There's not a whole lot in the Bible about Joseph, but as I was reading the passage in Matthew that talks about him I realized that there's actually a lot packed into these few verses about Joseph.

To start, let's read the verses.

Matthew 1:18-25 ESV
[18] Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. [19] And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. [20] But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. [21] She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” [22] All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: [23]  “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us). [24] When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, [25] but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.

There are a few words/phrases that hit me hard as I was reading this: just, unwilling to put her to shame, divorce her quietly, do not fear, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him.

Just: Joseph was a righteous, holy and innocent man. This was part of his character. It reflects the type of man he was, the morals and ethics he held, and the lessons he would impart on his children and the type of family he would create. It also speaks to the fact that Jesus was not his biological child, because sex before the final marriage ceremony was considered a sin, and he would not be labeled as just if he was, indeed, fathering a child outside of marriage, even in betrothal.

Unwilling To Put Her To Shame: Based on all available evidence, his betrothed, his soon to be wife, the one he was committing himself to, had betrayed him. She had betrayed his love and defiled their family. He was shocked and hurt, and the natural response would be to lash out, to punish, to get revenge. He could have demanded justice. He could have insisted she feel the public shame of her adultery. He could have had her publicly executed, and he would have had full legal and religious authority to do so. In fact, in the eyes of many, it would have been just. However, he was unwilling to do any of this. He was hurt, yet he loved her. She would have plenty of natural consequences, but he was unwilling to add to her shame. He had compassion.

Divorce Her Quietly: Though he was unwilling to put her to shame, he was also unable to move forward with the marriage. He couldn't start a life and a family with someone who he couldn't trust and who, obviously, did not hold the same values that he did. Being betrothed, however, meant that there needed to be a legal dissolution of the relationship, a divorce. He was going to divorce her, but, again, quietly, without a huge fanfare. What's interesting about the word divorce here, though, is that, more than just dissolving an agreement and relationship, the word means to release or let go, to free fully, to pardon, to forgive. The Bible isn't clear here whether there was any deeper meaning than the legal action of divorce, but as I read this, I read a forgiveness on Joseph's part. He can't continue on in the relationship, but he forgives her.

Do Not Fear: This is one of the most common greetings by angels when they appear to people, but not in this instance. In fact, neither of the times that Joseph receives a message from an angel is he greeted by being told not to fear. Maybe this is because it's an appearance in a dream or maybe Joseph just isn't frightened by them. However, he is frightened by something else. He is afraid to take Mary as his wife, to continue the relationship. Why? Well, first of all, he can't trust her. He's scared that he'll have a life of constant doubt and mistrust, but I think there's something more. He doesn't want to expose her, which means that if they get married everyone will think the child is his, which, in fact, they did. However, everyone would easily be able to work a timetable and figure out that the child was conceived before they were married. This was a big deal. It was a sin. It would tarnish his reputation of being just. Mary was already going to bear this weight, but Joseph didn't have to, and if he chose to, it would be on behalf of someone who had betrayed him. This scared him. His shattered hopes and dreams and vision scared him. The betrayal scared him. The proposition of taking Mary's hand and embracing her shame and tarnish along with her, scared him. Just like many men, Joseph may have been strong and courageous, not frightened by much, physically, even supernatural messengers, but he dealt with a lot psychologically and had confusion and anxiety and was unsure of the right path and was conflicted, and all of these internal enemies and dangers scared him.

He Did As The Angel Of The Lord Commanded Him: Above all, Joseph was faithful and trusted God. We don't know if Mary had told him this unbelievable story of being chosen to give birth to the Savior of the world or if this dream is the first time he heard it, but either way, upon hearing what the angel tells him, he obeys. I think he was probably still afraid, but he moved forward. He reversed course on his own plans. He chose to believe an impossible story, one that, even if it was true, and even if he believed it, most others in society would not. He chose to, potentially, tarnish his reputation as a just man. He chose to share Mary's shame instead of putting her to shame. He followed God, immediately and unquestioningly.

It's really quite amazing what we can learn about Joseph here, and what we can take away for our lives today.

We should be just (righteous, holy, innocent). We should be kind and compassionate. Compassion is not weakness, but rather an exercise of strength. You can be compassionate when you have the power and authority to inflict punishment/justice, etc… and choose to withhold that power. We should be forgiving. Forgiveness does not, necessarily, mean that we act like nothing happened and nothing changes, but it is a release of the hurt, the grudge, the debt that is built up when someone hurts us. We should be brave and strong, while also acknowledging that oftentimes we're scared, and often, those fears run far deeper than physical threats. We need to take those fears to God. We need to address them. We need to be courageous. Fear paralyzes, but courage drives us on. We need to have faith. We need to be so in tune with God that we hear and recognize His voice, and then we need to have faith that trusts and obeys. This needs to be true even when the path that He places before us seems wrong. Joseph did nothing wrong, but the circumstances God was asking him to go into would appear to be compromising. At the end of the day, doing what God says and being who God made us to be is more important than appearing like we are righteous.

Matthew 6:5-14 “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

“And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”

In this section, Jesus is talking about prayer. Prayer is an essential part of the Christian life, but for many people, it is very misunderstood. So, let’s jump into it.

First, let’s give a really simple definition of prayer. Prayer is communication between you and Jesus. It is a conversation. It involves both speaking and listening. It’s not some magical incantation or prescribed set of words to elicit God’s good will. Just like communication is essential to any human relationship, prayer is essential to your relationship with God.

The first part of this section is very similar to the last section on charity and the next section on fasting in that it expects that you will be praying and it is saying that prayer should not be some big display and presentation. Jesus goes so far as to say that those people who loudly and publicly pray, in churches, in public, etc… are hypocrites.

Just so we are all on the same page, a hypocrite is “a person who puts on a false appearance of virtue or religion or a person who acts in contradiction to his or her stated beliefs or feelings” It’s that first one that we are looking at here, someone who “who puts on a false appearance of virtue or religion” 

Now here’s the thing, Jesus isn’t saying that if you pray in a public arena or are heard by other people that that automatically makes you a hypocrite. What He is addressing here are people who have self-imposed virtue based on how pious they are and how eloquently they pray and how often they pray. There were people in Jesus’ time, just as there are now, who were “holier than though” and took great pride in their religiosity. Their prayers weren’t genuine. They weren’t really trying to communicate with God, to seek deeper relationship, to gain direction or wisdom or to bring needs and concerns to Him. They were putting on a show to ensure that everyone around saw them and thought great things about them. It was a pride and power play. This is what Jesus is warning against, not public prayer, but disingenuous prayer.

He specifically calls out this sort of behavior in Mark 12:38-40: “And in his teaching he said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes and like greetings in the marketplaces and have the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, who devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”

When prayer is true and humble it doesn’t need to be public and a performance. Just as it is uncommon to have deep meaningful conversations with your friend/family/significant other in front of an audience, our deepest and most meaningful prayers should be more private, something between you and Jesus.

The second section here is much the same, it is just specifically addressing long, elaborate, ornate prayers that are long, elaborate and ornate just because. There is often a thought that prayer needs to be elaborate or that there are specific words you have to say in a specific order. I don’t know how many times I’ve had someone tell me “I don’t know how to pray.” It’s not like that though. Do you know how to talk? Do you know how to communicate? Then you know how to pray. That’s all it is. Now, again, this doesn’t mean that prayer is always a 20 second thing. In fact, it is not uncommon for people to spend hours in prayer, just as it isn’t uncommon to spend hours on the phone, or hanging out with, or texting your friends or significant other. The thing about it is that it is more about quality than quantity. You don’t earn brownie points with God by saying a lot of flowery Old English words for five minutes. Jesus calls these empty phrases. I’m sure you’ve probably been in a conversation with someone before that lasted way too long, and in the end, the other person (or you) didn’t really say anything. It was all fluff. That sort of conversation, or prayer, is sorta useless, and a bit annoying. God doesn’t want that sort of communication with you.

On the contrary, we are instructed to be praying continuously.

Romans 12:12 “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.”

1 Thessalonians 5:17 “pray without ceasing”

Again, this is not a nonstop recitation of religious words, but a continual conversation, before you go to bed at night, when you’re lying awake in the middle of the night, when you wake up the morning, while you’re taking a shower, when you’re spacing out during class, while you’re bored on a Saturday afternoon, when something really cool happens, when something really scary happens, anytime that you would think to grab your phone and text your friends or post on TikTok or Snapchat and even more, that’s as much as God wants you to talk to Him, to pray. It’s not about chunks of polished and perfect prayers, but a constant conversation.

The last thing that Jesus says before He gives a model prayer is “your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” Prayer is not the only way that God has an inkling into our lives, our hopes and dreams and wishes and desires, our fears and failures and hurts and anxieties. God knows all of it, every aspect of our lives at all time. He doesn’t need us to tell Him. It’s not like He’s in the dark until we reveal certain things to Him. Prayer is essential, not because God needs intel or validation or permission or anything like that, but it is essential because He loves you, deeply and intimately. He loves you and wants to have a relationship with you, and not just a religious relationship. He wants you to love Him as well.

Relationship, love, is built on, and flourishes with, communication. Therefore, Jesus wants you to pray so that you can grow closer to Him.

So, this week. I would challenge you to pray. That may sound simple or scary, but I would challenge you to look at it just like we’ve talked about. Just talk to God, but also listen. The next section in Matthew gives a blueprint or outline for the sort of things that should be included in prayer. It’s not a script, but it can help give an idea of the sort of things to talk to God about if you’re unsure.

Matthew 6:1-4 “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you."

In this next section, Jesus addresses the topic of charity, of giving to the needy, of faith in practice and living out what you believe. There are a few things here that are either implied or expressly stated, and they're pretty important. 

The topics that we see here are:

• hypocrisy
• self glorification
• rewards
• giving to the needy. 

So, to start, Jesus does not, here, tell us to give to the needy. He assumes that we will be. It is a given that His followers will be engaging in charity and generosity to help care for and provide for the needy in their community. It's not “If," but "When.” This same idea is reflected all throughout the Bible, both in the Old and New Testament.

1 John 3:17 “But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?”

Psalm 37:21 “The wicked borrows but does not pay back, but the righteous is generous and gives;”

Deuteronomy 15:7-8 “If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be.” 

Deuteronomy 15:10-11 “You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because for this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’”

As Christians, we have been given an abundance by God, and we are called to help those who are in need in return. Everyone of us is familiar with people who are asking for help. We see people on the side of the street, holding signs, asking for money, asking for food, living in tents, etc… However, these are not the only people around us who are in need. Of course, if God is calling you to buy a burger for someone on the side of the street or pull out a $20 for a homeless individual, do it, but I would challenge you to also look around at the people you interact with on a daily basis. How many people do you go to school with, work with, live with/near who are in need of something. Often, these people’s needs are less obvious, but still as pressing. We are constantly surrounded by people who need something: food, money to pay the bills, relationship/friendship, tutoring/help with school or work, etc…

The implication in these verses is that Jesus is referencing things like food and money, physical needs, and that is definitely true, but we can take this same truth and apply it to other needs that people have as well. You may not have an abundance of food or money to give out, but what do you have? Each of us has something that we can give to someone else. It may be food or money or transportation or friendship or wisdom or knowledge or skills or talents or truth or time or any number of other things. Each one of us has something that we can offer, and everyone around us needs something. We need to have our eyes open to see the need and our hearts open to help it.

The other thing that Jesus mentions here, and something that He continues to mention in reference to other things in the coming verses, is the importance of avoiding hypocrisy and not advertising your “good deeds.” We live in a world in which we publicly display almost every aspect of our lives via Instagram and TikTok and Snapchat, etc…, and while we could talk at length about the pros and cons of this, the truth is that most of us carefully curate the information that we share. We share almost everything, but we share for a specific reason, and often, that reason is to make ourselves look good in order to get Followers or Likes, to build our image and reputation, to feel loved and seen and important, to make money, whatever. Jesus, in Matthew, is expecting us to do good needs, to help the needy, but He is warning us about our motives in doing so. Helping the needy is not “content creation.” If our goal in helping those in need is so that others will see how “good” we are and give us praise/Likes/money/Follows/etc… we are doing it for the wrong reasons, and Jesus says we are hypocrites. Just as God is seeking worship and praise from true and willing hearts, He desires His followers to reach out in charity from true hearts without regard for who sees or knows or what the ROI will be. This doesn’t mean that if someone knows that we did something good to help others that it invalidates the good we did, but if our goal and object is Views then there is a problem.

So, this week, I would challenge you to open your eyes and see the need that is around you, not just in the obvious locations, but in the hungry kid in your class, in your coworker who is stressing about paying their water bill, in your neighbor who is lonely and feels like they have no one to live life with, in the kid on the team who isn’t all that great, but needs someone to invest in them, in the person sitting alone in the lunchroom, in the person holding a cardboard sign on the street, in your brother or sister or mom or dad or kid who just wants to hang out and talk awhile. Our world is full of need. Each of us has a need, but each of us also has an abundance of something that we can offer, a way that we can help. Help those in need, not for Views or Status or to feel good about yourself, but because you are looking at the world through the eyes of Jesus who loves each and every one of the people in this world, and who gave everything in order to give us all an abundant life.

The theme verse for our youth group is John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” That’s where the name XSession comes from, Jesus came to give us life in abundance, life in XSession, more than we could ask or imagine. He has blessed us with life, and as a part of defining and understanding what an abundant life in Christ looks like, we have this acronym: PLEAD Life. 

The P stands for Passion.
The L stands for Love.
The E stands for Excitement.
The A stands for Adventure.
The D stands for Danger.

Each of these are aspects of a full and abundant life in and with Jesus. 

