Tag: Travis Peterson

A Model of Thanksgiving (3/3)

pastortravislv

And here is the conclusion of Sunday’s message. I hope that it encourages you as you get ready for Thanksgiving.

A model of Thanksgiving
Olney Southern Baptist Church
Sunday Morning, November 23, 2008
Speaker: Travis Peterson
Text: 2 Chronicles 7:1-10

Point 5: Celebrate to show your thankfulness.
2 Chronicles 7:8-9

8 At that time Solomon held the feast for seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great assembly, from Lebo-hamath to the Brook of Egypt. 9 And on the eighth day they held a solemn assembly, for they had kept the dedication of the altar seven days and the feast seven days.

The dedication of the temple connected with a time of feasting in Israel and amounted to a fifteen-day celebration. It lasted from the eighth to the twenty-second day of the month. In this celebration, the dedication of the temple, the Day of Atonement, and the Festival of Booths all took place.

This time would have been an amazing time to be present. The people likely would have been fed by the meat from the sacrifices. The fat of the animals would have been burned, but there would have been remaining meat that the people could eat together. In sharing in that meat, the people may have felt honored as the guests of a king would have felt honored to share in his banquet.

One thing that we in our own culture do have figured out is that we often eat together to celebrate. This has been a practice since the earliest days of mankind, and it continues. There is something special about gathering together with people around a common purpose, a common joy, and a common table. There is something special in sitting down together to share in a meal of celebration and to do so while giving thanks to God for what he has done.

As the people dedicated the temple, they feasted and celebrated together for15 days. For a full half month, the people set aside their outside concerns and got together with the purpose of enjoying the kindness of the Lord. This is something we could do well to learn to model. While we will not plan any major 15 day celebrations anytime soon, we do have a day coming up in which we will celebrate. Let us learn to celebrate and to celebrate well. Let us eat together and remember how God has blessed us. Let us share what God has given us with others so as to spread around the blessing. When you share your Thanksgiving meal this year, be sure that it really is a meal of giving thanks to the Lord for how he has shared his bounty with you. Even if you are going through hard times, God still has blessed you far beyond anything you could ever imagine.

Point 6: Live your life with joy after giving thanks.
2 Chronicles 7:10

On the twenty-third day of the seventh month he sent the people away to their homes, joyful and glad of heart for the prosperity that the Lord had granted to David and to Solomon and to Israel his people.

And here is the conclusion of the scene. Solomon sent the people home. They didn’t stay at the party. Instead, they went back to their normal lives, but they went back thankful. The holiday enabled the people to remember and celebrate God’s goodness. That remembering and celebration strengthened the people as they went back to their daily lives.

And this week, after the celebration and after the focus on God’s kindness and provision, you will return to your normal life. The troubles of life and the struggles you face will still be there with you. But, the day of celebration, if you will take it, will be a day that will help you to have a stronger sense of thankfulness and commitment to our Lord.

So, Christians, seek the glory of God. Worship him when you see that glory. Obey him with extravagance. Sing his praise. Celebrate his goodness. And then go and live a life of thanksgiving to the Lord all year long.

And if you do not yet know God through Jesus Christ, let me offer you a reason to be thankful. You are in grave danger before God, but God offers you the way out. He has sent his Son to be the sacrifice for all the sins of all who will put their trust in him. If you will come to Jesus in faith and turn away from your former life of sin, God will forgive you of your sin and will make you his child, a part of his family. This will give you the greatest cause for giving thanks you have ever imagined. So I invite you to come to know the Lord and to begin for yourself a life of true joy and thanksgiving.

A Model of Thanksgiving (Part 2)

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The following is the second of three installments of a message that I preached on giving thanks. Scroll down if you would like to read part 1.

