical professionals who jumped into action and for how true Christ-followers are reaching out.

I realize that while no one can completely know the murderer’s motives, it’s clear that he was motivated in large part by his allegiance to ISIS. This terrorist group, along with others, is devoted to apocalyptic radical Islam.

As followers of Jesus Christ, we declare that every single human being, regardless of behavior or orientation, is made in the image of God. I agree with Joe Carter when he says that we are called to pray, pause, grieve, love and hope.

The solutions to this situation are not primarily psychological or political but rather spiritual and theological. We have become untethered from a sense of right and wrong, we’ve lost our moral compass as a country, and evil has been unleashed. As Jesus said in John 8:44, Satan “was a murderer from the beginning.” The Bible says that things will only get worse in 2 Timothy 3:1: “In the last days, there will come times of difficulty…”

Our country is talking a lot about “soft targets” right now. Friends, there is no place that is safe except to be anchored to the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our Rock and Refuge. Psalm 18: “The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my Rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.”

Lane Palmer points out that while there is no guarantee of safety in this life, there is a guarantee of salvation in the life to come. Jesus Christ left his place of safety in heaven and entered into this dangerous world of wars and school shootings and terrorist attacks to give us hope by taking the bullets that were aimed at us.