Bible Text: 2 Thessalonians 1 | Preacher: Pastor Arnold | Series: 2 Thessalonians | 2 Thessalonians 1 The Coming Judgment of Jesus
As Easter is fast approaching, the Sunday before is Palm Sunday which begins the Passion Week, or Holy Week. A great way to spend this week is daily in the Word, read about the events that took place. You can find these in Matthew chapters 21-27; Mark chapters 11-15; Luke chapters 19-23; and John chapters 12-19. This morning I am going to touch on the first two events from the gospel of Luke, The Triumphal Entry and Jesus Weeping over Jerusalem.
Last time we met we talked about fear and how going through this experience in our lives, how dealing with COVID-19 has a lot of people worried. Indeed as the numbers of infections continues to increase to over 1000, and the number of deaths also continues to rise, people are wondering, “Is there an end in sight?” I just learned yesterday that Greg’s friend Lenny in Long Island, who we’ve been praying for, was one of those who succumbed to the virus. Gratefully, we can see that the virus has not targeted the young, but still there is an uncertainty during these times that can be stressful, and cause anxiety. While it seems we’ve made it past the toilet paper panic, some have begun to wonder is this judgment from the hand of God? Are we under God’s judgment? And not only us but the rest of the world? The prophetic books are helpful in these times as they were when they were originally penned. But what prophetic books are meant to do is to encourage and remind ourselves of God’s promises. We aren’t to try to figure out a road map, as if God left us a puzzle that will give us some kind of gnostic insight so we can sit back boasting in that we had the end of the world figured out. So with that in mind, let’s look to Joel and see what God’s message is for us this morning.
From the 1984 blockbuster movie Ghostbusters and pop song, I took the line “I ain’t afraid of no ghost” and titled my sermon: “I ain’t afraid of no virus!” This is one of those times in our present circumstances, when I decided to take a slight detour from our study in Leviticus and chose to address an issue that most of us in this country are thinking about. If you haven’t had your head in the sand, then you have seen the wall to wall TV coverage of the corona virus, COVID-19. Many of us in this room have already directly or indirectly been affected. The mayor of Williamsport has banned group gatherings of 250 or more. The governor has closed schools for 2 weeks. Flights, cruises, travel, and conferences are all being canceled. Major sporting events are being cancelled as well. And for crying out loud, all the toilet paper and hand sanitizer has vanished off the shelves! Not to make light of the situation, we’re in a crisis. A pandemic. And there is a lot of fear, a lot of worry, a lot of concern, on the part of our public officials, in the news media, and for all the citizens. Even my 11 year-old daughter is concerned that the mailman is going to spread corona virus to every house he delivers the mail to. I had a conversation with my father, a pastor in Houston, who remarked at how people are hanging on to every warning and heeding every instruction that the government health officials, the CDC, etc. have issued, but when we tell them Jesus is coming, that this is not only a life or death issue, but an eternal one, those warnings go largely ignored. People are on edge, some on the verge of panic. So how is the Christian supposed to think in times like these? How are we to behave? What kind of example should we set for others to take note of? Scripture has much to teach when it comes to facing illness and disease. There are many passages where we can find sound teaching. This morning I chose Psalm 91.
Hard work is HARD! If we want things to go well we have to make preparations. Want to have a fun party, then you gotta plan. Want to do well in Algebra, then you’ve got to study? Want to get a degree in school, then you have to do what it takes to get that degree. Want to succeed in your plans, then you have to do more than daydream. You’ve got to roll up your sleeves and get to work. My kids have always heard from me, get your work done, then you can play. Well that’s not to say that this isn’t some deep fatherly advice. No, it’s just common sense. The farmer has to plan, make preparations for the soil, then plant, then harvest. It’s a lot of work. Anything that’s worth doing, is going to take preparations. These are earthly things we have ben considering, but how much more the things of God, spiritual growth? Can we expect to just show up and boom, God is just going to zap us with all sorts of profound knowledge? There’s the saying that says you get out of it what you put into it. And there’s some truth to that. God has designed us and desires for us to have relationship with Him. But we have to do things His way. We can’t just fly by the seat of our pants. We can’t just go making stuff up. You wouldn’t want to go see a doctor and not have put in the tremendous amount of study required so that they can treat your condition. You don’t want just anyone putting on a white coat, strolling into the room and making stuff up on the fly. Then why we we suppose that it would be OK for us to do the same when it comes to the things of God? When we meet with God, do we really understand what we are doing? Do we really grasp who it is whose presence we have come into? If we come to church, to presumably meet with God and worship him, and we return to our homes, unchanged, might it be that we have failed to adequately make preparations?