A model of Thanksgiving
Olney Southern Baptist Church
Sunday Morning, November 23, 2008
Speaker: Travis Peterson
Text: 2 Chronicles 7:1-10

Point 3: Practice extravagant obedience to show your thankfulness.
2 Chronicles 4-5, 7

4 Then the king and all the people offered sacrifice before the Lord. 5 King Solomon offered as a sacrifice 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. So the king and all the people dedicated the house of God. . . 7 And Solomon consecrated the middle of the court that was before the house of the Lord, for there he offered the burnt offering and the fat of the peace offerings, because the bronze altar Solomon had made could not hold the burnt offering and the grain offering and the fat.

Offerings were not unusual to the people of Israel. Throughout their wilderness wanderings and their initial years in the land, the people of Israel already knew of the different kinds of sacrifices and offerings that God required. So when we see offerings being made by Solomon and those under his leadership, what we see is the people of God responding to the revelation of God with obedience to God.

But the obedience that you see here is not some sort of drudgery. There is no sense of an unpleasant duty that nobody really wanted to perform. There is a clear delight that Solomon and the people have in obeying God. How do we know that? We know that there is delight here because the obedience is so extravagant, so rich, so giving.

“King Solomon offered as a sacrifice 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep” (v5a). This was not your average, everyday, ordinary sacrifice. This is sacrifice to the max. This is Solomon thinking, not how little can I give to God, but how much can I offer. What can I give that will really show the world that God is important to me. It is Solomon saying, “I want to obey God so much that everybody around me will grasp that God is super significant.”

These people went so far in their sacrificing that they had to set aside extra room in order to be able to accommodate the offerings. Solomon ordered so many animals sacrificed as a gift to God that there was no way that they could all be sacrificed on the one altar. This was a big-time offering that the king made.

And let’s be sure that we do not miss the point. Every day, you are supposed to obey God. How will you do it? Specifically, how will you obey God as this Thanksgiving holiday approaches? Will you begrudgingly drag yourself out of bed and read a couple of verses so that you can say you did your duty? That doesn’t really honor God. Will you give your offering in such a way that your face will show that you really wish you could keep that money for something else? That doesn’t honor God. No, what honors God is when we obey him, but not just a little bit. It honors God when we obey him extravagantly.

Right now, think of something you know that you are supposed to be doing in obedience to God: giving thanks, sharing Jesus, loving your spouse, studying his word, singing his praises, giving to support ministry, praying, forgiving others, etc. Plan to obey God, but not just a little bit. If you glimpse God’s glory and remember his greatness, you will want to obey him more than just a little. How can you obey with extravagance? Pray and ask God, “Lord, help me to do what I should, but to do it with joy and to do it to the extreme.” Obey with extravagance as part of giving thanks.

Point 4: Sing to the Lord as an act of thanksgiving.
2 Chronicles 7:6

The priests stood at their posts; the Levites also, with the instruments for music to the Lord that King David had made for giving thanks to the Lord—for his steadfast love endures forever—whenever David offered praises by their ministry; opposite them the priests sounded trumpets, and all Israel stood.

It is not only that Israel obeyed God and made sacrifices to show their thankfulness to God. They also did something that God has commanded time after time after time. They sang. They played instruments. They listened to one another. They made music for the glory of God.

Psalm 33:1-3

1 Shout for joy in the Lord, O you righteous!
Praise befits the upright.
2 Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre;
make melody to him with the harp of ten strings!
3 Sing to him a new song;
play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts.

Ephesians 5:17-21

17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, 19 addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, 20 giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

I think I can say with total confidence that God wants us to be a thankful, singing people. We are to sing new songs and old songs. We are to sing with instruments and all kinds of music. We are to sing with joy. Honestly, we need to do a better job at this. We need to do a better job of rejoicing with one another and singing the praises of god. We need to learn to love singing new songs and old songs, fast songs and slow songs, hymns and worship songs, piano songs and guitar songs and all sorts of songs that declare the truth of the glory of our God.

When the people sang of God, they said, “for his steadfast love endures forever.” They sang songs of thanks to God for his kindness, for his love, for his character, for his faithfulness, for his saving grace and covenant-keeping love. When you get a glimpse of God’s glory and when you remember what God has done to show you his goodness and kindness, you should offer him thanks. And one of the ways that we can be a rightly thankful people is for us to sing songs of thanksgiving to our God.

