My sermon last week on Thanksgiving received more responses from you than usual. Responses are very helpful to me. Preaching becomes a one way conversation between the minister and the church pretty easily. I prayerfully seek to bring a message from the word of God for the good of our family here and it truly helps to know how it is received.
Based on the responses, I decided to clear up some things and pursue others for today’s lesson.
In last week’s sermon I talked about how thanksgiving is worship and how God wants us to be joyful worshippers.
In fact, Psalm 100 talks about coming before God with thanksgiving, gladness, joyful singing, and shouts of praise. We enter his gates and come into his courts and come before his presence with all these attitudes of celebration and festivity. Is this true?
Yes. But is this the only way to approach God? What about reverence and orderliness? What about where the Bible says, “The Lord is in His Holy Temple; let all the earth keep silence before Him?” Isn’t it proper and right to bow in awe of God with godly fear? Isn’t that what worship is? And the answer to these is, “Yes, of course, sometimes!”
There is a time to shout with joy and there is a time to bow in silence. There is a time for jubilant celebration of gladness and praise, and there is a time for quiet reflection and deep meditation. Both of these describe true biblical worship; both may be done in Spirit and in truth. Yes, both. It is not one that is right and the other is wrong; it is both that are right when the time is right.
What I really wanted to get across last week is: We can, and indeed must do everything we do in the name of Jesus Christ, whether it be laughter or tears. Whether it be loud anthems of praise or silent reflections of awe. What I want to impress on us is this: what is WRONG is to give your loud praise to secular worldly matters and only give God the quiet stuff. If you can’t do a thing in the name of Jesus Christ, do not do it at all. Indeed you must not!
If you say, “Well, if I have to do it in the name of Jesus, that rules out a lot of things I like to do.” What on earth are the things you wish to do without God’s blessing and presence? Are we children of God? Is this a part time position?
Listen, when you commit your life to Jesus Christ, you commit all of it to Him! God doesn’t have any part time children! Just imagine if Jesus decided to be a part time Savior! Imagine if he only forgave you for the things you did on weekends, the rest of the time you had to live sinless or it stayed on your record. If that were so, how would you look on the day of Judgment? Aren’t you thankful Jesus is a full time Savior? Then you must also agree that he is a full time Lord.
The Christian life is a 24/7 life or it is nothing. Somebody say “amen.” Now to pursue something else.
Having said all that, what I want to talk about in the time left this morning is the process of becoming mature, faithful children of God, children who know the Lord so that we know when to shout and when to be silent. We need to be raising children who know the Lord so that they can rejoice in the Lord as well as sit quietly and behave properly in the assembly.
This process of maturity involves behaviors, attitudes, beliefs and relationships.
These characteristics are developed by instruction, discipline, mentoring, and fellowship.
The key aspects of each are obedience, humility, Christ centeredness, and love.
1. Behaviors.
Behaviors are simply what we do. When we say to our kids, “behave yourselves”, we usually mean “act with good behavior.” But where does good behavior come from? Is it natural for kids to practice good behavior? What is natural for children? Are they naturally pure and good? Is that what the Bible says about children?
Are children really as good and innocent as their mothers think and feel that they are? What does God’s word say?
Proverbs 22:15 Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child;
The rod of discipline will remove it far from him.
On the other hand, Jesus teaches us to become like little children if we would enter the kingdom of heaven. He said, “Of such is the kingdom of heaven.” Matt. 19:14.
What are we to make of this? Is Proverbs right or is Jesus right? Well, obviously both are right! But here’s the beef. A child will still receive disciple and be changed by it. There is hope for the child, because folly may be in his heart, but it can be driven out! Once the child becomes a man or woman, if it is not driven out in childhood, the foolishness gets hardened into their hearts!
Listen to Proverbs again: 27: 22 Though you grind a fool in a mortar,
grinding him like grain with a pestle,
you will not remove his folly from him
You can take a full grown fool and discipline him or her all you want. You can punish and grind him or her into the ground, but the foolishness remains!
That is why the scriptures tell us to discipline our children while there is hope. That is why Jesus tells us we must become like little children. As little children we can have the foolishness of sin driven out with discipline. It is the only way to wisdom and maturity.
The road to Christian maturity involves discipline so we can learn Christ like behavior.
Hebrews 12:2Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
4In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons:
"My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline,
and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,
6because the Lord disciplines those he loves,
and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son."
7Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? 8If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. 9Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! 10Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. 11No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
Do you want to bless your children? Bring them up in the nurture and discipline of the Lord!
The Bible says that even Jesus learned obedience through what he suffered. This must have begun in childhood.
Behavior is expressed in foolishness or wisdom. Our goal as followers of Jesus Christ is to be instructed, disciplined, mentored, and to remain in fellowship with those who will help us become wise, spiritual, and mature in Jesus Christ.