This week I want to talk about Danger. Now, Danger is not typically a quality that one uses when trying to “sell” a product or philosophy or worldview or religion. There are not a whole lot of people who are going to be attracted to something that is inherently dangerous to themselves, so why are we talking about danger as an integral part of an abundant life in Christ? No, it’s not just because I needed a D for the acronym. We see throughout the Bible and throughout history that following Christ, being a Christian, living a life in accordance with what God has planned for you, is dangerous, and this manifests in several different ways.

First, we see this danger played out in the persecution of followers of Yahweh. We’ve discussed this before, but it bears reminding that it is not uncommon for Christians to be persecuted in any number of ways, from loss of comfort, security, possessions, friends, family, life, etc… If you are a follower of Jesus there is a good chance that there will be a time in your life when you will have to make a choice between God and comfort/peace/life. This is dangerous.

Second, we see this danger manifest in the callings of God. God will often call us into missions that are dangerous, from which there is no guarantee that we will come through the other side unscathed, or even that we will come through the other side. This is different from persecution, because the danger isn’t necessarily a response to our faith, but rather a part of the environment that we are being called to. God may call you to befriend someone who is dangerous, physically or emotionally. He may call you into relationships that will leave you broken. He may call you to missions in places and among people who need to see and feel and know God’s love, but who may not be ready to accept it, and who may hurt or kill you, like Jim Elliot, a missionary who went to an Ecuadorian tribe and was killed, not because he was a Christian, but because he was an outsider. Following God’s direction will often take us to dangerous places.

Finally, and this is what I really want to focus on, following God is inherently dangerous because the first step is opening yourself up, becoming vulnerable, submitting your life to Him. This is something that is talked about all the time, but do we really understand it? Do we really acknowledge what it means? I want to focus on this because it is foundational. The truth is that, if you haven’t totally and completely submitted your life to Jesus in every way, you’re not likely to really face the other two dangers. If you are not sold out for God, then when persecution comes your way and the choice is presented to you, you are going to fold. You are going to choose comfort and protection over God. If you are not committed to Him in every way, then if He calls you to a dangerous mission, you are very unlikely to carry it out. So, let’s look at what it means to submit to God and how this is dangerous, but also part of an abundant life.

When you become a Christian it is an active choice to submit to God as Lord of your life. This means that you are giving up control of your own life and placing it in His hands. We see in Luke 14:33 that Jesus says, “So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.” Becoming a disciple of Jesus means that you are willingly opening yourself up to examination and change and purification. All of this is fantastic in the end, but it doesn’t mean it’s easy or pleasant all the time. Jesus again points this out in Matthew 16:24-25 “Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” To be a Christian means to give up everything you have, everything you know, everything you are so that God can rebuild you as you are meant to be. He very well may give you back many of the things you lay down at His feet, but the point is that you lay them down.

This is scary and dangerous. Why dangerous? Well, danger is the possibility of something unwelcome or unpleasant or a person or thing that is likely to cause harm or injury. Danger is disruption and destruction and damage, but, again this doesn’t mean the end result is bad. Think of a butterfly. Before it can spread its beautiful wings and soar through the sky it has to undergo a metamorphosis in which it is torn down to DNA soup. A caterpillar must be liquified before it can be a butterfly. That’s a dangerous proposition. In order to live, to be what it is meant to be, it has to, essentially, die, and in order for us to live, to truly live an abundant life, we have to die.

In Hebrews 4:12-13 Paul writes, “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”

Take a moment to think about that. Imagine if your every thought, desire, joy, anger, ambition, belief (about yourself, about other people, about the world) was laid bare for everyone to see. That is the epitome of vulnerability, and vulnerability can be dangerous, but that is what God does in our lives. He exposes those things that we keep hidden, not because He wants to shame and humiliate us, but because He wants to root out those things that are killing and decaying us from the inside out.  

Malachi 3:2 says, “But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap.”

Both the refiner’s fire and fuller’s soap were instruments of purification. They would result in something clean and pure and valuable, but the process was intense and difficult. It was unpleasant. It was dangerous, but it was worth it.

It is one thing to say you’re a Christian, but shield yourself from any danger, and another thing entirely to throw your arms open and invite Jesus to expose you, to destroy you, to remake you. I would challenge you to make the same plea to God that David did in Psalm 139:23-24.
 
“Search me, O God, and know my heart!
    Try me and know my thoughts!
And see if there be any grievous way in me,
    and lead me in the way everlasting!”

Following God is dangerous, yes, but not following Him, not submitting to Him, not allowing Him to transform you is far more dangerous, and God loves you and wants you to have an abundant life, and the danger has a purpose.

The theme verse for our youth group is John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” That’s where the name XSession comes from, Jesus came to give us life in abundance, life in XSession, more than we could ask or imagine. He has blessed us with life, and as a part of defining and understanding what an abundant life in Christ looks like, we have this acronym: PLEAD Life. 

The P stands for Passion.
The L stands for Love.
The E stands for Excitement.
The A stands for Adventure.
The D stands for Danger.

Each of these are aspects of a full and abundant life in and with Jesus. 

This week I want to talk about Excitement. So, first of all, how do you define excitement? What does excitement look like? What does it feel like? What does it sound like? Either in yourself or in other people? What do you experience when you are excited? How do you know that someone else is excited? 

Without going into the technical dictionary definition, essentially, excitement is enthusiasm. It is an abundance of energy and enjoyment and anticipation. It is joy. It is feeling and experiencing life, fully, abundantly. It is active. It is most definitely not boring or mundane.

Now, what sort of things do you get excited about? Music? Sports? TV Shows? Friends? Social Status? Achievements? Travel? Books? Clothes? Etc… There are about a billion things that someone could get excited about in this world: What excites you?

God made us living, breathing, feeling people with emotions, not robots or drones or avatars, and as such, He made us with the ability to be excited, and more than that, excitement is part of the full and abundant life that He offers. Life was never intended to be dull, routine, mundane, boring, etc… Life is meant to be exciting. This is why we all seek excitement, and why it feels so good.

With that in mind, I want to look at a few verses.

Isaiah 55:12
“For you shall go out in joy
    and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and the hills before you
    shall break forth into singing,”

Psalm 96:11-13A
“Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice;
    let the sea roar, and all that fills it;
    let the field exult, and everything in it!
Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy
    before the Lord,...”

Psalm 98:4-9A
“Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth;
    break forth into joyous song and sing praises!
Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre,
    with the lyre and the sound of melody!
With trumpets and the sound of the horn
    make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord!

Let the sea roar, and all that fills it;
    the world and those who dwell in it!
Let the rivers clap their hands;
    let the hills sing for joy together
before the Lord…”

The Bible doesn’t really use the word excitement, but the concept and idea of it are littered throughout. Often, it is expressed with the term joy or rejoice, and what we see in these verses from Psalm and Isaiah is an invitation for us to join in excitement, but we also see that excitement is embedded into creation. 

• The seas roar
• The rivers clap their hands
• The hills and trees and mountains sing for joy
• The fields exult (express great happiness)
• The whole earth rejoices
• The heavens are glad

We see in John, when people are excited about Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem and the Pharisees tell Jesus to make His followers be quiet, that He says that even if they were, the very rocks and stones would cry out. Excitement is hardwired into creation, and it’s into this excitement that God invites us to come as well.

Unfortunately, in a lot of ways, churches and Christians have done a good job of stripping excitement from our relationship with God. I don’t think it’s really intentional or malicious, but we’ve often gotten to a point where everything about God is so incredibly heavy and serious that laughter and levity and excitement are unwanted or unexpected. We have sermons that convict, or teach, but very few that elate and make us excited about God or make us burst out laughing because He is so good and so full of light and joy.

This is not to say that we should not have serious sermons. God is awesome and all powerful, and sin is serious, and we need to have a proper understanding of Him, and we need, often, to be convicted, but we also need to be excited. We need to rejoice. We need to go out in joy. We need to make a joyful noise. We need to, in the words of Dr. Seuss

“They'll dance with Jing-Tinglers tied onto their heels.
They'll blow their Floo-Floobers. They'll bang their Tah-Tinkers.
They'll blow their Who-Hoobers. They'll bang their Gah-Ginkers.
They'll beat their Trum-Tookers. They'll slam their Sloo-Slonkers.
They'll beat their Blum-Blookers. They'll wham their Who-Wonkers.
And they'll play noisy games like Zoo Zitta Ka Zay, a roller-skate type of lacrosse and croquet.
And then they'll make earsplitting noises deluxe on their great big Electro Who-Cardio Shluxe.”

Now here’s the thing, God made us for excitement. He embedded excitement into creation. We are meant to live with excitement, but we can’t force it. You can’t tell someone that they are supposed to be excited. Excitement comes naturally from those things that elicit joy and anticipation. However, excitement can be learned or conditioned. It can be nurtured and grown. If we surround ourselves with people that squash joy, that choose death, we will tend to be less joyful, but if we surround ourselves with people who celebrate joy, who choose life, we will tend to be more joyful, more excited.

Jesus knew this, which is why He said:

John 15:11
“These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”

And we see this emphasized by Peter when he says:

1 Peter 1:8
“Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory,”

God is good. He is the source of joy. He is exciting. Following Him is exciting. It isn’t dull, by any means. He has made us with the ability to feel excitement. It’s part of who we are, and we can be excited in Him and about Him. We can rejoice. We can laugh. We can sing. We can dance. We can jump. We can scream. We can smile. 

We can be excited!

John 10:10
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

Deuteronomy 30:6
“And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.”

Deuteronomy 30:15-20
“See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you today, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.”

How do you find life? How do you obtain it?

• Life is good.
• Life is a blessing.
• Life is found in Jesus. He is life.
• Life is found in loving God.
• Life is found in obeying God.
• Life is found in living a life in accordance with God’s will and direction.
• Life is a choice that we make.

How about death?

• Death is evil.
• Death is a curse.
• Death is found in following gods other than God.
• God is found in turning from God.
• Death is found in ignoring God.
• Death is a choice that we make.

Jesus has said that He came to give us abundant life, Life that is overflowing and wonderful. David, in Psalm 23:5, says, “my cup overflows.” This overflowing cup represents blessing and goodness that is far beyond anything that we need. It’s one thing to have all your needs met. A parent, or caretaker, who ensures you are safe and healthy, that you have shelter and food and water and clothing is doing everything that they need to do. Having our needs met is great. It’s essential, but God does not just meet our needs. He blesses us with an abundance of blessings. He gives us abundant life. 

Take a minute here and pause to think about what a beautiful life would look like. Maybe you feel like you have a beautiful life. Maybe you don’t, regardless, what does a beautiful life look like in your mind? Think about things like relationships, health, what your surroundings look like, what you feel like, toward yourself and others, how much time you have, what you spend that time doing, how much money you have, what you spend that money buying, who your friends are, what your relationship with God is like. What is in your beautiful life? What is missing from it? What things would you ensure are not a part of your life to make it beautiful? 

You see God does not merely give us what we need, what is essential, but He gives us abundance and beauty. He truly gives us life. So, my question for you is this: Have you accepted it? Do you embrace the abundance of life that He is handing out to you. Remember, life is good and beautiful and blessings. Are you embracing life or, rather, are you embracing death? Most of us would never say that we are actively choosing death or pursuing death, yet, we do. 

Life can be found in things like:

• Joy
• Excitement
• Passion
• Laughter
• Beauty
• Trust
• Love
• Forgiveness
• Closeness
• Fun
• Ambition
• Purpose
• Meaning
• Wonder
• Awe
• “Magic”
• Courage

Death, however, can be found in things like:

• Anger
• Violence
• Hatred
• Division
• Depression
• Anxiety
• Addiction
• Bitterness
• Isolation
• Ugliness
• Boredom
• Sluggishness
• Fear
• Shame

You see, too often we choose death. Sometimes it's a deliberate choice, but more often than not it's a passive choice. We allow these things to infiltrate our lives and we do nothing to combat them. Once they are there they start to sow death in our lives, and once present, that death fights to hang on and spread. If we are angry we lash out in ways that make others angry. If we are hateful we spread that hate around. Etc… 

However, in the same way, when we choose life, life also spreads. If we are joyful and forgiving it causes others to embrace those qualities. If we look for wonder and excitement and beauty we can inspire others to do the same. 

At the end of the day life is stronger than death. It is better than death because Jesus is Life. “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” - John 14:6

Embracing life, choosing life, doesn't mean that everything is going to always be wonderful and perfect. Jesus is Life. He is the source and embodiment of it, yet, He was still mocked and falsely accused of things and betrayed and misrepresented and beaten and abandoned and killed. 

As Jesus said in John 16:33 – “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

Choosing life means that you are taking an active role to choose to follow and develop and embrace those things that are life bringing in the midst of a broken and dying world. You are choosing to take an active role in rejecting and destroying and cutting out of your life those things that are destructive and which bring death. You are choosing to accept the abundant life that Jesus offers. You are choosing to accept Jesus. 

Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” 

Sin is going against God and His perfect design and plan, and the rightful outcome of that is death, but Jesus offers another option. He offers life, abundant life, beautiful life, life that is good and eternal. 

Choose life.

In this next section of The Sermon on the Mount Jesus tackles the topic of “The Law,” which He then continues to apply to specific areas over the next couple of chapters. He is setting the stage here for what He is about to do and teach because He is going to provide some accusations and interpretation of The Law that go against traditional viewpoints, and yet, He wants to make it clear that He is not opposed to The Law.

Matthew 5:17-20
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Jesus, here, states that He did NOT COME TO ABOLISH The Law. His mission and goal on Earth was not to tear down all of the previous structure and rebuild something new. Jesus is God, and the God of the New Testament is the same God of the Old Testament, or, how Paul put it in Hebrews 13:8 “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” Jesus’ objective was to be the fulfillment of The Law and to shed light on the truth of The Law. This often came across as if He was setting up some new and heretical teaching because The Law had become convoluted and infiltrated with manmade qualifiers and interpretations, but at the end of the day, Jesus was the one who created The Law in the first place. It didn’t need perfection or reinterpretation. People just needed to understand what it was really about, and how to live it out in their lives, perfectly, as Jesus did.