A Model of Thanksgiving (2 Chronicles 7:1-10)

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The following is the first 1/3 of a sermon that I preached to help us to prepare for Thanksgiving at OSBC. Many found it encouraging, so I’ll post it here over the next 2 days.

A model of Thanksgiving
Olney Southern Baptist Church
Sunday Morning, November 23, 2008
Speaker: Travis Peterson
Text: 2 Chronicles 7:1-10

2 Chronicles 7:1-10 (ESV)

1 As soon as Solomon finished his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. 2 And the priests could not enter the house of the Lord, because the glory of the Lord filled the Lord’s house. 3 When all the people of Israel saw the fire come down and the glory of the Lord on the temple, they bowed down with their faces to the ground on the pavement and worshiped and gave thanks to the Lord, saying, “For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.”
4 Then the king and all the people offered sacrifice before the Lord. 5 King Solomon offered as a sacrifice 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. So the king and all the people dedicated the house of God. 6 The priests stood at their posts; the Levites also, with the instruments for music to the Lord that King David had made for giving thanks to the Lord—for his steadfast love endures forever—whenever David offered praises by their ministry; opposite them the priests sounded trumpets, and all Israel stood.
7 And Solomon consecrated the middle of the court that was before the house of the Lord, for there he offered the burnt offering and the fat of the peace offerings, because the bronze altar Solomon had made could not hold the burnt offering and the grain offering and the fat.
8 At that time Solomon held the feast for seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great assembly, from Lebo-hamath to the Brook of Egypt. 9 And on the eighth day they held a solemn assembly, for they had kept the dedication of the altar seven days and the feast seven days. 10 On the twenty-third day of the seventh month he sent the people away to their homes, joyful and glad of heart for the prosperity that the Lord had granted to David and to Solomon and to Israel his people.

Pray

Though we have a holiday set aside for us as a nation to give thanks to God for the ways in which he has blessed us, we are not actually very good at being a thankful people. Sadly, I’m not so sure that this is not true inside the church as well. Though we of all people have the most for which to be thankful, we do not always allow our lives to be marked by thanksgiving.

Just think for a moment. If I called you to stop and think of single words to describe the attitude of the people of Olney Southern Baptist Church, I’m guessing you could come up with several words. But I wonder if thankful would be one of the first words that would come to any of our minds. But it is God’s will that we be a thankful people.

1 Thessalonians 5:18

give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Colossians 3:15-17

15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

God wants us to be thankful. This week we have a holiday set aside to be sure to remember to be thankful. But we need help to learn to be a more thankful people. And this is why we are going to spend a few minutes this morning in the book of Second Chronicles.

Second Chronicles chapter 7 tells us of the events that surrounded the dedication of the temple that Solomon built. Chapter 6 contained a lengthy prayer of Solomon asking God to bless the temple that he was building. The end of chapter 7 contains God’s response to Solomon’s prayer, including the famous verse 14 where God says, “if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” But the beginning of chapter 7 is what we will study this morning.

The people of Israel are experiencing the height of God’s blessing in their national life. God, using King David, has brought Israel peace and victory over their enemies. Solomon has built the temple, and the nation has everything going well. And it is in this moment that we find the nation pausing to give God thanks. As we watch Israel’s thanksgiving at the temple’s dedication, we will learn six things about giving thanks that we can put into practice or pray for as we approach our own season of Thanksgiving.

Point 1: Before giving thanks, seek the glory of God.
2 Chronicles 7:1-2

1 As soon as Solomon finished his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. 2 And the priests could not enter the house of the Lord, because the glory of the Lord filled the Lord’s house.

When Solomon finished praying, God did something amazing. God sent fire down from heaven and totally consumed the burnt offerings and sacrifices.

