What a crazy world this has turned out to be! Nothing is as it seems. It’s for sure not how it used to be. From the pandemic to the swelling political climate and from the racial divide to the quest for normalcy we’re in a time when everyone is on high alert. And hardly anyone has the tolerance for anything other than their own opinion.
I don’t like to post things on social media. As a matter of fact I don’t do a whole lot on my social feeds at all anymore. The daily Bible verse, a few blog post pushes to my feeds, and the occasional picture of a fire in the fire pit is all you get from my social networks these days. And yes that’s intentional.
Just because we have something to say doesn’t mean it always has to be said. But what’s more is that when someone says something that’s different than your way of approaching life, it does not make them the enemy.
We’ve grown weary of the demands on our time throughout this unpredictable year. Introverts are handling the isolation better than extroverts, but they’re having their own set of issues. Just when we think that we’re handling one problem fairly well another one smacks us in the face out of nowhere.
The message below is an excerpt from Sunday’s service. We talked about honor and respect. We looked at what it means to value those with differences of opinion.
Take a few minutes. Put your emotions to the side. Listen to what it means to love your neighbor through a challenging time.
This season of life has been the busiest that I think I’ve ever experienced. In conversations with many people in many different fields it seems as if everyone is busier than ever before. Our homes have become more than just a safe place to live. Now our homes are our offices, school classrooms, gyms, meeting rooms, virtual hangouts, counseling centers, movie theaters, and restaurants. So how do we disconnect when our home fills every aspect of life? How do we disconnect from reality when reality has now invaded our homes?
The bible teaches a principle that might prove helpful for us here. It’s something called the Sabbath. The idea behind the Sabbath for many people was the concept of taking a day and doing nothing. It was believed that you had to basically lay around and take a nap all day and not even lift a finger. The sabbath became more of a rule than a command to help us find blessing.
The purpose of the Sabbath command wasn’t to add a restriction to our lives or to keep us from living life. As a matter of fact, the command to rest and remember was given so that we could better enjoy and appreciate life. In our fast paced, ever moving world stopping to recenter ourselves is absolutely critical.
So this week I want to challenge you to pause from your daily routine for just a little bit. Think about what energizes you. What helps you regain focus and gain clarity? Do that. The idea behind the Sabbath is that you recenter yourself around the grace and mercy of God. If you’re not a Jesus person, you still need to find center. Ideally, I’d love if you’d find that center in Christ but I still care about your mental health so find center. Pause. Rest. I’ve heard it said somewhere that we need to not only rest from our work but work from our rest.
There is a great deal of wisdom that can be found in the bible even for people who don’t value or even believe in the bible! Today’s lesson comes from the illustration of a vineyard and a corner stone. The idea is simple and direct.
For many of us who are believers in what the Bible teaches, we hold the bible to be the source of truth. But admittedly not everyone believes that way. While I truly believe that the bible is the sole absolute source of truth for all of mankind, not everyone sees it that way.
We all have an absolute truth. It’s either that the bible is the absolute truth for all humanity or that it is not. Those are both absolute statements. We can’t deny absolute truth at all. Just we define what it is differently.
Jesus talks about truth and what our role is when it comes to possessing truth. Check out the message and see what Jesus says about truth and how you can apply that in just about any context.
Leadership is a confusing animal to many people. Some think it comes from a title. Others think strong leadership needs a massive following. This week we had the chance to look at some critical life lessons that apply to leadership still today. We can learn a great deal about how to and how not to act by watching people who’ve been in similar situations. So let’s take a closer look at what it means to be a leader and how a leader should react when under pressure.
At our Wednesday discussion of the Bible we looked at Matthew 21. Here’s a quick synopsis. You can listen to the full message below.
The start of chapter 21 is the famous account of the triumphal entry, aka Palm Sunday. People are flocking to see Jesus. They line the streets and shout their approval. They want more and more from him. They can’t get enough of his works and famous teachings. They love the things he does and the way he speaks differently than everyone else. They are fed by him. Healed by him. Restored by him. He gives them hope. It’s no wonder the people can’t get enough of him.
When Jesus starts to gain momentum in his leadership and the people are flocking to him left and right, we shouldn’t be surprised that the established leadership gets panicked. These leaders aren’t kings or princes. They are council members in the leadership of the church. When they feel threatened by the one man who can make the most massive impact, they try to trap him. They rally their followers and try to convince the world that he’s lying and manipulating them.