Under Judaism, there are 613 commandments that have to be followed. 365 of these are negative commandments as in "do not" do this thing, and 248 of these are positive commandments as in "do" these things. In addition to these 613 commandments, which are drawn from various biblical texts, the Scribes and Pharisees and Sadducees would pile on different layers of each commandment. There's a commandment about not building a fire on the Sabbath, and as time has gone on it has been interpreted as not pressing a button on an elevator, not flipping a light switch, not making a phone call because all of those use electricity and therefore would be creating a spark or making a fire. There was even a situation in 1992 when three apartment buildings burned to the ground because the inhabitants had to consult with the priest to determine whether or not calling the fire department would violate the Sabbath. Under Judaism, following the law, and following it perfectly to the most nuanced interpretation, is incredibly important. Therefore, it was really important that Jesus made it clear that he had not come to abolish the law.

Had He said that He was coming to get rid of The Law He would have immediately ostracized most of the Jewish people. However, He gains their attention when He says that not a single aspect of all of The Law and The Prophets, in other words, all of the Old Testament, was to be gotten rid of or removed. He says it is important, that it is there for a reason, and He has no intention of abolishing it. However, people had misconstrued it to a terrible point. It had gotten to the point where Judaism was, and in a lot of ways, still is, overly legalistic. It was about the dos and do-nots. It was about whether you took one step too many. That was never the point. 

The commandments, the commands and restrictions, were all there to orient a person's life towards God, to make them open to being the people that God wanted them to be. They weren't there to provide walls and boundaries. They weren't arbitrary. God is never arbitrary. Everything that He does is with intentionality, and that intentionality is to transform our hearts and minds to bring us back to the people that He made us to be, to return us to the people that we were in Eden before sin corrupted us. It is with that in mind that Jesus says that He did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it, and in fulfilling the law, He is showing the kind of life that we are meant to live. He is showing the kind of people that we are meant to be, and He is verifying and confirming that everything that God said, everything that He said, in the past was still true and valid.

With that in mind, let’s look at the first of the Ten Commandments.

Exodus 20:1-3
"And God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before me."

You shall have no other gods before me. That seems like a pretty straightforward commandment, right? God is God. You shouldn't be worshiping anyone or anything else. During this time there were plenty of other gods to follow and worship. God had just brought the Israelites out of Egypt, where they had been slaves for around 210 years. In addition to that, they had lived in the land for roughly 220 years before they were slaves. The Egyptian culture and religion was very familiar to them. It is not crazy to think that many of the Israelites had adopted the Egyptian religion and had started to worship some of the Egyptian gods and goddesses such as: Re or Ra, Amon-re, Nut, Osiris, Isis, Seth, Thoth, Min, Hathor, Seb, Heket, Typhon, Apis, and Serapis among others. Even if this wasn't an overt worship, one can easily imagine some of the customs, some of the beliefs, seeping into their families and being adopted into their worship of Yahweh. In addition, there were the Philistine, Canaanite, and Moabite gods of Ba’al, Dagon, El, Astarte, Asherah, Chemosh and more.

This commandment was not just an idle demand by a jealous God. There were plenty of options to choose from, plenty of paths to take. In many ways it was very much like our society and culture today. Though we may not be surrounded with as many supernatural deities as the Israelites were, we still have a huge pantheon of gods and godlike demands that we can follow. Even if we're talking about religious deities, there are a lot that people can choose from throughout the world. Today, you have Christianity, Islam and Judaism. You can be Buddhist or Hindu, which opens up thousands of gods. There are pagan religions, such as Norse and Egyptian. There are things like Wicca and other dark magic, witchcraft sort of beliefs and followings that bring their own set of supernatural religious figures to follow, and that's not even really scratching the surface. However, in addition to that, we turn a lot of things into gods.

There are a lot of things in our world that we place at the seat of highest importance in our life. Sometimes these can be people, whether they are friends, family, mentors or celebrities of some sort. Sometimes this can take the form of activities, pursuits, ideologies, beliefs or desires. Take a hard look at your life and identify what is the thing that controls you more than anything else. When you have to make a decision, who do you listen to? What guides you. What occupies your time? What occupies your attention? What occupies your money? Whatever that thing is, is your God.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to suggest that you can have nothing in your life that isn't overtly Christian. It is okay to have a variety of interests and pursuits and beliefs and dreams and relationships, all of which can be important to you, but in this first commandment: have no other gods before me, God is saying that all of those things come secondary to following Him and living a life that is pursuing Him and striving to be who He has called you to be. Be. If God's telling you to play less video games so that you have more time to build relationships with people and you say, “No. I'm going to keep playing video games,” then video games is a god that comes before God in your life. If God is telling you to stop or change the sport or the hobby that you're involved in because it's keeping you from doing something that He's called you to do and you say, “No,” then that sport or hobby is a god before God in your life. 

The important thing here is that it's different for every single person. There is no no strict rule and law that says you can do this and not do that. You're allowed to play 5 hours of video games a week, but no more. You're allowed to run only 3 days a week and never on a Sunday. That is not what God is calling us to, even though that is the type of thing that legalism lends itself to. The commandment here is that we put God first and foremost in our life, that we have an open heart and mind to listen to Him and to know who He is and to hear when He is speaking to us and to follow in faith when He asks us to do or not do something.

When you think of a friend that you trust implicitly, if that friend says they need you to do something or ask you to be somewhere, you may ask for details, but you don't need them. If you have a trusted friend or family member who sends you a text that says that they need you to meet them at a certain place and at a certain time, you go, even with no information. That is what God is implying is this commandment. Yahweh, God, Jesus should be first and foremost in our life. Nothing else comes before Him. If doing what He’s asked us to do and following him interferes with something else in our life then that other thing in our life falls away, not Him.

We see Jesus model this in his obedience to be the sacrificial lamb. He didn't want to die. During His life, He gained a whole lot of enemies by preaching and doing the things that He did. He was a 100% human, and as a rule, humans don't like creating enemies. People like to feel loved and accepted, not ostracized and hated. However, Jesus followed what God had called Him to do. He did what He was made to do. He said what God told Him to say. He went where God told Him to go. He was obedient, even to death, which He expressly stated, with agonizing anxiety, that He didn't want to endure. Yet, nothing came before God in His life. 

Does anything come before God in your life? This is not just merely a question of what religion do you follow or who do you pray to and worship. It's a testament to the type of life that you live. Are there any other gods before God in your life? Does anyone or anything take precedence over Jesus Christ in your life? Jesus came to fulfill the commandment that there were to be no other gods before God. He came to fulfill a lifestyle that had God in charge of everything.

Think about what it means to follow The Law and The Prophets and to obey what God has called you to do. What does it mean to have God as the most important thing in your life? Ask yourself this question: Is He? It starts with giving your life over to him by accepting his gift of salvation, and it continues by growing in Him, by daily placing Him first, by adding things to your life that are important and by removing things in your life that are disruptive to your relationship with Him. 

It is not so much about a strict set of rules to follow, but about a whole heart devoted relationship in love. If you have a good relationship with someone, whether that is a familial relationship, a really good friend or a romantic relationship, you know that it's not based on rules and guidelines and step-by-step instructions, but on true, heartfelt connection and love and devotion. It’s the same thing with God. He commands us to place Him first. We will never achieve that through following strict guidelines, but we can achieve it through giving our hearts and lives over to Jesus!

The first Memorial Day was observed on May 30, 1868 to observe the fallen Soldiers of the American Civil War. Think about that, the  American Civil War, US soldiers were fighting US soldiers. Here in 2025 we still are battling with people in the same country. Our battles look different and are over different things, but we are still battling.

We all know that peace and freedom often comes through sacrifice. The freedom we enjoy as citizens has been paid for with the lives of others.

We usually don’t think about Jesus’ first military unit…The Apostles. After Jesus sent them out, they were walking into a world that needed to hear and know about Christ’s sacrifice for peace and freedom. Similarly, the peace we have with God came through the blood of Jesus. “For He Himself is our peace” (Ephesians 2:14). Let this Memorial Day be a time to reflect on how God brings peace, not through ease, but through His costly love.

As we think back on this past Memorial Day, I have a question to ask you all: Do You Have Any Battle Casualties? What I mean by this question is, have you been picked apart for your acceptance of Jesus’ salvation? I know I have been. I will circle back around to this question later on.

I want to look at a different kind of military, The Lord’s Army. If you are a Christian, you ARE a part of this army, and being in His Army, we need to put on The Whole Armor of God, as we read in Ephesians:

10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.14 Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16 above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. 17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; 18 praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints 19 and for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.

In Ephesians 6:12, The Scripture shows us we are not fighting a physical war, but a spiritual war. As we look at the world we live in, there is chaos everywhere!

In light of that, let’s break down the Whole Armor of God:

• Gird Your Waist with the Truth – Let us be meditating on God’s Truth daily
• Breastplate of Righteousness – Having God’s Truth in you, you will have righteousness IN you
• Shod Your Feet with the Preparation of the Gospel – Spread The Word, and what is the Word?? JESUS!!
• Shield of Faith – If we have faith in God, those fiery arrows from the evil one will just bounce off.
• Helmet of Salvation and the Sword of The Spirit – Having God’s word in your head will give power in your cranium to fight off the world’s mental battles.
• Praying Always – Pray with and over people. Tell people that Jesus is the ONLY WAY to God.
• And finally, Speaking Boldly about the Mystery of The Gospel of Jesus, which leads us to The Ultimate Memorial Day in history.

Jesus said in John 15:13, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” This verse is often quoted on Memorial Day, and for good reason. It captures the heart of both the soldier’s calling and Christ’s redemptive act. When we remember those who gave their lives in service, we see a reflection of the selfless love Christ demonstrated on the cross.

Why on earth would a man put His Life on the line for me, you, for all of mankind? One word…LOVE. Jesus loves us so much that he overcame this world by being obedient to God, His Father. God, in a human body, (Jesus) left heaven to show mankind that while sin came into one man (Adam), salvation and the path to heaven is in one man, and that Man is Jesus, the only way to God and heaven (John 14:6). While there is the Father (God) and The Son (Jesus), there is also the third part of The Trinity, and that is The Holy Spirit. Jesus told his boys in the upper room that He would be sending a Comforter to help & guide. The Holy Spirit is alive right now, nudging all non-Jesus believers to accept Jesus TODAY. Jesus is our Light in this dark world & The Holy Spirit is His Light for our path as we walk in this dark world.

God also tells us, in Joshua 1:9, to be strong. “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

Think about it, He commands us…He is not giving us a suggestion!

In the New Testament, 2 Timothy 1:7, Paul tells his young protégé, Timothy, “For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”
That wedge of fear is from that punk the devil, don’t let him in.

Romans 5:3-5 – "And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed."

• We should NOT be ashamed of the Gospel of Christ!!

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 – “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven… a time of war, and a time of peace.”

• We will have a season of war and of peace and sometimes at the SAME time.

In Revelation 21:4, The Apostle John, while on the deserted island of Patmos, wrote – “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

• This is SO comforting, heaven will NOT be another Albuquerque!!

Romans 8:38-39 – “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

• Jesus’ love will NEVER leave you.

In summary:

• We must acknowledge the immense cost of sacrifice and recognize the pain and grief experienced by families who have lost their loved ones in service to this country. 
• We can offer a prayer of gratitude, expressing our deep appreciation for the sacrificial love displayed by those we remember on Memorial Day.
• The greatest love of all was exemplified by Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross.
• We are called to respond as we reflect on the greatest love demonstrated by Jesus. 

Let us not simply admire His acts of love, but let His examples inspire us to embody that same selflessness, compassion, and willingness to sacrifice in our own lives. His sacrifice should motivate us to live lives of gratitude, service, and love, carrying His love forward with honor and reverence. Let’s create a culture of appreciation and recognition for His sacrifice.

Finally, circling back to the opening question, Do You Have Any Battle Casualties? If you have died to this world, then yes, you do have battle casualties, but we already have WON the war with Jesus’ victory on The Cross, and with that empty tomb, we know that He is sitting at the right Hand of the Father in heaven. As Steven was martyred, he was looking up and saw Jesus waiting to bring him into heaven. I personally cannot wait for that day when I am in heaven with my Friend and Savior Jesus.

Jesus started His Sermon on the Mount by giving eight Beatitudes or characteristics that should be present and obvious in the lives of Christ followers. These are:

• Poor in Spirit
• Mourning
• Meekness
• Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness
• Merciful
• Pure in Heart
• Peacemakers
• Persecution for Righteousness’ Sake

There’s a ton to learn from and go over in those, and we have looked at them in more depth over the past couple of months, but that is not the end of His sermon, rather it’s just the intro. So, let’s look at what else Jesus has to say to us.

Matthew 5:13
“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet.”

Jesus says that Christians, those who follow Him, whose lives are identified by the Beatitudes, are the “salt of the earth,” so what does salt do?

• Salt increases sweetness.
• Salt counteracts bitterness.
• Salt enhances food’s natural flavors and makes it more aromatic.
• Salt preserves food by restricting the growth of disease causing microbes.
• Salt is an essential nutrient for survival.
• Salt helps promote and maintain color in food.

If we are called to be salt we should be amplifying God’s beauty and majesty in the world. The Bible says to “...taste and see that the Lord is good!...” – Psalm 34:8, and as the salt of the earth we are to magnify and bring attention to that goodness. God created a world that is bright and colorful and beautiful and delightful and delicious, and it is all because of God’s fingerprints on the world, as the salt of the earth we can bring that out and help everyone see and taste the goodness that we have discovered.