Right now, stop and make sure that you are picturing this. If you’ve ever seen a ceremony for the opening or dedication of a new building, I guarantee you that this is different. Instead of having a few photographers from a local paper, a ribbon, an over-sized pair of scissors, and a smiling person who wants to be seen as important making a speech, all we have here is the king praying and then, bam! Fire falls from heaven. The sacrificial animals that were on the altar are totally consumed in an instant.

And if the fire from the sky is not enough, the glory of God fills the temple. This brilliant, bright, glorious cloud covers everything. This picture has been seen in Israel before at the dedication of the tabernacle in the wilderness. And this picture serves to tell the Israelites that God is present and that he is setting apart the temple as special, a sanctuary.

The priests, the men whose job it was to work inside the temple making sacrifices and caring for the items in the temple, were unable to enter the temple. God’s glory was there. They knew that to walk into such holiness would be deadly. So, until the cloud went away, the priests had to do what the crowd did; they had to stand back and simply marvel at the presence of the glory of God.

Looking at what happened right here, we have our first lesson for thanksgiving. If you really want to be thankful as God wants you to be thankful, you must first be captivated by a picture of the glory of God. God has designed us all with a hunger to see and to be inspired by things that are amazing, that are beautiful, that are bigger than we are. The greatest thing we can ever imagine is the glorious presence of God. So, if you want to be truly thankful, you need to first seek a glimpse of the glory of God.

So, what should you do. Let me suggest a couple of ideas. If you want to see the glory of God, the first and best place you can look is the word of God. Our Lord has revealed his glory to us in the Bible. The Bible is where we look to hear the account of fire consuming offerings on the altar and the glory of God filling the temple. The Bible is where we look to learn about the waters of the Red Sea sliding apart, about entire armies being put to flight before tiny groups of men, about giants falling before teenagers, about the dead being raised to life, about the son standing still in the sky, and about so much more. The word of God shows us the Son of God, Jesus Christ, and all of the glory of God dwelling in bodily form. So, if you want to glimpse God’s glory before giving thanks, start with the scripture.

But you can look other places to glimpse God’s glory.

Psalm 19:1

The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.

God’s glory is seen in his creation.

We can also see God’s glory as we look back over our lives and remember the things that God has done for us in the past. Perhaps we can learn more about God’s glory as we talk to one another about the things that God has done in our lives.

And let me suggest that, if you want to see the glory of God, you pray that God show you his glory. God loves his children. He will answer your prayer to see him at his best. He will allow you to glimpse his majesty if you are genuinely wanting to know him more. He stands at the door of your heart and knocks as Revelation 3:20 says, and he is anxious to come in and fellowship with you. So, if you want to sense more of God’s glory, ask God to help you to see his glory. Before giving thanks, seek the glory of God.

Point 2: Express genuine worship as part of thanksgiving.
2 Chronicles 7:3

When all the people of Israel saw the fire come down and the glory of the Lord on the temple, they bowed down with their faces to the ground on the pavement and worshiped and gave thanks to the Lord, saying, “For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.”

The people did exactly what they should have done in their setting. When they saw the fire fall from the sky, they all hit the deck. They bowed down with their faces to the ground. They worshipped god. They declared that God is good and that God’s love endures forever. They remembered who God is, and they lowered themselves in his presence to display that he is higher and greater than them.

True worship involves us performing reverential acts. True worship involves us showing that God is our King and that we are submitted to him. True worship involves us bowing down and showing that he is greater than us. True worship involves us declaring God’s character for others to hear. True worship involves us doing what God has called us to do in his word in order to show that he is our king and we are his followers. True worship is what the people did in this passage, and it is what we need to do if we are going to be rightly thankful to God.

As this Thanksgiving approaches, do not neglect worship. It is easy to get caught up in the preparation of all the food and getting ready for the Christmas shopping. But make sure that you take time to worship your God. Seek his glory. When God reveals his glory to you either in his word, in nature, in your memory, in a sermon, or wherever, right there, bow your heart before God and declare him to be worthy. Honor him. Focus on him. Declare his praise. Worship God. Express genuine worship as part of thanksgiving.