On Jesus’ way through the city, he makes a straight path toward the temple where he upsets the leaders even more! He sees what’s happening. They’re cheating the people. They were changing money rates to benefit their own clan. They were inflating the dollar and charging more to some individuals in an unfair manner. They were making the system benefit themselves. They turned the temple entrance into a cheater’s house and a safe place for liars and manipulators.
Jesus can’t take it. He sees it and has to act immediately. He storms the temple area. He drives the animals out and throws the money tables over. He tells them exactly what they’re doing wrong, but it only fuels their fire. When selfish people are doing wrong things, they don’t want to hear what they’re doing wrong. They just get greedy and want more. They want to get rid of anyone who stands in the way of what they want.
After Jesus clears the temple and restores order to the system, he leaves for the countryside to stay for the night. In the morning he gives a direct message to his followers on the power that real faith can have on one’s life. Then enters the temple again.
Remember the last time he was in the temple, he disrupted their lying broken system. He cost them money and respect. So now they are angry. They’re ready for revenge. They want him gone so they’ll stop at nothing to make that happen.
We’re near the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry and things are getting increasingly heated between him and the establishment of his day. Seemingly without a word from Jesus, the chief priests and elders approached him to ask him a question intended to trap him.
By what authority do you say the things you say and do the things you do?
Jesus knows the answer to this question and to be honest so do the chief priests. However instead of giving them an answer to anger them more, he puts the ability to answer in their court by asking them another question. Their answer to this question will essentially help them know his answer. They were so hasty to get an answer that they were trapped between the right thing to do and the best thing to do.
Here we learn two critical lessons from Jesus.
Sometimes doing the right thing won’t gain you popularity but it’s still the right thing.
Just because you have something to say doesn’t mean you need to say it.
Jesus practices the greatest restraint imaginable. He doesn’t speak the answer to this question. He knows the answer. His answer is the right answer. He’s not ashamed of or scared of the repercussions of his answer. He wants his opponent to have to admit their own position and ignorance. He’s using this as a teaching moment for them and his followers.
The chief priests should know by what authority John Baptized. By not knowing, they were essentially admitting failure in their job. It was their business to know the answer to this question but they refused to answer and settled for I don’t know in an effort to save their credibility.
Jesus then uses a story to help illustrate this point. So one moral of the story here is:
Being a part of the church growing up was a great learning experience. I attended a Christian school and went to church nearly every Sunday. Growing up in the church we went through something called confirmation. This is when we learn the ins and outs of what we believe and actually claim it as our own. Up until this point, you’re learning but if I’m being honest it’s a lot of going through the motions. But in confirmation something clicks. we grow deeper and ask more questions and being to be able to apply what we know.
Growing up going to church taught me a lot. I went to Sunday worship and even bible class as a child. Then when I was old enough, I went through something called confirmation. This was when I learned the ins and outs of what the church I attended believed. We studied things like baptism and communion and prayer. But before all that we took time to study the famous 10 Commandments. In our most recent series in worship, we’ll be digging deeper into these very commandments to gain a better understanding. Let’s start here.
It’s a hard reality some days that bad things happen. Things don’t go the way we want them to go. People get sick. Jobs are lost. Finances crumble. Lives change and not always for the apparent better in the moment. When someone asks us how it’s going, we have a tendency to reply with a smile and It’s all good.
The phrase greatest of all time is a pretty strong statement. We all strive to be the best. No one wants to be the least or the loser or the worst in a pack. No one wants to fail at something. We all like to have some form of success in our lives. But what does the greatest really look like?
Ever feel like your family is a tad on the dysfunctional side? People just not get along the way they should? Have that one strange uncle who is way out in left field somewhere? Well there’s a story in the Bible about a family who is exactly like that.
Now many of you know that I’m a pastor of a church in central Ohio and many of you know that means I’m a pretty big fan of Jesus and the Bible. But lately I’ve realized that while I’m a big follower of Jesus there’s just something about the cross that doesn’t sit well with me. I’m not alone either. As a matter of fact, one of the biggest names in the New Testament didn’t like the cross either.