By the way, the process may start in childhood, but it doesn’t end until we reach heaven.
The key aspect of Christian behavior is obedience, an obedient nature.
2. Attitudes.
Attitudes are thoughts that we hold toward life, others or things. Today there are a lot of books about what is called a “Positive Attitude.” We also hear a lot of bad press about “Negative attitudes.” It is as if positive is always good and negative is always bad. This is a dangerous lie and false notion.
We just finished reading the Bible in 90 days. If you read the Old Testament prophets, did you hear any negative statements in there? If you read the gospels, do you remember Jesus saying anything negative? The Bible is loaded with both positive and negative information, is it not? Wow! There are times when the prophets had almost nothing good to say to Israel concerning their condition. But there were also times when the prophets spoke wonderful positive words. Jesus can speak some of the highest compliments and the harshest condemnations!
A godly attitude, just like godly behavior, comes from godly instruction, discipline, mentoring and relationships. Christian attitudes are Christ like attitudes. We can be very positive about God’s grace and truth while being very negative about evil and sinfulness.
The mature attitude for a Christian is described in Philippians 2:5-11
5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
9 For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
The key aspect of the Christian attitude is humility.
3. Beliefs.
Beliefs are internalized thoughts and values. When we are instructed we can resist or accept the instruction. After we take hold of instruction and practice it and experience it as true and valuable to us, we come to put our confidence and faith there.
Beliefs are simply long held thoughts that we hold agreeably. The stronger we hold them the greater our belief is.
Have you ever heard of losing the ability to trust? It is impossible to build healthy relationships or receive proper instruction or discipline if you do not have the ability to trust and put faith in someone, especially if that someone is Jesus Christ.
Today’s world is filled with the elements that create this terrible condition. Skepticism is cloaked as critical thinking in education circles today. It is highly valued in the higher academic world. Questioning and doubting are more in vogue than accepting and believing. Listen to James 1: 2Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 5If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. 6But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; 8he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.
How did that man become double-minded and unstable? Some people value doubts more than beliefs. Some cling to skepticism above wisdom and critical thinking above a relationship with Christ.
Are you able to trust in the Lord with all your heart? Are you able to lean NOT upon your own understanding, but in all your ways acknowledge Him? This is the only way to have wisdom! This is the only way that the Lord can direct your paths.
God’s word says that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. God’s word says, do not lean on your own understanding, but it tells us to be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
The Christian belief system has one singular center. Jesus Christ. There are over 100 references in the New Testament to how faith in Christ is central and essential to salvation and eternal life. The key aspect of the Christian belief is Christ centered thinking. We have the mind of Christ, Paul states.
Beliefs in general come through receiving instruction, accepting discipline, following a faithful mentor, and building relationships supportive to them. How much more is this true for the Christian!
4. Finally, Relationships. The key aspect of Christian relationships is love, for God and one another. The Bible points to faith, hope and love as the greatest of Christian characteristics and then says: the greatest of these is love.
Here’s where we come to the application section of this lesson. And you are all glad we are there, right?
Here’s what we need to do. We need to be continually building relationships with one another in this church as a family of God is supposed to. That can’t happen just at church services like this. We’ve been suffering from fellowship depletion here for almost a year! It’s time to work on that! One way to start is by strengthening our ties between older and younger families. We who have raised our children need to share with those of you who are still raising children things we learned that can be helpful.
We here who are parents need to be both teaching our children and receiving encouragement and instruction from experienced members. The older need the energy of the younger and the younger need the reliability of the older. Relationships in Christ, in the church, are supposed to be for building godliness and Christ likeness in every area of life.
How many of you who are parents with kids still at home would like to hear from those who have already raised their children? How many of you older members and empty nesters would be willing to share your knowledge and experiences with the younger parents here?
What does God’s word say about this? Look at Titus 2:
1You must teach what is in accord with sound doctrine. 2Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance.
3Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. 4Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, 5to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.
(Then Titus takes the role of older man toward the younger men)
6Similarly, encourage the young men to be self-controlled. 7In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness 8and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us.
Can we do this here? Can this church be a fellowship of people who help each other build lives and homes that are being instructed, disciplined, mentored in Christ like relationships with one another? Are we doing these things? How can we do better?
One way is to put our service teams to work with this as a focus. Imagine an entire year of Fellowship strengthening as the theme! A one another year! There are hundreds of passages in the New Testament that stress the importance of one anotherness in Christ.
What if each week one of the service teams had a luncheon and invited all our visitors to join them? If there were no visitors, the team itself could still meet and enjoy a fellowship mean and perhaps make not of any absentees from the morning assembly.
I’m just throwing out an idea. God’s people are taught to love and help one another get to heaven. It’s the prime directive of the church to be a saved and saving place.