Faulty Theology Does Not Worship God

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From Bob Kauflin, Worship Matters, 27-28.

Let’s say you and I run into each other at Starbucks, and you start
telling me how much you’ve enjoyed getting to know my son, Jordan.
I’m delighted.
You go on to describe him as a five-foot-two saxophonist who has an
avid interest in cooking Italian food and playing cricket.
I give you a funny look. “You must be thinking of someone else. Jordan
is a six-foot-tall drummer who loves to eat, not cook, Italian food. And
though he excels in many sports, cricket isn’t one of them.”
But you continue extolling a short, sax-playing, pasta-cooking cricket
player as you repeat several times, “He’s just a great guy!”
Such praise would be meaningless because it would be based on inadequate
and inaccurate information. Your “doctrine of Jordan” would be
wrong. And however strong your appreciation, I think you’d like him more
after discovering what he’s really like.
It’s like that with us and God. He calls us not only to love him but to
“love the truth” about him (2 Thessalonians 2:10). We worship the One
who says he is the truth and who tells us, “the truth will set you free” (John
14:6; John 8:32). God wants everyone “to come to the knowledge of the
truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). And he reveals his wrath against those who “suppress
the truth” (Romans 1:18). Jesus said he would send “the Spirit of
truth,” and he asked God to sanctify his disciples “in the truth,” which he
identified as God’s Word (John 16:13; 17:17).
The better (i.e., the more accurately) we know God through his Word,
the more genuine our worship will be. In fact, the moment we veer from
what is true about God, we’re engaging in idolatry.
Regardless of what we think or feel, there is no authentic worship of
God without a right knowledge of God.

God’s Glory is Greater than Our Suffering (John 11:4-6)

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(The following is a point from a sermon I preached on March 2, 2008 entitled “Suffering, Love, and Glory.” Today’s quiet time reading brought this back to mind.)

Point 2: Believe that God glorifying himself before you is more loving than God keeping you from suffering.

John 11:4-6

4 But when Jesus heard it he said, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”
5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.

Back in our account, we find that the messenger has run from Mary and Martha to find Jesus. The breathless message is delivered. “Lord, the one you love, Lazarus, is sick.” Without question, all who hear this know that this is a call for Jesus to do something, to heal Lazarus, to come running.

But watch. There are two responses of Jesus that should grab your attention. In verse 4, Jesus tells us that this sickness will not end in death. He is not saying that Lazarus will not die. HE is, however, saying that the ultimate end of this situation is not going to be a funeral. There is something else at stake here. There is something more that God is up to than simply calling Lazarus home.

What is God up to? Look at Jesus’ words. He says, “It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” Two times in this one sentence, Jesus tells us what God is up to. This illness and all the circumstances surrounding it are for a single main purpose: the glory of God.

Allow me to let you in on a little secret. Everything that God does, from creation to salvation to the ultimate conclusion of the universe, God does for the sake of his own glory. God made you and me for the sake of his glory. He makes things happen in our lives that will most glorify him. And, if we will ever truly trust him, we will learn that bringing God glory is the most exciting, happy, joyful thing that we could ever do. Nothing will ever give your soul a deeper and more complete joy than when you do what God created you to do. Nothing will satisfy your heart as much as when you give glory to God.

Now, for the second thing Jesus does, follow the wording of the gospel here, so that you can see something amazing. Verse 5 makes it clear that Jesus loves Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. IF someone asked Jesus if he loves these three, he would tell them yes. Now, look up on the screen at the beginning of verse 6. There is an incredibly important word. That word is “so.” Jesus loved these people, so he did something. If your Bible has this translated in some other way, with the word “yet” or “but” in place of “so” or “therefore”, you might have trouble here. The clear meaning of the Greek text is that it is because of Jesus’ love for Mary, Martha, and Lazarus that he chooses to do what he next does. It is not in spite of his love for them, it is out of love for them that he does what he does.