In addition, salt preserves food and wards off rot and decay. As the salt of the earth, we are tasked with doing the same. We are used by God to help fight the rot and decay of sin in the world, to preserve the goodness and purity of God.

Matthew 5:14-16a
“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others,...”

In addition to being called the salt of the earth, Jesus calls His followers the light of the world, which is quite the title, since that is what He calls Himself, but that brings up the question, what does light do?

• Light allows us to see the world and distinguish details.
• Light helps regulate our hormones, metabolism and blood circulation.
• Light reduces fatigue and improves work productivity and mood.
• In a symbolic sense, light is truth, it shows what is right and real.
• Light guides people along a correct path to safety (lighthouses, torches, lights in airplane aisles, exit signs, etc…).

As the light of the world, we have an amazing responsibility of revealing truth. So often, if you want to conceal and hide something you do it under the cover of darkness. Most crime is committed at night, and if you are lying to someone or keeping something from them it is said that you are “keeping them in the dark.” Darkness is the source of deception and concealment, and at the very least, confusion, because you can’t see detail or anything that’s happening. Light, however, reveals truth and intricacy and beauty. It illuminates the color and vibrancy of life, and, as mentioned before, we instinctively follow light to safety. Lighthouses are beacons that warn of danger and instruct ships on the path to safety.

We have that same objective in the world. Our lives, as lights, should illuminate the truth of God, of who He is and what He’s done. Like salt, our lives, as light, should show off the beauty and delicacy of who God is. Then, we should be beacons that warn of danger and draw people to safety.

It is interesting that Jesus doesn’t tell us to strive to be these things. He says that we are these things. By default, if you are following Christ and living the Beatitudes, you will be salt and light in the world, in your family, in your school, with your friends, at your job, in your neighborhood. Salt and light are unmistakable. 

However, we are not salt and light for our own glory. Sometimes, you don’t know that salt is in a recipe, sometimes you do, but often the salt has a job to perform, and it doesn’t need to be highlighted to perform the job. We don’t often spend a lot of time thinking about and focusing on the individual light fixtures in our home, or even the sun, for that matter, but the light that is produced is invaluable for life. The role that these things play, of preservation, of revelation, of amplification, are more important than the object itself. In the same way, our role, as Christians, what we do as salt and light is not for ourselves, but rather…

Matthew 5:16b
“...so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

We are salt and light to lead others to Christ and to see Him glorified.

This section also contains a warning, though. If salt loses its taste, as was likely to happen in Jesus’ time as the salt wasn’t “pure” and the sodium could leech out of the other minerals, it is no longer useful for its intended purpose. In fact, it could be detrimental. If a light is placed under a basket where no one can see it then it is useless, and if it is dim or in the wrong place it could be dangerous. As Christians, we need to be careful to ensure that we don’t lose our brightness and taste. Just as salt and light can lead people to Christ, diluted and dimmed salt and light can turn people away from Him. Many people have been turned off from Jesus because of how they see Christians living and acting. We have an incredible opportunity, but also an incredible obligation.

So, let the Beatitudes fill your life and then fill the world with salt and light “so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

This week we reach the end of the Beatitudes, and this first section of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount ends on a bit of a surprising note. It’s all about suffering and persecution. Let’s jump into it. 

Matthew 5:10-12 ESV
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

The final things that you are blessed for are persecution, suffering, slander and accusations. I don’t know about you, but if I was trying to start a new religion or reframe an old one, I’m not sure that I would make it a defining bullet point that those who follow it can expect and even be guaranteed difficulty and persecution. It seems a bit counterintuitive, right? Yet that is exactly what Jesus did, and it wasn’t only here in Matthew that He speaks this way.

John 15:18-19
“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”

Peter then reiterates this later in the Bible. 
 
1 Peter 3:14-18
“But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil.

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,”

There are a few important things that we can take from these verses.

First: As previously mentioned, persecution is pretty much guaranteed as a Christian. This has been the case throughout all of human history. A rough estimate assumes that there have been around 70 million people killed for being Christians throughout history with about 2 million of those being since the year 2000.
Last year

• 4,744 Christians were imprisoned.
• 7,679 churches and Christian properties were attacked. 
• 4,476 Christians were murdered.
• Just in the top 50 worst countries, 310 million Christians faced very high or extreme levels of persecution. 

If we are going to follow God, truly follow Him, we are going to face persecution on some level.

Second: The persecution is not necessarily death. In fact, the implication in these verses is that it is not death. Persecution can come in many forms, from mild to extreme. On the extreme side is death, obviously. On the mild side it may be something like people making fun of you or calling you ignorant. However, it can take all sorts of other forms as well. Persecution may come in the form of Christianity being illegal, and facing imprisonment for being a Christian. It may come in physical torture. It may come in the loss of freedoms or property. It may come in the loss of relationships, friends and family. It may come in strict oversight or the inability to freely worship. There are a lot of things that can constitute persecution.

Third: This persecution is not the same as suffering or punishment for wrongdoing. There are consequences for actions, and there are negative consequences for negative actions. When we sin, when we mess up, when we are rude or jerks or cheats or whatever else, there are going to be natural consequences. This is not what Jesus is talking about here. He is talking about Suffering and Persecution “FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS’ SAKE” “ON MY ACCOUNT” “FALSELY” “FOR DOING GOOD”

The idea here is that you are doing the right thing. You are following the right path. You are living a life that, to the best of your ability, represents mercy and peace and purity and righteousness. However, because you are following God, and because there are people and forces that hate God, you are going to be ridiculed and persecuted, not as a just punishment or natural consequence for a crime or sin, but purely vindictive. This doesn’t necessarily make the persecution any easier, but you have a clear conscience and heart.

It has been said that one indicator that you are doing what God wants you to do, what is right, is that Satan will actively fight against you, try to stop you, make things hard for you. If you are ineffective, doing nothing, or doing what you aren’t supposed to, he’s gonna leave you alone and just let you keep coasting. This isn’t to say that if you ever face hardship in your life it is because you are following God’s plan, but if you are facing hardship on account of God’s name, because you are living a life in accordance with what He has called you to, it’s a pretty good indicator. 

Finally, Jesus says that this persecution is not just something that we should expect, but that we are blessed if we are persecuted and our reward is great in Heaven. This reinforces the idea that persecution comes as a direct result of living a life that God has called us to. Paul also agreed with this when he wrote in Romans.

Romans 8:16-18
“The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”

Paul had everything, and he gave it up to follow Jesus, and his reaction is that all of his sacrifices and suffering were nothing compared to God and what eternity will be like with Him. He doesn’t even say that they are worth the future reward. He says that they aren’t even worth comparing. It’s not even in the same league. 

Persecution is promised if we are living lives that align with God, but it’s ok, because our time here is just a blip in eternity, and when we align ourselves with God and accept Him, the reward in Heaven is indescribably great. 

We’ll finish with this quote.
“It is better to die for something than live for nothing”

And a similar one from General George S. Patton 
“Better to fight for something than live for nothing.”

Persecution will come, but it is better to face persecution because you are living for something than to coast through life free and easy because you don’t stand for anything and you are swayed by every teaching and influencer that comes around.

What is mercy? In very simple terms, I've heard mercy described as ‘not getting something that you deserve.’ This is kind of accurate, but it doesn't fully express what mercy is. More appropriately, mercy is withholding a punishment or consequence. It is preventing pain and hardship from coming to someone. Sometimes that is deserved pain or punishment or hardship, and sometimes mercy is simply the act of making a hard choice or sacrificing to withhold that pain from the person.

Mercy is defined as: “compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one's power to punish or harm.”

Matthew 5:7
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.”

Mercy involves forgiveness, sacrifice and self-control. So, in this beatitude, we see Jesus telling people “blessed are the merciful,” those who show mercy to other people, those in whom mercy is a strong character trait, because they, then, themselves, will be shown mercy. There's two aspects to this. The first is showing mercy and the second is receiving it. 

Mercy is hard, because mercy is not just about being a nice person or being kind and helping people out and removing people's pain and suffering, though that is one part of it. It is also about actively choosing to remove the pain and suffering that someone has earned, that someone deserves. It is choosing to turn the other cheek, to not retaliate, to not take revenge and to not seek punishment. Mercy is what Jesus did on the cross for us, because, you see, we had something bad coming to us. We had earned and deserved death and punishment and Hell, but Jesus showed His mercy in that He took that from us. He actively chose to forgive our sins, but also, because God is just, He actively chose to take the punishment that was coming for us. That is mercy.

Think about your life. Are there people in your life who have harmed you? People in your life who have betrayed you? People in your life who have let you down? People in your life who have hurt you or done something bad to you? How do you respond to those people? What does it really mean to love and forgive? What does it really mean to show mercy?

We all have individuals in our life who have hurt us. What Jesus is challenging us to do in this beatitude is to forgive and show kindness. To be merciful. Matthew 18:21-22 says, “Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.” In some translations, Jesus says “seventy times seven,” however, whether the number is 77 or 490 doesn’t really matter because the number that Jesus gives here is not meant to be a literal number, but rather symbolic. What Jesus is saying is that we are called to forgive infinitely. There is no number at which we should stop forgiving. There is no number at which we are supposed to stop showing mercy.

This is because we are called to model God, and God is abundant in overflowing mercy toward us.

Psalm 103:8-12
“The Lord is merciful and gracious,
    slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
He will not always chide,
    nor will he keep his anger forever.
He does not deal with us according to our sins,
    nor repay us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
    so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
    so far does he remove our transgressions from us.”

The Bible says that God takes our sins and casts them as far away as the East is from the West. If you were to start today traveling east and just kept on traveling until you started to go west, how far would that be? How far would you have to go east until you start going west? Of course the answer is infinite. There is no distance that you could travel in an easterly direction and eventually start going west. That is what the Bible is saying here. It is saying that God has cast our sins infinitely far away from us. 

We should show mercy because God has shown us mercy, and when we are merciful, we receive mercy.

When it comes to giving mercy, we, as the givers, must show self-control and sacrificial kindness, love and forgiveness. However, when it comes to receiving mercy, there’s a whole other set of emotions and acknowledgements that we need to have.

The Bible is full of examples of people asking God for mercy, and what is important in this is that to ask for mercy you have to come to a place of honesty and humility. When asking for mercy you are acknowledging that you are at fault, and that, as a result of that fault, you have some sort of punishment or payment coming for you. You are also acknowledging that the one you are appealing to is superior, has power and authority, both to judge and sentence, but also to withhold that punishment. 

We see this take place in Paul’s letter to Timothy.

1 Timothy 1:15-17
“The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.”

Paul is acknowledging that he is deserving of punishment, but he is also acknowledging Christ as Supreme and worthy of honor and glory. 

The thing about mercy is that it does not absolve you of guilt. When Christ showed us mercy by dying for us on the cross, it wasn’t as if we were no longer guilty, but rather our punishment was removed. We had still committed the crime, we did it. We were and are guilty, but Christ showed us mercy in that He took our punishment. He relieved us from the suffering and death. Since God is just, the price still had to be paid, but He showed mercy. He paid it for us.

In fictional stories, whether they are sci-fi, fantasy, super heroes, etc… a defining characteristic of the hero, almost across the board, is mercy. In general, heroes refrain from killing their enemies, even when they can and even when doing so may be the easiest or most effective way of stopping them. They hold themselves back. This doesn’t mean that they don’t stop evil or punish it, but they don’t dole out the full extent of what they are capable of and what the enemy may be deserving of. They show mercy. In fact, when there are heroes that don’t show such restraint they are generally called “anti-heroes.” They accomplish some good things and may have good intentions, but they have no mercy or kindness and are not really heroes.  

As a final note, let’s look at a verse from Micah 6:8. We are going to look at it in two versions, the NIV and the ESV, and see how they compare.

NIV
“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” 

ESV
“He has told you, O man, what is good;
    and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
    and to walk humbly with your God?”

We are called to mercy (kindness, forgiveness, self-control) (sounds like some of the Fruit of the Spirit) Blessed are the merciful. It may not be easy, but the truth is that harboring anger and unforgiveness is more damaging to us than it is to the one we are mad at. Plus, we have been shown immense mercy, we can now reflect that to others. 

• Be just.
• Be kind and merciful.
• Be humble.
• Walk with God.

What are you looking for in life?

• Are you looking for love? 
• Are you looking for acceptance? 
• Are you looking for success? 
• Are you looking for happiness? 
• Are you looking for joy?
• Are you looking for fun?
• Are you looking for excitement?
• Are you looking for purpose? 
• Are you looking for meaning? 
• Are you looking for hope?

Everyone is looking for something in life. Sometimes we are well aware of what we are pursuing, and sometimes we have no idea, but we know that we're looking for something.

Why do we hunt Easter eggs on Easter? We participate in this fun activity partially because it's fun. We are looking to enjoy ourselves and to have some fun. That fun may be an escape from something or it may simply be fun, but hunting for Easter eggs is honestly fun for people of all ages. Some people might be hunting for Easter eggs because they are pursuing a reward, a prize of some sort. Often, that reward is a piece of candy or a small toy, and sometimes it's a few coins or a couple dollars, but we hunt Easter eggs because we're looking for a reward. Some people hunt Easter eggs because they want to win. It's a game, and they want to succeed, and they want to come out on top. They want to show that they are the champion; that they have found the most Easter eggs. Sometimes people just want to feel like they've succeeded, have won and are the best at something.

When thinking about the Easter story, we see that there were several people who were looking for something. The Jews were all looking for a Savior, a Messiah, a conquering Warrior King who was going to come and reestablish the nation of Israel and set them free from their Roman oppressors, but that wasn't who Jesus was. He was the prophesied, promised Messiah, but he was not this Warrior King. They were looking in the right place (at Jesus), but for the wrong thing, and because of that they failed to see what was right in front of their eyes.