When you buy something new, it usually comes with an instruction manual. Although more often these days, you might find a quick setup guide and be directed to the manufacturer’s website to download an instruction manual. But the point is that when you get something new for the first time, you don’t know how to use it. maybe some things are simple plug and play devices, but you can still learn a lot of useful things and get the most out of it by referring to and reading the manual. Some things are so complicated that you run the risk of breaking the thing or not properly caring for it if you don’t read the manual. It might even save you some embarrassment. I recently saw a youtube video of a dad who sent his daughter into the auto parts store to buy some blinker fluid. And of course she returned to her dad laughing his head off. But if she had read her car manual, she would’ve known there wasn’t such a thing. But how much more should we be concerned when it comes to following the things of God? God had given us a manual for how we are to conduct our lives, and for how the church is to conduct its affairs. It’s called the Bible. And since He created us, and the church, we should follow his commands. He didn’t write suggested guidelines, as if he was giving us his personal recommendations. He has given us commandments and we are obliged to follow them. And so as we continue making our way through the book of Leviticus, God is revealing his Holy nature to us in how he has established for himself a chosen people, and following his commandments is an issue of life or death. And if it’s a matter of life and death, then we ought to pay close attention to his instructions, to his Word.
Last week we talked about making unintentional mistakes. But some mistakes we make have an associated cost. I remember one fine summer evening in Houston, and I was weed trimming around the house and I ran my weed-eater and sliced right through one of the sprinkler system pipes. All of a sudden I have a water geyser shooting 20 feet up in the air and now I’m soaked, and I’m mad, and so then I had to call a plumber to fix my mistake. And of course you don’t do yard work in Houston during “normal” business hours, you do it in the evening when it cools off, so now I have to pay even more expensive “after hours” call. Some mistakes will affect your pocket book. Another time, I thought I would get ahead and do some preventative maintenance and change out the brakes on one of my cars. The front disc brakes went smooth, but the rears were drum brakes, and I was, needless to say, way in over my head. After managing to crack a brake line, spill out all the brake fluid on the driveway and royally messing up the brakes , I had to call a tow truck to tow it to a garage and have them fix the mess I had made. So much for prevention, so much for maintenance. It was just a flat out screw up that was expensive. Dave Ramsey likes to call these mistakes stupid tax. And over the years I have certainly paid my fair share of stupid tax. All of this to say that sometimes when we make mistakes, there is a price to be paid.
People make mistakes. It’s part of what it means to be human. We have been moving into the age of artificial intelligence. Super computers, smart phones, smart homes, and smart cars. They are working on cars that drive themselves! Why? Because human drivers make mistakes. We make bad choices. People drive under the influence, drive too fast, drive too aggressive, drive too sleepy. You get the idea. Peple make mistakes and so if we can make computers that remember everything, can evaluate and make the best decision, well then the thinking goes that we can save humanity from ourselves. And yet for all the promise of technology, we still figure out a way to make a mess of our lives with technology too. Why? Because we are human, and we are fallen, and we live in a fallen world. Now I’m not anti-technology, I like my iPhone thank you very much. But we can’t put our hope, our faith in technology. Well if we did, we’d be making another mistake. When we make mistakes, something has to be done about it. There is someone we can turn to. And that is what we will find in our text this morning.
Bible Text: Leviticus 3; 7:11-36 | Preacher: Pastor Arnold | Series: Leviticus | Leviticus 3; 7:11-36 The Peace/Fellowship Offering