Listen carefully here, because this goes against our natural inclination. We have a tendency to believe that God’s love for us will keep us free from pain. But in this instance, it is precisely God’s love for this family that leads Jesus to allow them to go through great pain. Why? Jesus also told us that it was for God’s glory that this happened. So we must conclude that it is more loving for God to show us his glory than it is for God to keep us from pain.

If it is truly more loving for God to show us his glory than to keep us from pain, then it is also true that God may, at times, choose to lead us through suffering and pain in order that we might have the greater ultimate joy of knowing him, loving him, becoming more like him, and seeing his glory.

So, what does Jesus do? Out of love for Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, Jesus refuses to come when they summon him. He waits an extra couple of days and Lazarus dies. He takes them through a desperately painful dark time, and he does so out of love. And if you and I are to rightly learn from this, we have to understand that God may take us through dark times for the sake of his glory. And we must understand that the Bible makes it clear that God doing so is a loving thing for him to do for us.

Is God the Means or the End?

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I was recently reading through C.S. Lewis’ A Grief Observed, and came across a concept that I find very important. Lewis recognized that he, in grieving over the passing of his wife, was in danger of wanting to use God as his means to be reunited with her more than wanting God for God. Lewis writes:

“Am I for instance sideling back to God because I know that if there is any road to H it runs through him? But then of course, I know perfectly well that he can’t be used as a road. If you’re approaching him, not as a goal, but as a road, not as the end, but as a means, you’re not really approaching him at all. That’s what was really wrong with all those popular pictures of happy reunions on the further shore: not the simple-minded and very earthly images, but the fact that they make an end of what we can get only as a byproduct of the true end.”

(Sorry I have no reference to give, as I was listening to an unabridged audio of the book. This comes quite near the end of the book.)

Lewis’ words are challenging. Do we want God as a means to get to heaven and to be reunited with our loved ones, or do we want heaven in order to be with God? God does not condemn our desire to see our loved ones who have preceded us in death; in fact, he calls us to find comfort in the fact that they will rise from the dead on the Day of the Lord (1 Thessalonians 4:13-ff). But I do think that God demands that he be our ultimate goal and not the method we use to get something we want that is not him.

An Important Response to the Election

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It is November 5, 2008. The election is behind us and the results are in. What now? Whether the candidate you supported won or lost, whether your party of choice did well or poorly, the fact is, it is now time for us to live our lives in the world around us.

I want to allow the scripture to speak to us as we look to how we ought to respond, and I will make a couple of important comments. But first, let us hear from God.

Romans 13:1-10

1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, 4 for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. 6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. 7 Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.
8 Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

Titus 3:1-2

1 Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, 2 to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.

1 Timothy 2:1-4

1 First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, 2 for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. 3 This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Let us learn a few important truths from the verses above. First, let us realize that no election result came apart from the sovereignty of God. God’s word clearly says, “For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God” (Romans 13:1b). So let us be sure of this: God was not defeated in our election. God is accomplishing his will. Whether you understand how he is working this out is not relevant. God has done what God has done. Let us recognize this fact, and live under the sovereign rule of our God and under the government he has placed over us.

Second, let us recognize our responsibility. We as the people of God have a requirement given us by God to pray for our leadership. God says through Paul, “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way” (1 Timothy 2:1-2). It is our job as believers to pray for all in leadership and authority over us. This includes our president elect. And our prayers have a focus. We want to ask God to be glorified, of course, but look at the text. We are to pray for our leaders that we who are believers might live a peaceful and quiet life. We are to pray that we can live dignified and God-honoring lives under the rulers who are over us. So let us remember what God has called us to do and do our duty.

Third, look at what the Bible says about our speech. God commands us, “Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed” (Romans 13:7). God also says in a discussion of our response to leaders that we are “to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people” (Titus 3:2). So let me say this with all biblical authority: We as Christians must speak with respect, courtesy, and kindness toward our leadership. It is inappropriate for Christians to take part in the venomous speech that so often characterizes those whose political party is not in power. We must not make nasty jokes that disrespect our leadership. WE must not take part in throwing about wild accusations and unfair character assessments. WE have no right to say that we understand the heart of a particular politician simply because we disagree with him or her on issues, regardless of how important those issues are. No, as believers, we must speak with dignity, respect, love, and courtesy.