Jesus was not only overlooked, but He was made to be their enemy. He was accused of a religious crime, of blasphemy, of claiming to be God, which was a crime punishable by death under Jewish law. However, the Jews couldn't legally execute anyone, so they coerced the Romans into doing it for them, even though the Roman governor found no fault in Jesus. He had done nothing wrong, much less anything deserving of death, however, to appease the Jewish populace the governor had Jesus executed. It was for this reason that Jesus was crucified. Crucifixion was not a Jewish form of execution, but it was a Roman form of execution. It was a brutal, violent, torturous, excruciating way to die, and the Romans were really good at it.

This leads us to the second group of people who were looking for something: Jesus’ Disciples, His closest friends and followers. Let’s look at some of the verses that talk about what they were looking for that Easter morning.

John 20:1-16 ESV
Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” So Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going toward the tomb. Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there, and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples went back to their homes. But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb. And she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher).

Luke 24:1-12 ESV
But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” And they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles, but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. But Peter rose and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; and he went home marveling at what had happened. 

Mark 16:1-8 ESV
When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. And they were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?” And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back—it was very large. And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. And he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.” And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

Matthew 28:1-10 ESV
Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him. See, I have told you.” So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. And behold, Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.” 

On this first Easter morning we see Jesus’ friends going to His tomb. They were looking for closure. They were looking for a body. They were looking to honor Him. They were looking for proof. They were looking for hope. They were looking for Jesus. What is interesting is that none of them, initially, found what they were looking for. They didn’t recognize what had happened. They didn’t remember what Jesus had said, or they didn’t realize what it was that He had truly been saying. They didn’t even recognize Jesus at first. They didn’t believe, initially. They were looking for closure and a path forward and some form of hope. They were looking for Jesus, but they were looking for the right thing in the wrong place. “Why do you seek the living among the dead?”

Going back to the question that we started with, what are you looking for in life? You need to be able to identify this question. What do you need? What do you want? What are you pursuing? What are you hunting? Then, ask yourself: why? Why are you looking for whatever it is you are looking for, and is it the right thing? Sometimes we are like the Jews who were looking in the right place, but for the wrong thing. You need to make sure that what you are pursuing in life is what you really need so that you can see it. Secondly, are you looking for it in the right place? Often, we have right and noble pursuits and desires; there’s nothing wrong with desiring love or acceptance or meaning or understanding, but the danger comes in the fact that there are about a million different things that promise to give you those things you are looking for, and while you may be able to find some of it in some of them, if we aren’t looking in the right place we will never fully be satisfied. Jesus said that He is love. He is life. He is light (answers, understanding). He is the way (purpose, direction). In Him, and only in Him will you ever truly find everything you’re looking for.

“Why do you seek the living among the dead?” 

Rather, seek Life, seek Jesus.

This past Tuesday was April Fools’ Day, a day traditionally associated with pranks and jokes and outlandish stories. I used to work at a press release distribution company, and every year we received tons of erroneous press releases that were put out by major companies in jest and fun. Sometimes they were simply trying to trick people or make them laugh, and sometimes they were used as part of a larger marketing campaign to bring attention to a new product or a corporate change, like a new name or logo. 

When it comes to Jesus, and Easter, God sort of played the ultimate April Fools’ Day joke. For thousands of years the Jews had been looking for a Messiah. They had been waiting expectantly for the Anointed One, the Chosen One, a Savior who was going to come restore their nation. They were waiting for a conquering warrior king who was going to usher in a new kingdom and bring the Jewish people back together and free them from the chains of slavery and oppression that they had been living under for so long. 

When Jesus entered the scene there were many who saw Him as this Chosen Savior, but there were also many who rejected Him because He did not fit the profile that so many were looking for. He was not a warrior. He was not an influential politician. He was not a powerful king. He did not overthrow Rome. In fact, he encouraged submission to the authorities. He encouraged paying taxes. He was, for the most part, non-violent. So, many people questioned how a nobody carpenter from a nowhere town could be the long-awaited Anointed Chosen Messiah of the Jewish people. It didn't make a lot of sense to a lot of people. 

Now, granted, there were some amazing things about Him. He could do miracles. He could heal people. He was influential. He spoke eloquently and He was knowledgeable. He claimed that He could forgive sins, and He claimed that He was God. 

How could this be? If the prophecies were true, and if God's promises were true, there needed to be a powerful king, a conquering warrior, not a wandering, nomad carpenter.

However, what we see is that Jesus really was the promised Messiah, and God was not playing some cosmic joke on people, but He was revealing that his knowledge of reality and of what we need is far greater and far different than our own. We see this exemplified in 1 Corinthians.

1 Corinthians 1:18-31 ESV
“For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

That is a lot of verses, but to sum it up, what Paul is saying here is that God doesn't work the way that we work. He doesn't do the things that we think He's going to do. He doesn't set up kingdoms or prophecies or freedom in the way that we would or from the things that we would. God's ways are higher than our ways. His knowledge is far beyond our knowledge, and the result of that is that we can often look at what God's doing and think it is foolish. However, God has perfect knowledge, and the things that we think are foolish are, in fact, perfect wisdom. The things that we think are weak or dumb or ineffective are the strongest, most powerful systems in place.

The Jews were expecting a King who would establish a new kingdom of Israel, and Jesus WAS a king who brought a new kingdom, it just wasn't what the Israelites were thinking. He didn't come to reestablish a Jewish nation and to reestablish Jerusalem. He came to establish the kingdom of God, and that kingdom is not and never was an earthly kingdom. He didn't have a castle or a palace. He didn't have royal guards and armies. He didn't have court jesters and servants in the way that a traditional king or ruler did.

The kingdom Jesus established was the kingdom of heaven. It is a spiritual kingdom, a kingdom that resides within our hearts, and also in the world around us, but not in the physical sense that we think of a kingdom in. The kingdom of heaven has power and dominion over hearts and minds and souls, and it exists in the spiritual realm of angels battling demons and fighting for the souls of humanity. 

The Jews were looking for a Messiah, a Chosen and Anointed one who would set them free from chains. They were looking for freedom from chains of slavery that they had endured for hundreds and thousands of years. They were looking for freedom from the chains of socio-political oppression that they lived in under Rome, at the time, and other nations throughout history. They were looking for freedom to be a nation. 

Jesus was a Chosen, Anointed Messiah who brought freedom, but the chains that he set them free from, the oppression that he would bring people out from under, were not physical chains and were not socio-political chains. They were chains of sin. They were the bondage of Satan. Just like his kingdom was not a physical kingdom, the chains and oppression that he brought freedom from were not physical chains and physical oppression. 

The Jews were looking for someone that would validate them, that would reinforce their privileged status as God's chosen people, that would set them up as strong and free members of a powerful kingdom, but Jesus was something very different. He established a spiritual kingdom. He brought freedom from spiritual bondage, and He didn't make it exclusive for the Jews. He opened up freedom to all people. He opened up citizenship into his kingdom to all people: the Jews, the Romans who oppressed them, the Gentiles who were unwelcome and unwanted in Jerusalem, the Samaritans who the Jews hated. Jesus brought freedom to everyone.

You see, today we play April Fools’ jokes and pranks and issue press releases as a way to pull the wool over someone's eyes because it's something that is unexpected and out of the ordinary and doesn't seem like it could be real, but when we think about the “April Fools’ joke” on Israel and on the world it was not to pull the wool over people's eyes or to trick them or to make them look like fools. Rather, it was to show the foolishness of human wisdom and the expansive perfection of God's wisdom. When Jesus came to this world and lived and preached and healed and died and rose again many people didn't see him for who He was or believe who He was. He didn't meet their expectations, but God doesn't work within our expectations. He quite literally works outside of all normal expectations. He chooses things that we think are foolish things that we think are weak, and He uses those to do something amazing above and beyond anything that we could ask or imagine.

So, I challenge you not to be a fool. Don't get so stuck in trying to figure out the world or God from your own limited understanding, but open your eyes to what God is doing and saying. It may be unexpected. It probably will be unexpected, because God works in unexpected ways, but God's ways are far better than anything that we could come up with on our own. While the Jews thought they were just looking for someone that would make they're small group powerful and free for a limited time in this earthly world God gave them something that would set, not only, them free, but all of the world free for eternity. God wants to work in your life too.

Easter baskets are an iconic symbol of the spring holiday. On Easter morning, thousands of children find baskets, some colored, some plain, filled with prizes: toys, chocolates, candies, eggs, etc… left by the Easter Bunny the night before as a way to commemorate this celebration of new life. This fun tradition is adhered to by people of many different backgrounds and beliefs and cultures, and it has several origin stories. 

• Some say that the basket symbolizes Eostre, the Anglo-Saxon goddess of fertility from which Easter derives its name, as she was often depicted with a basket under her arm. 
• Some say that it is a modification of the “nest” that the German egg-laying hare, Osterhase, would lay his multi-colored eggs in. 
• Some see it represented in the Catholic tradition of bringing a basket of food and treats, many of which had been given up for Lent, to be blessed on the Saturday before Easter and then enjoyed the next morning. 

Regardless, the Easter basket is one of the most recognizable symbols of the holiday, so I want to look at a few stories in the Bible involving baskets and see how that can relate to us and our relationship with Jesus and what He did for us at Easter.

We are going to look at three Biblical scenes involving baskets, each depicting some sort of sacrifice: A sacrifice of obedience, a sacrifice of faith, and a sacrifice of service.

SERVICE
To start, let’s go back to the Old Testament, the Law, and the sacrifices that were brought to the Tabernacle/Temple. You are probably familiar with the animal sacrifices that were required: doves, goats, bulls, lambs, etc… and the various requirements for blood to be shed and certain parts of the animal to be burned. However, there are a few mentions in the Old Testament of a sacrifice that was specifically brought in a basket. This was a sacrifice of breads and cakes and the basket of offering was presented at the ordination and consecration of the priests and at the fulfillment of a vow. 

Exodus 29:1-3*
“Now this is what you shall do to them to consecrate them, that they may serve me as priests. Take … unleavened bread, unleavened cakes mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers smeared with oil. You shall make them of fine wheat flour. You shall put them in one basket and bring them in the basket …”

Numbers 6:14-15*
“and he shall bring his gift to the Lord … a basket of unleavened bread, loaves of fine flour mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers smeared with oil …”

*These are not the full text of these verses, but I encourage you to grab your Bible and read the full text.

In both of these cases we see baskets being used as a vehicle through which to bring an offering, a sacrifice of obedience, and we see that a portion of the contents of the basket are presented to God and a portion are kept by the priest. 

In these cases, baskets are used to bring gifts to commemorate important events of dedication and obedience. The priests were dedicating themselves and their lives to God in service, and the Nazarites were commemorating a time of separating and dedication above and beyond the norm.

FAITH
Secondly, let’s stay in the Old Testament and look at the story of Moses.

Exodus 1:22-2:10
“Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.” 
Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman. The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months. When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank. And his sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him. Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her young women walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her servant woman, and she took it. When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby was crying. She took pity on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews' children.” Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, “Shall I go and call you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, “Go.” So the girl went and called the child's mother. And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, “Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed him. When the child grew older, she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, “Because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”

Here we see another sacrifice, however, this one doesn’t take place in the Tabernacle/Temple, nor is it carried out by a priest, and it is not a sacrifice of obedience. In fact, it’s a sacrifice that is performed in an act of disobedience and rebellion, but in deep faith. What we see here is a mother who loves her child deeply and, rather than bow to the societal pressure and law that demanded she see her child killed, goes against the powers that be to sacrificially give up her child so that he may live. She makes a sacrifice that costs her an immense amount. She must give up her child. That is not an easy task for any parent, but she realizes that it is necessary. So, in an act of immense faith, she puts her baby in a basket and places that basket in the river, trusting that God will take care of him. We then see how God is faithful to her and, not only protects Moses, but orchestrates events to allow his mother to continue caring for him while placing him in a position to be able to free all of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt.

SERVICE
Finally, let’s go to the New Testament where we find a story of another sacrifice. While the last sacrifice was of a child, this one is by a child, and it is a sacrifice of service.

John 6:5-14
“Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.” One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?” Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, about five thousand in number. Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted. And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.” So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten. When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!”

We don’t have anything here that specifically states that the boy was carrying his fish and bread in a basket, he may not have been, but he probably was. Here was a young boy who was carrying his lunch in his “lunchbox” or “picnic basket.” He was there in the crowd, one of thousands upon thousands, waiting to hear Jesus talk. Maybe he overheard Jesus and the Apostles talking. Maybe he simply looked around at all the people, realized that he was hungry and they probably were as well. Either way, he approaches Jesus and he offers what little he has as a sacrifice of service. He wants to help. The fish and bread were his, maybe were his family’s. If he gave them up there was no guarantee that they would have anything to eat, in fact, logic would dictate that they would go hungry. There was not enough to feed everyone. There was barely enough to feed Jesus and the Apostles. However, what we see happen is an absolute miracle. Jesus blesses the little sacrifice that the boy made and multiplies it to such an extent that every man, woman and child on those hills were fed and filled. Then, and here is where we see baskets come in to play, the Apostles gather all the extras into baskets. What started as a small sacrifice of, maybe one small basket of food, gleans twelve full baskets of leftovers! Jesus didn’t just multiply the one basket into twelve, but he multiplied it to such an extent that there were twelve baskets left over after all 15,000-20,000 had eaten everything they wanted.

JESUS
In these three examples we see sacrifices of obedience, faith and service. Bringing it back to Easter, we see these same three things reflected in the life of Jesus and in the sacrifice that He made on the cross for you and me.