Am I saying that we must not stand for important moral issues such as the sanctity of human life? Of course I am not saying that. We should continue to pray that God will protect human life and put an end to the barbaric practices which are now legal in our society. What I am saying is that, at this point, the leadership of our nation is set, and we must not be evil and disrespectful toward that leadership. Instead, we should pray for our leadership. It would be wise for us to pray that our leadership will be led by God to protect human life, to govern as will most honor him, and to change views that they hold that do damage to people who are made in God’s image. We should pray for the leaders of our nation that we will continue to be able to live peacefully, quietly, and with dignity as believers in the United States. We should pray for our leaders that they will govern well, and that they will do justice as God has called them to do.

We also can pray, thanking God that some important changes have occurred in our nation. We can thank God that we see evidence of the fall of racism in our culture. That we would elect the nation’s first African-American president is a testimony to the grace of God in at least one sense. God has allowed our people to recognize that the color of a man’s skin is not a factor that either qualifies or disqualifies him for any position in our land. Racism is evil. Anyone who would say that we should not have a president of a particular skin color simply because of that skin color is wrong, and such a person ought to repent of their sinful attitude. Christians can disagree on a candidate’s qualifications, but no believer should judge a man as more or less worthy to serve in office based on skin color. So, in at least this area, we as believers should thank God that our nation has made such dramatic progress in tearing down the ungodly walls of racism which have been such a part of our past.

Christians, it is November 5. The world has changed. Yet, with all the changes and all the celebration and all the sorrow and all the money spent, God is still on his throne. And our duty as believers is to pray for our leadership, respect our leadership, and live as Christians in our society. Why is this our duty? Paul says, “This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:3-4). It pleases God that we pray for our leaders and live peacefully under them, because our mission is not about the nation or the economy or a political party. Our mission is to take the message of Jesus Christ to a lost and dying world. The Great Commission is our responsibility just as much today as it was yesterday. So, let us live as God commands, and let’s please him by making our lives about spreading a passion for his glory to all peoples all over the world.

Context Matters

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In reading through the book of Jeremiah this morning, I find myself reminded of the importance of keeping the context of a text in mind. Any good interpreter of the Bible understands that verses should not be applied to situations for which they were not intended. Of course, if another inspired writer uses those words to apply in another situation, that is totally different, as the author does so under God’s direction. But it is not appropriate for us to take hold of verses, oblivious to their context, and make them out to be promises for us.

I bring as an example Jeremiah 2911. I have seen this verse used by many in memory verse plans, as it tells of God having wonderful plans to prosper his people. Generally, the plans offer no hint of the context of the passage; the reader is simply to assume that God is telling him or her that he loves them and has a wonderful plan for their prosperity. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not questioning that God does love us or that he has a plan for us. I am, however, questioning whether Jeremiah 29:11 should be taken as a direct promise for the Christian of today.

Look at the verse in context, and judge for yourself:

Jeremiah 29:10-14

10 “For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. 11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. 13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.

What is the context? To whom do these verses clearly apply? These verses were given by God to instruct the Jews who were about to be taken into Babylonian captivity. God told those men and women that he had a plan for them, a plan that would lead to their prosperity even in their foreign exile. That is the context and intent of Jeremiah 29:11.

One might ask, “Then can we learn nothing from such verses that are not intended for us?” Of course we can learn from these verses. We can learn of God’s character and faithfulness. We learn that God has been faithful in the past to his people. We can learn of Gods’ plan for his people. We can learn that God is good to his children. We can learn that God is in control, even when the world makes it look as though he is not.