Philippians 2:8
“And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

Hebrews 12:1-2
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Matthew 20:26-28
“... But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Easter is a celebration, a celebration of life’s victory over death, a celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus, a celebration of salvation. However, before we get there there has to be a sacrifice. Jesus made that sacrifice willingly. 

John 10:17-18a
“For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. …”

He was a faithful and obedient servant who laid aside His own power and desire for the perfect plan of God, and, just like Moses’ mom received her son back, the young boy received his food back, and the participants in the “Wave Offering” received their portion back, Jesus sacrificed His life, and received it back, and more.

We are called to sacrifice in our lives as well. To sacrifice simply means to give something up and to give it over. We need to relinquish control. That could mean ridding something from our lives. It could mean relinquishing our control over our lives. It could mean laying down our dreams and ambitions. We are called to sacrifice in obedience, in faith, in service, just as Jesus did for us, but God has promised that He has grand plans for you. He is asking you to give up your own control in order that you may step into the epic plan that He has for your life.

When was the last time you were hungry or thirsty? It was probably today, probably no more than a few hours ago. Hunger and thirst are common occurrences for all living things. We need food and water to keep us alive, and within just a few hours of eating or drinking something we start to feel hungry or thirsty. Our body is reminding us that there is something that is essential to life and it’s been a bit since we had it. Now, that original feeling of hunger or thirst may not be terribly strong. It may be just a small annoyance or reminder that we should start thinking about where our next meal is going to come from and start planning on when we are going to eat, but the longer we go the stronger the feeling gets. It becomes painful and unignorable until we finally eat and drink and are satisfied again. 

With that feeling in mind, let’s look at the next Beatitude that Jesus gives.

Matthew 5:6
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”

Jesus is reminding us of that all too familiar feeling of hunger and thirst and putting it into a spiritual setting. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst … for righteousness” Just as the other ones have not been, this is not about physical hunger and thirst, but Jesus uses that feeling, because it is so relatable, to convey the importance of seeking after Him.

We see this same idea conveyed by David in Psalm 42:1-2a, where he says,
 
“As a deer pants for flowing streams,
    so pants my soul for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God,
    for the living God.”

The idea here is the desire for God, the desire to live a righteous life,  which just means a life that is lived correctly, that follows God’s plan and rules, is not something to be casually interested in. It is not a hobby or a guilty pleasure. Righteousness should be a hunger and thirst, a deep craving in our lives. 

Think about that word, “craving.” It means: “a powerful desire for something.” When it comes to food and drink, we can probably all identify a craving that we have had or do have on a regular basis. Sometimes these cravings are things that seem to make sense, sometimes they seem completely bizarre and random. While we aren’t going to go into depth about all of the causes and reasons for cravings in our life, it is often true that cravings are a result of our body or mind seeking something. We may be seeking certain nutrients. We may be seeking dopamine (we want to feel good/happy). We may be trying to prepare for something. We may associate foods/drinks with certain places or emotional states that make us feel comfortable/peaceful/protected. We may be seeking release or trying to hide from something. In most cases, we crave something that we need, and sometimes we don’t even know we need it, but sometimes we do.

When a deer pants for water. It needs water. It knows it needs water, and it desperately seeks it out. Think about the last time you were really thirty. Maybe after working out really hard or going on a long hike/walk on a summer day. Think about how dry your mouth and tongue and throat and lips felt, and how much you wanted some water, even just a little bit, to satiate your thirst. As the deer pants for water, as you pant for water on a hot day, our souls should pant and thirst for God, for His goodness and love, for the totality of who He is.

When you get to that point of intense hunger and thirst, you want something real and substantial. We can very often mask or ignore our hunger or thirst with little snacks or sodas or coffee or cookies or fries or pretty much anything else that tricks our body and mind into thinking that we got what we need, but in reality offers little to no nutritional or hydrating value. 

When we are talking about a spiritual hunger and thirst we see something similar. Every person has an innate knowledge of God. There is something within them that knows that there is something more, and desires to experience that and be connected to it. That something is Jesus, and when we correctly identify that hunger, that craving, we are satisfied and filled with the very thing that we need. However, many people get sidetracked. They seek to satisfy their hunger for God with a whole slew of other things. These things may be absolutely bogus, and just appear to be good, or they may have some value, satisfying certain aspects of our innate hunger for God, but not fully giving us what we need. However, for many, that little bit holds them over for a while, and they indulge in more to hold them over for a little while longer, and they become content with the “food” of the world rather than the Bread of Life and Living Water. David also writes, in Psalm 34:8a “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!”

The goodness of God is better than anything this world has to offer. Just as real food is better than chemicals and processed ingredients, God is better than any counterfeit spirituality or addiction or anything else. “the Lord is good!” David is urging us, “Just try it! You’ll like it! I promise! More than that, you’ll love it! You’ll love Him! He loves you! The Lord is good!”

Finally, I want to look at a verse from Romans.

Romans 14:17
“For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”

Paul, here, is speaking about rules and regulations and what is and isn’t acceptable in the Church, and the jist of what He is getting at is that none of that really matters. The stipulations around food and drink are not all that important. What is important is connection with Christ, and helping others to have that connection. Therefore, if certain rules and regulations help others to get to know Jesus, then you should follow them, for that reason, so that as many people as possible can come to a right relationship with God. “...the kingdom of God is … a matter of … righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”

Do you hunger and thirst for righteousness, to live according to everything that God has called you to be? Is it your craving and desire? Do you seek it out and pursue it as life itself? God is the Bread of Life. He is the Living Water. Seeking Him and His righteousness is seeking life, and He promises that those who hunger and thirst for it will be fully satisfied, receiving everything they need. 

Are you hungry? Are you thirsty? “taste and see that the Lord is good.”

The first two Beatitudes were more about inward attitudes, having a right outlook on your own spiritual state and being rightly upset and grieved over sin and evil in the world and within yourself. The third Beatitude is a bit more outwardly focused, as it has to do with how we interact with the world and people around us. 

Matthew 5:5
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”

The word meek, in today’s society, means “quiet, gentle, and easily imposed on; submissive.”

This is somewhat the same meaning that Jesus is getting at here, but with a few important distinctions. We typically think of a meek person as someone who is shy and quiet, like a mouse, someone who is weak, who doesn’t, and can’t, stand up or speak up for themselves or others and who is easily taken advantage of. However, that isn’t really the idea that Jesus was trying to convey. Jesus is quoting an Old Testament verse here:

Psalm 37:11
“But the meek shall inherit the land
    and delight themselves in abundant peace.”

In Psalms, the word does carry a meaning of “poor, weak, oppressed, needy,” but when Jesus quotes the verse and speaks of the meek being blessed He is speaking more of those who are humble and self-controlled. The meek, rather than being incapable, are those who are fully capable. They are strong and assertive and successful, but they know how to control themselves and their emotions.

We can see this in the fact that the word translated “meek” in Matthew is only used three times in the New Testament. One of these is in The Sermon on the Mount, and another is in Matthew 21 “Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.” This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying,

“Say to the daughter of Zion,
‘Behold, your king is coming to you,
    humble, and mounted on a donkey,
    on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’”

This is, itself, a quote from: 

Zechariah 9:9
“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
    Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your king is coming to you;
    righteous and having salvation is he,
humble and mounted on a donkey,
    on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

We also see this same idea in

Matthew 11:29 “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”

Jesus is described, time and time again, as being humble/meek/gentle/lowly. However, we know that Jesus is God. He is all powerful, all knowing, the creator of everything, the Judge of the world. If meekness merely meant those who were poor and weak and needy and oppressed it would make no sense to describe Jesus as such. However, if we recognize that it’s more than that it helps us to see that He is not just doling out blessings on those who are “pitiful,” but expressing a blessing for those who make a choice in how they conduct themselves towards others and toward God.

The meek are not those who have no choice but to be weak and shy. The meek are those who choose not to embrace pride, who choose not to force matters because of their strength and power, but who choose to look at others with compassion and love and humility.

Let’s look at another chunk of Scripture that shows this idea. 

Philippians 2:1-11 “So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

This passage is a perfect example of what Jesus is saying in Matthew. As Christians, as followers of Jesus, we should not be proud, arrogant, conceited and cocky. This does not mean that we don’t recognize our talents and accomplishments. It doesn’t mean that we don’t lead in areas that God has blessed us with the skill, ability, and knowledge to lead. In fact, we are meant to use the gifts and talents that we have to glorify God and to encourage and build each other up. However, we are not to lord those things over people. It’s one thing to humbly step into a role that you know you can excel at in order to help someone. It’s another thing to loudly shout from the rooftops how amazing you are and how cruddy everyone else is compared to you. Humility, meekness, is looking at the world, looking at the people around you, and seeing how you can be of service to them. It is counting “others more significant than yourselves” This is also a great example of true love. It has been said that if people love each other that they will look out for the needs of the other person, and when this is done effectively, everyone’s needs are taken care of because everyone is looking out for everyone else. If we are to be people that are known by our love, we need to be humble.

Jesus modeled this. He is God, and yet, He didn’t come to Earth as an imposing warrior with lightning bolts, ready to smite and punish. He came as a baby, grew up and lived as a carpenter and carried out a pretty mundane life, for most of it. However, He didn’t shy away from who He was or pull punches when talking about what was and wasn’t ok. He was willing to associate with everyone, meeting them where they were, in order to help guide them to where they were meant to be, because He loved them. He was obedient and submissive to God, because He chose to be so, and in the end we see that He was gloried and rewarded.

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”

God calls us to meekness and humility. It’s not always easy. It goes against some natural tendencies to look out for ourselves and build ourselves up, but God’s way is always the best way. He looks out for us, and He gave us a model to follow. In this meekness, He has also promised that we don’t need to worry about provision or possessions. We don’t need to secure our land and food and necessities by power and force. It all belongs to Him anyway, and He has promised that if we follow His example we will have all we need. We shall inherit the earth.

So, I challenge you to take up an attitude of humility and meekness. Look to others’ needs. Trust in God and lean not on your own understanding or power or ability or influence. God will not let you down.

Today we are looking at the second Beatitude, or Blessing, in The Sermon on the Mount. This week was also Mardi Gras and Ash Wednesday, and, while I didn’t intentionally plan this, these things actually go together quite well. 

Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday, is a day of decadence and debauchery. It is the day before the start of the Lent Season, which is the 40 days leading up to Easter, and it is meant to be a time of fasting and righteousness. It is a time when you intentionally remove something from your life and replace it with time spent with God. You are supposed to identify and remove something from your life that is or could be a distraction, or something that occupies a good deal of your time/attention. It is meant to be a sacrifice. Mardi Gras, being the last day before Lent, is a celebration of gorging yourself on everything that you will be removing from your life. It is an overindulgence of that which you have deemed needs to be removed. It is said, by some, to be a celebration of life, but it is a distorted celebration of life as true life comes from Christ “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” not from the perverted sweets of the world.

This is where the next Beatitude comes in.

Matthew 5:4 – “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”

Now, again, many take this as a promise from God that if you are facing hardship and struggle and loss in your life, if you have experienced grief and mourning, that God will comfort you. It is 100% true that God is a God of comfort, and He provides comfort to those who grieve and mourn. However, that’s not really what Jesus is talking about here. 

The word that he uses in Matthew 5:4, is, indeed, a word that means “mourning” or “deep grief and sorrow,” but rather than speaking of physical loss and sadness, and saying that those who experience that are blessed, Jesus is talking about a feeling toward sin. He is speaking of grief and mourning over sin in your own life, in the world, in the lives of others. 

Last week we looked at being poor in spirit and how that means that we have a right attitude toward our own spiritual state. We recognize that we are broken and in need of a Savior because we aren’t good in and of ourselves and we can’t do anything about it in and of ourselves. We can’t work hard enough or do enough good to outweigh the bad. We need Jesus.

With that as a foundation, Jesus then says, “You need to mourn the sin, the brokeness, the bad, the evil. You need to have intense, deep grief and sorrow for it.” Sin, which is anything that goes against God’s perfect plan, is totally and completely awful. It should not be endured or justified or accepted in any way. You should not be ok with sin in your life or the world or in your friends’ lives. You should not be used to it. I think a lot of people have a very nonchalant attitude toward sin. We should be repulsed by it, we should be in deep grief and sorrow when we see it in our lives and in the world, but for many, we just don’t. We accept it without a second thought. We even joke about it. We celebrate it with carnivals and parades and beads. However, God has called you to something far greater, and the broken destruction that sin causes should be mourned and fought against. 

1 John 2:15 – “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”

This is a kinda scary verse. “the Father is not in him.” Wow. So, what does this mean? Does it mean that if you enjoy football or Star Wars or Disneyland or the mall or technology or any music other than Praise & Worship, etc… that you aren’t a Christian? Of course not. God created beauty and music and fun and wants you to experience these things, but in the Bible, when it talks about “the world” it is often referring to those things that are expressly opposed to God, those things that are sinful and destructive. This is not a warning against anything that wasn’t created “by the church,” but rather a command that the disease of sin should be hated and rejected, not loved and embraced. 

To put this in a practical sense, my daughter is allergic to artificial food dyes and flavors. They make her crazy and cause her a lot of pain. When we first figured this out we started becoming extremely diligent in looking into the ingredients of the food that we were buying, and we started learning a lot more about these artificial dyes and flavors. Do you know what I discovered? Many/most of these artificial dyes and flavorings are actually banned in other parts of the world, but they are allowed in the US, and they are included for no other reason, especially the dyes, than to make the food more visually appealing. They are completely unnecessary, and they are actually harmful and destructive, but they look really pretty. We are pretty vigilant, now, in making sure that she doesn’t eat any food with these artificial dyes in it, and it actually makes me angry that they are still in food here.  

This is like sin. It is destructive and harmful. We are allergic to it, not meant for it to be a part of us. It causes pain and is absolutely unnecessary, but it’s pretty and tastes good and activates certain responses in our mind and soul that tell us that it’s what we want, even if we don’t. We should mourn this. We should be in deep grief and sorrow over the fact that it is present in our world, in our loved ones, in ourselves. We should be moved by that mourning to action. The mourning is not a stagnation. We don’t wallow in grief, but we are broken by sin and moved to action. The mourning leads us to want to do something about the sin in our lives and the world. It leads us to repentance, which means both feeling bad, but also changing direction and doing something different. It leads to forgiveness and restoration and restoring a right relationship with God. It leads from mourning to joy in the fullness of God.

One last verse to close this out.  

Isaiah 6:5-7
“5 And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

The prophet Isaiah is here faced with the reality of sin in his life, and we see his response is mourning and grief and sorrow. There is no hiding or justifying, just open grief and repentance.

What comes next is the comfort that Jesus is speaking of.

6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”

Those who mourn sin are blessed because that mourning will lead to “your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.” 

I want to challenge you: Mourn Sin. It’s awful. I know that for so many people sin is looked at as something that is not all that important if not down right appealing, and even if we recognize some wrong it’s more of a temporary bad feeling that we quickly shrug off and go back to the sin, like someone who is lactose intolerant, but still eats ice cream. It’s not enough to temporarily feel bad, we need to mourn and grieve sin, but when we do, God promises atonement, forgiveness, comfort because He cleans and removes the source of our mourning.

This week we are getting into the first of Jesus’ teachings during The Sermon on the Mount.

We often have a skewed view of spiritual justice and morality. It is very common to think of your life in terms of a scale; as long as the good things in your life outweigh the bad things then you're going to be ok. However, this isn't at all what we see Jesus teach, and there are actually a lot of problems with this idea. To start with, who defines good and bad? Does each person get to choose for themselves what is good vs. what is bad? What if something I think is good, you think is bad? Does that thing count as whatever we think it is or does it have a universal designation? Even if salvation and spiritual justice worked on a sliding scale of good vs. bad, we would need some definitive measure and designation that is set in place by someone outside of the system. 

The thing about it is that we kind of do have that. We just don't like the scale and the measure. Jesus has said that, rather than the scales being balanced or slightly tipped to the side of good, we need to be perfect. Any bad upsets the scales. Even the smallest bad is of astronomical weight and can never be balanced by good. The only way to fix the scales is to remove the bad from them. 

This is what Jesus is getting to in His first teaching, His first Beatitude, here in Matthew.

Matthew 5:3 – “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

This verse is often misunderstood as some sort of call to poverty, and that may be, in part, because of the phrasing in Luke 6:20, which says, “...“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.” However, Jesus is not saying here that a good Christian is one who exists in poverty with no money and no possessions and no food and no security. Granted, He has something to say about money and possessions and all of that, but the purpose of this teaching is not to encourage poverty as some sort of holy spiritual existence. 

Rather, what Jesus is getting at here is the concept of having a spirit of humility, of having a right understanding about our own spiritual standing and our ability, or lack thereof, to save ourselves.

A lot of people in this world tend to fall into one of several schools of thought. The first is that they really aren’t all that bad. This can take the form of thinking that they are without fault, entirely, but more often takes the form of thinking that, overall, they are good, and that goodness should be enough to get them into Heaven.

A second school of thought is that they really aren’t all that good, they have a lot of bad in their life, but they can make up for it, they can work hard enough or be disciplined enough to earn Heaven despite the bad in their life.

Finally, there are those who think that there is nothing that they can do, that they are bad, and there is nothing that they can do to make up for that bad. This can take two forms, the first being a state of depression and hopelessness because there is nothing they can do, but the second is what Jesus is speaking of, an admission that you aren’t “good enough” and you can’t do anything to earn that goodness, but rather than being hopeless, there’s hope, because God has done everything for us. 

This is the truth that we find in Titus 3:4-5 “But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,”

It is this mindset, this acknowledgement, that is essential to salvation, because if we think that we don’t need it, can earn it on our own, or that there is no hope, it will be almost impossible to obtain it. However, it is easy to fall into the trap, in this poorness of spirit, of looking at ourselves and others as horrible, pitiful, awful things. This is not what God intended for us either. He made us in His image and died for us and saved us because we are beautiful and deemed worthy of His love, and He chose to instill value in us when we had none. Poorness of spirit is a heart condition that should lead to joy and celebration and worship, rather than hung heads and shame.

This is the foundational teaching that Jesus gives us, and in some ways, it has become so foundational that we forget about it. We take it for granted, and, in so doing, we cease to be poor in spirit. This is highlighted a little later in Matthew where we find this verse.

Matthew 18:4 – “Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

Jesus gives this as an answer to His disciples who are questioning who is the greatest in the kingdom of God. God…God is the greatest in the kingdom of God. We should not even be thinking about rank and power in God’s kingdom. We should be humble and poor in spirit, acknowledging that the gift of being in God’s kingdom is enough, and it is an equal gift, and there is nothing we can do to be greater in the kingdom. We need to keep a humble, poor of spirit, attitude, being thankful for what God has done, knowing that we could never do it on our own, yet we get to fully enjoy the splendor of His glory because of it.

Finally, just to nail home the fact that this idea of being poor in spirit is important and consistent, let’s look at a verse from the Old Testament, Isaiah 66:2. Here God says, “All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the Lord. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.”

The God of the Old Testament is the same as the God of the New Testament is the same as Jesus and, throughout history, what He is looking for is those who are poor in spirit, who are willing to truthfully admit, both, the state of their own soul and the magnificence of what God has done and who He is. This is the foundation, the first step, and it is to those that the kingdom of heaven, salvation, is given and available.

The Sermon on the Mount is Jesus’ famous sermon, from which we get many of the principles, guidelines and examples of what it means to live a Christian life. This is where the Beatitudes come from as well as The Lord’s Prayer. It is an extremely important section of scripture, and we are going to take the next few months to go over it and see how we can apply it to our lives today.

So, before we jump in, let’s set the stage. Jesus had just begun His public ministry. He was traveling all around the area, teaching, healing, performing miracles and displaying wisdom. He had just called His apostles, those twelve who were closest to Him, who traveled with Him and ministered with Him and learned from Him. He was gaining notoriety and fame, and as such, a huge crowd of people were beginning to follow Him, to see what He was going to do and hear what He was going to say. They didn’t have Instagram or TikTok during that time, but if they did, Jesus’ follower count would have been skyrocketing, and every one of His videos would be going viral.

Matthew 4:23-25
“And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, those having seizures, and paralytics, and he healed them. And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.”

Jesus recognized all of this and so, “Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.” – Matthew 5:1

This was not an attempt to get away or escape the crowds. Rather, He was positioning Himself to teach them all something. During this time, teachers would often give lessons while sitting, rather than standing at a podium like we are used to today. Jesus elevated Himself on the mountain so that people could see and hear Him, and then He sat “And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:” – Matthew 5:2

Here’s the thing, when Jesus spoke, people listened, at least initially, and to most of what He said. He had authority without overt strength and power. He wasn’t some military or political leader, but what He had to say was important, and people came to Him. He didn’t have to do any clever marketing tricks to make Himself stand out or convince people that they should follow Him. We actually see quite the opposite in Jesus’ life. He simply lived and spoke the truth. He acted on Truth, unashamedly and unapologetically. He did what was right. He said what was right. He was loving and compassionate when the time called for it and He was harsh and judgmental when the time called for it. He had no smoke and mirrors, no Photoshop, no agent, no editor, no one to create and spin His image to increase His likability and make His message more palatable to the masses. He was genuine. He had integrity. People were drawn to Him.

I think that, in some ways, we’ve lost sight of this a bit today. Jesus is enough. His Word is enough. His Truth is enough. We don’t need to wrap it up in giveaways and slick social media accounts and funny and engaging Bible Studies and sermons and LED screens and billboards and professional musicians and marketing campaigns with TV commercials. I’m not saying that any of those things are inherently bad, or even bad at all, but when we start to think that we need to have them all to “convince” people to follow Jesus there’s an issue. I can’t convince you to love Jesus. I can’t convince you to surrender to His leadership in your life. I can show compelling evidence for the existence of God or the veracity of the Bible, I may be able to convince you that God is real and that He loves you and that Jesus died for you and rose from the dead to give you salvation, but I can’t convince you to be a Christian, to follow Christ. That is something that comes when you make a decision based on Jesus drawing you to Himself. Jesus is enough. He is worthy of praise and devotion, and we see that throughout His ministry, but specifically here, at the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus sat down to speak, to teach, and people came to Him.

John 6:44-45 says, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me—”

So, we see here an example of what we should model in our lives. No, we don’t physically have Jesus sitting here across from us, speaking audible words for us to gather around and listen to and learn, but that doesn’t mean that He isn’t with us, and He isn’t still teaching us and speaking to us.

John 10:25-30
“Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name bear witness about me, but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one.” 

Here, at the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is providing an “Owner’s Manual” for life. He’s giving you all the tips and tricks and showing you what a life looks like that is functioning in the way it was designed to, that is following God. 

For most video games today, there are tutorials and gameplay videos, that show you the controls and reveal tips and tricks and secrets and how to’s. Sometimes they make the game easier, or help you get past a place that you’ve been stuck on, or possibly reveal something brand new about the game that you had no idea about. These are not expansion packs that add something onto the game that wasn’t previously there, but rather instructions for how to access everything that is already available to you. They show you what a game, fully played, looks like. That’s basically what is happening here. Jesus sits down to teach, and people are drawn to Him because He is authentic and His words are Truth. He starts to lay out the “secrets” of living a full and abundant life. Some of the things He is about to say make perfect logical sense to almost anyone. Some of them seem a bit counterintuitive, but put together, they offer a blueprint for a full and abundant life, lived in accordance with God’s design and following Him.

Next week we will start to look at the Beatitudes, all of the “Blessed are…” verses, but I want to leave you with one verse to prepare for that and to think about as you go throughout your week.

Luke 11:28
“But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”

Listen to God this week. Draw near to Him. Learn from Him. Apply it to your life.

Since this today is Valentine’s Day, it seems only appropriate that we look at love, but more specifically, that we look at romance, because while love is a very broad and encompassing topic, romance is much more narrow and specific. So, what is romance?

Romance: a feeling of excitement and mystery associated with love; or a quality or feeling of mystery, excitement, and remoteness from everyday life.

There are a couple of words in those definitions that I want to highlight: Mystery & Excitement.

This is a really cool concept to think about. We often talk about love in church, about God’s love for us, about our love for God, about loving each other, about loving our enemies, etc… Love is central to Christianity. It is how the world will know that we are followers of Jesus, by our love. It is the enduring quality that supersedes and outlasts even faith and hope. It is what gives everything meaning. It is one of the absolute qualities and characteristics of God. God is love. So, what is love?

Love is an intense feeling of deep affection; or a great interest and pleasure in something.

To put it in a Biblical framework, “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. …” - 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a

There’s a lot there to unpack and examine and apply to our relationships and conduct with ourselves, with friends, with family, with neighbors, with acquaintances, with coworkers, with classmates, with strangers, with enemies, with God. However, that’s for another time. Here, as mentioned earlier, I want to look at the concept of romance in Christianity.

We’ve all heard of romance, or being romantic. Sometimes it is used to describe an event or atmosphere, such as a couple sitting down to a romantic candlelit dinner, or enjoying the romantic atmosphere of a sunset on a beach, or something like that. Sometimes it is said in sarcasm about an action or word that is incredibly unattractive and even off putting, like a guy eating BBQ ribs at dinner, dripping some sauce on his shirt and loudly slurping sauce off of each of his fingers, one at a time, “How romantic…” Sometimes, it refers to an action or gesture. A love letter or poem written, a surprise trip, a dozen roses, etc… The point is that romance involves something out of the ordinary, mysterious and exciting. Romance is not boring or expected. It is not, as we looked at last week, doing the same old thing, over and over again. Valentine’s Day is full of people attempting, some successfully, some not so successfully, to do just that, to introduce excitement and mystery and joy into relationships.

Here’s the thing, God does that for us, has done that for us. God doesn’t just love us, but He romances us. He goes to great lengths with unexpected and mysterious acts to display and live out His love. He desires for us to be with Him, and He pursues us. He does all the work and leaves it in our hands to choose whether or not to give ourselves to Him.

My favorite author is a guy named Ted Dekker. He’s written a lot of books in various genres, but most are thriller/suspense or sci-fi/fantasy. The first series I ever read by him is called the Circle. It consists of the books Black, Red, White & Green, and Black is one of the best books I have ever read. It is, essentially, a retelling of the fall of man and God’s effort to redeem, but set within an epic battle for the end of the world and a fantasy world where good and evil are visible and tangible. Anyways, in these books, Christianity is called “The Great Romance.” These are a couple of quotes from Black and Red.

“This was the Great Romance. To love at any cost.”

“The Great Romance is for you. If only one of you would have followed me, the heavens would not have been able to contain my cries of joy.”

This comes directly from Luke 15:1-7 “Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”

So he told them this parable: “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.”

You see, God more than casually loves you or has affectionate feelings for you. He refers to the church as His bride. There is an entire, quite sexual, book of the Bible that describes the romantic feelings and actions of two lovers. It is an allegory for the passionate love and pursuit that God has for us, not in a sexual way, but a romance, nonetheless. We would never have expected God to do what He did. His actions were and are mysterious and exciting and definitely out of the ordinary. We see this in almost every human interaction with God. He chooses places, people, plans that seemingly make no sense. He does things that are terrifying and exciting. He seeks relationships with the outcast and shamed.