A friend offered me a way to illustrate this point. Suppose a young man finds a letter from his father to his mother. In the letter, the young man reads these words, “I love you, and I will give of myself to protect and care for you until the day I die.” These words are written from the father to the mother about the father’s relationship to the mother. If the young man says that this was written for him, he is doing violence to the text. If, however, the young man is comforted by these words to his mother because he sees in these words his father’s genuine commitment, caring, and faithfulness, he is perfectly within proper bounds.

My warning to us is simple: be careful how you take verses for yourself. God has not said that you can grab Jeremiah 29:11 as a blanket promise that no harm will come to you in your lifetime. You should not run to this verse and say that you have a promise from God that you will prosper through an economic crisis. You indeed may prosper because of God’s grace, but do not assume that you are guaranteed total financial stability simply from the words of a promise that God gave to the Jews before their Babylonian captivity.

You might ask, “What’s the difference? You seem to be telling me that God has plans for me and will be faithful; so why can’t I apply this verse to myself?” My answer is that it is very different to trust in God’s character as it is revealed in the scripture than to trust in a promise that was not made to you. While you may come to the same conclusion, it matters how you get there. Since you are not about to be returned to Israel after 70 years of Babylonian captivity, it is better for you to trust in God’s character than for you to find rest in a promise taken out of context. Yes, this may seem like only a game of semantics, but it is important that we respect the Bible and its original intent enough that we learn from it as the authors intended rather than ripping verses out of their original meaning and making them say something we simply want to hear.

So, how do I deal with Jeremiah 29:11? I know that it is a verse written to the Jews who are going to Babylon. I learn from it that God is in control. I allow the fact that God is in control to give me comfort that, if he was in control when his people went captive, he most certainly is also in control in my life. I trust in God who has proven himself faithful time and time again, but I do not claim a verse that is out of context to proof-text my trust. I need not proof-text my trust in God, as my God has proven himself faithful over and over and over again.

A Thought on Hurtful Speech (Ecclesiastes 7:20-22)

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Ecclesiastes 7:20-22

20 Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.
21 Do not take to heart all the things that people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you. 22 Your heart knows that many times you yourself have cursed others.
.

“I just can’t believe that he would say such a thing about me.” How often have you thought or said something like those words? How often have we found ourselves angry, indignant, and utterly amazed that someone would say something mean about us? How often do we find ourselves offended at the words of another, and want to demand satisfaction—either an apology or the opportunity to get them back with clever words of our own?

The book of Ecclesiastes is a tough one to interpret. It is difficult to recognize when we are seeing the worldly wisdom of Solomon that will be overturned with the eternal perspective of chapter 12. Sometimes there are things said in the book we can tell are simply the words of a man who is not viewing the world from a Godward perspective. But there are other times when we see real, Proverbs-like wisdom literature. I believe that just such wisdom writing is 7:20-22.

Solomon, with characteristic punch, tells us three things in a row that are worth our attention. First, he reminds us that all people are bound to error. Second, he tells us that we ought not get ourselves too worked up when we hear that somebody has said something against us. Then, he drops the hammer and closes the deal when he reminds us that, if we are honest, all of us have spoken ill of others before.

Is it not amazing that we will become so offended and demand justice when a person speaks ill of us, but, when we have spoken ill of others, we generally find ways to excuse our behavior? We say that we must be excused, because we were angry, because we did not understand the situation, because what they did was so horrible that we had to say what we said, or because, “Hey, nobody’s perfect.” We excuse our own flaws and we latch onto the flaws of others. We want to be excused while we want others not to be. We want justice for them and grace for ourselves.

So, perhaps we need to learn from Ecclesiastes 7:20-22. The next time we are hurt by the careless or even mean-spirited words of another person, perhaps we should remember verses 20 and 22. We too are sinners. We too have spoken ill of others in our past. We too have been mean-spirited in our own histories. And so, then we might be able to handle verse 21 and not get too worked up about it. Sure, if what they did was really a big deal, we can go to them and explain to them how hurtful were their words. But if we go, let us learn to go with grace, knowing that we have so often needed that grace ourselves for saying things just like what they said.