Just to highlight this again, let’s look at one more story. The story of Zacchaeus:  

Luke 19:1-10 “He entered Jericho and was passing through. And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small in stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

Zacchaeus had heard about Jesus and was seeking to get to know more about Him, to see Him and to hear Him, but Jesus flipped the whole thing on its head and instead pursued Zacchaeus, like a lost sheep. He loved Him and created a great scandal, and saved Zacchaeus in the process.

Finally, we read in 1 John 4:9-10 “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

As Valentine’s Day is full of flowers and chocolates and teddy bears and diamond rings and people seeking to make a night romantic, remember that God loves you in the most incredible, passionate, mysterious and exciting way. He went to great lengths to show that love to you, and He continues to pursue you to this day. Like the lost sheep, like Zacchaeus, He wants to find you and rejoice with you and save you.

This past Sunday was Groundhog Day, the day that a cute, furry, little rodent crawls out of his hole to let everyone know if there is going to be an early spring or six more weeks of winter. As it goes, if the groundhog sees its shadow, that means it is sunny, hence, six more weeks of winter, and if it doesn’t, that means it is cloudy, hence, early spring. Don’t ask me how that makes sense. It is what it is. 

What we are looking at today, however, doesn’t really have anything to do with the Groundhog Day events and more to do with the Groundhog Day movie. If you aren’t familiar with it, it is a movie about a weatherman who is assigned every year to cover the Groundhog Day festivities in Punxsutawney, PA. This guy is a real jerk who doesn’t like anyone or anything but himself, and pretty much no one likes him either. He especially hates the Groundhog Day event. As it turns out, a blizzard ends up causing him to have to spend the night in Punxsutawney, and when he wakes up the next morning it is Groundhog Day again. He winds up getting stuck in a loop in which he relives the same day over and over again for something like 35 years, until he finally breaks free. 

You have likely heard the quote “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” There’s another, similar quote “If I keep on doing what I’ve always done, I keep on getting what I’ve always gotten.” The idea here is that it’s insane to continue in the same action, the same path, and expect anything to be different.

In school, if you have a study routine, a certain time place, length of time, method that you use to study, and you are consistently getting low grades or grades that don’t match what you want to get, it makes no sense to continue to study in the exact same way yet somehow expect to get better grades. If you want something to change you have to change something.

I’ve recently discovered this in my running. For the past five weeks I’ve been running every day, and I just, this week, discovered that my phone has this thing called “Cardio Load” that it measures. I can set a goal, and my goal is to increase my fitness, and it tells me how much “Cardio Load” I should have every day to reach that goal. Basically, how hard my heart should work every day. I was surprised, when I found this, that it is incredibly difficult for me to reach this every day, not only that, but the “Cardio Load” I’ve been reaching is on the low end of maintaining fitness, bordering on decreasing fitness. How is this possible if I’ve been working out and running every day, which I wasn’t before. I’m not positive, but I think that it partly has to do with exactly that. Since I’ve been running every day, maybe at the beginning I was hitting my “Cardio Load,” but now, if I just continue to do the same thing I can’t expect to continue to see improvement. The level and type of exercise I am doing gets me to a certain fitness level, but it won’t do more. If I want to change, I need to change.

We see a similar idea in the Bible. In Proverbs 26:11 we read, 
“Like a dog that returns to his vomit
    is a fool who repeats his folly.”

If you have dogs then you’ve no likely experienced this first hand. A dog will puke all over the floor or yard, and then look at it as if it’s the most delicious meal in the world and eat it up. It’s gross really, but what Solomon is saying here is that people are often no different. No, we don’t eat our own puke, but how often do we repeatedly do something that is detrimental to ourselves, and somehow think it’s worth it or it will be different this time. When an animal pukes it is because there is something bad, something harmful, inside of them that they need to get out, so to then turn around and re-ingest it is the height of insanity or foolishness. 

Yet, think about your own life. We’ve been looking at goals and improvement, at health and maturity and knowledge, at physical goals and spiritual goals, and something that is implicit in all of that, but maybe hasn’t been said, is that if you are moving toward a goal, you have to leave something behind. You have to change. You can’t learn and grow and mature and stay the same. You can’t improve and continue in the same habits and mindsets. Something has to change.

This is what happens in Groundhog Day. Phil relives the same day over and over again for 35 years, and, no, he doesn’t do the exact same thing every day, though I’m sure there were plenty of days that were very very similar, but his attitude and motivation for what he does is the same every day. He is selfish. He does things for his own pleasure and glorification, seeking to make himself feel and look good without a thought for others. There’s even a whole scene in which he tries, repeatedly to kill himself, with no luck, he just wakes up again on Groundhog Day, but even that is self-seeking. Things don’t start to change until he starts to change his motivation and his outlook on life, until he starts to think about others, until he stops returning to his vomit. 

This is what God wants to do in and through us. In Isaiah 43:18-19 He says, 
“Remember not the former things,
    nor consider the things of old.
Behold, I am doing a new thing;
    now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
    and rivers in the desert.”

And in Romans 6:4 Paul says, “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”

You see, God is not in the business of monotony. He is in the business of rejuvenation and newness. He doesn’t just do the same old thing day after day, but He does things that are new and fresh and exciting, and more than that He gives us newness. He offers a new life, a new heart, a new mindset, a new motivation, new passions, new purpose. He is laying a path before you to walk that is new and gets you out of the rut and opens up so many fantastic things for you.

However, for many of us, despite the fact that this newness is there, that it is available, we leave it sitting on the shelf. You may be stuck in some sin, whatever that may be, pride, anger, lust, etc… and you keep going back to it, like a dog to its vomit, knowing that it’s harmful, but thinking that maybe it will be ok this time, or maybe you think that you can get “just that close” without falling, even though you’ve fallen every time before, or maybe you don’t think it’s all that bad, and you just keep reliving the same Groundhog Day. It’s time to do something new.

Maybe you feel like you can’t quite break out of a mental or spiritual slump, and maybe you tell yourself and others that “I’ve tried everything,” but really, have you? It’s time to do something new.

Something new is not always pleasant, just as change is not always pleasant. It can hurt. It can be humiliating or humbling. However, just because we are used to the routine and the pain and the vomit that we’ve always known does not mean that that is what is best for us. It’s time to do something new.

God is doing something new: today, in your life. He is offering a newness of life, a break from the cycle, an escape from the vomit. Will you walk in it? Will you become someone new?

As we look this week at Education related goals, let’s start by looking at the opposite of education: ignorance.

Ignorance is defined as a lack of knowledge or information.

Paul, on multiple occasions throughout the Bible, says something to the effect of, “I do not want you to be unaware/uninformed” about mysteries of the Gospel, about spiritual gifts, about God’s works, about actions and events in his and his companions’ lives, etc…

There is a common saying in society, “ignorance is bliss,” which is a way of conveying the idea that if you don’t know about something you aren’t worried or anxious about it, and that it can be better to be ignorant and happy than informed and scared. 

There is definitely an aspect of truth to this saying, like there is in almost any saying, but it’s missing a whole bunch. Yes, if you are aware of something bad, it is going to upset you and cause you to, often, worry, which is not a great way to live your life. If you are unaware of the impending end of the world, death of a loved one, collapse of your source of comfort and security, your own death, etc… it allows you to continue to live with bliss or happiness, enjoying the moment and being hopeful for the future. However, this only works if there is absolutely nothing that you can do to change the outcome of what’s going to happen. In almost every situation, however, you have some power to change the outcome, and, in most cases, the less ignorant that you are the more power you will have. 

Just like God did not design you to be fat, lazy, weak and tired; and He did not design you to be stagnant and unmotivated; He did not design you to be ignorant, dumb, and uninformed. 

Now, before we move on, let me be clear. There is a near infinite amount of knowledge, and it is impossible for anyone to have all knowledge, aside from God. Similarly, you may be incredibly knowledgeable in a certain area, while someone else may be incredibly knowledgeable in a different area. The amount of knowledge that you possess does not, in any way, shape or form, equate to your worth or value. However, we should never be content with ignorance or make the mistake of believing that education, learning and knowledge is unimportant. 

The Bible is actually filled with learning and wisdom, so let’s look at a few instances of that.

First: there is a book in the Bible called “Proverbs.”

A proverb is “a simple, traditional saying that expresses a perceived truth based on common sense or experience”

The book of Proverbs contains around 900 proverbs, and was written by Solomon, who is considered to be the wisest man to have ever lived.

Proverbs 9:9-10 says,
“Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser;
    teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,
    and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.”

Proverbs 3:13-15 says,
“Blessed is the one who finds wisdom,
    and the one who gets understanding,
for the gain from her is better than gain from silver
    and her profit better than gold.
She is more precious than jewels,
    and nothing you desire can compare with her.”

We see, just in these few verses, seven different words that relate to education, and we see that knowledge, wisdom and learning, are considered to be some of the most important things that a person can desire or obtain. There is more value in understanding than in gold or silver or jewels, and if you think about it this becomes clear.

It’s like the old saying, or proverb, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” Material things have value, but that value wanes if used, where knowledge can help create value and it increases the more it is used. This is true in almost every area, whether it be studious knowledge in math and science, etc…, philosophical knowledge, practical knowledge like how to change a tire or fix a mini-fridge, literary knowledge, spiritual knowledge, etc… Regardless of the area, there is value in learning.

We further see this played out in the story of Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. You may better know them as Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Daniel is well known in the Bible for being thrown into a den of lions for refusing to only pray to the king, and Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were thrown into a furnace for refusing to worship the king. These four individuals were Jews who had been taken captive in Babylon, but because they showed certain promise in both physical ability and in learning, they were brought into the king’s court. 

In Daniel 1:17-20 we see “As for these four youths, God gave them learning [intelligence, knowledge, science]* and skill [intelligence, understanding, wisdom]* in all literature and wisdom [good sense, wit]*, and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams. At the end of the time, when the king had commanded that they should be brought in, the chief of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar. And the king spoke with them, and among all of them none was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Therefore they stood before the king. And in every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters that were in all his kingdom.”

*Brackets are added, not in the Scripture.

We see two things here. First, education, knowledge in a wide array of topics is important and valued, and followers of God are supposed to be knowledgeable, to have wisdom. Second, knowledge, learning, understanding and wisdom flows from God. It is in their devotion to God that they obtained this knowledge. God gave it to them.

We looked at this verse last year when we were talking about loving God with all your mind, but, James 1:5 says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.”

So, to sum it up, you are meant to be a wise and knowledgeable person. No one person can have all the knowledge in the world, that’s God’s thing, but that’s not an excuse for refusing to learn. Knowledge is important and wisdom is valuable more than anything else, and both are given from God. Don’t shy away from learning, whether that be skills or facts, or doing well in school or learning about God. Ask questions, research, learn, and in so doing, grow and mature.

Remember: “Blessed is the one who finds wisdom, and the one who gets understanding”

The next goal topic that we are going to look at in this series is that of growth goals. Growth is defined as several things:

• the process of increasing in physical size.
• the process of increasing in amount, value, or importance.
• the process of developing or maturing physically, mentally, or spiritually.

It’s that last one that I am going to talk about here. So, first off, what are some of your growth goals? These can take the shape of goals designed to make you a better person, sibling, child, friend, student, Christian, etc… Often they have to do with character and attitude, how you react and respond to situations. Are you impulsive or contemplative? Are you assertive? Are you goal oriented? Are you angry? Are you vindictive? Are you self-focused? Community-focused? God-focused? Are you helpful? Are you kind? Growth goals can also take the shape of goals designed to improve your ability in a certain area? That may be sports or hobby related. It may be relational and communicative. It may be educational. It may be spiritual. It may be business related. If growth is the “process of developing or maturing” or “increasing in … value, or importance” then growth related goals are all goals that are designed and intended to make you better, more mature and more qualified in a certain area.

So, why are growth goals important? Just like you are not designed to be a fat, lazy, weak, tired individual, you are not designed to be a stagnant and immature individual. If growth is development and improvement, stagnation is:

• not advancing or developing.
• showing no activity; dull and sluggish.
• having no current or flow and often having an unpleasant smell as a consequence.

The thing is, if you are not growing, you are either dying or stagnant, and neither of those are positive directions in life. God wants you to be growing and maturing in life, as a person, in your pursuits and passions, in Him.

The Bible relates this, often, to the idea of a child growing and maturing. When we are born, as babies, we really rely on others for almost everything. We rely on someone else to feed us, to protect us, to clothe us, to keep us warm, to take us where we need to go, to bathe us, to clean our poopy diapers. We are capable of doing almost nothing on our own, aside from sleeping and crying. We have to have milk, because we are unable to eat anything else. As we start to grow and mature we gain experience and skills and abilities to do more things on our own and for ourselves, and subsequently, for others. You see that’s part of maturing, of growing up, not just getting bigger and gaining skills, but of developing a mature outlook on life and others. There’s a big difference between getting older and growing up.

In 1 Corinthians 3:1-9, Paul says “But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human? What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building."

In Hebrews 5:12-14, we see, “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil."

We see in these verses a few things:

• Growth and maturity is intentional. It takes work and practice. It doesn’t just happen.
• You are meant to be mature in Christ.
• Growth comes through God working in and through you. 

We then see in Ephesians 4:11-16 “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.”

You should have a desire and urgency to grow and mature and develop in life, in all areas, and especially when it comes to your relationship with God. God is uninterested in having millions of “followers” who are immature and unable to do anything for themselves or live a life that shows the growth and transformation that He wants to enact in them. He doesn’t want a bunch of immature Christians who run around only thinking about what they want or what others can do for them. He wants you to grow and develop and be mature, to be like Him. That’s what Christian means after-all “Little Christ” or “Christ Follower.” There is a lot that can deceive and derail you, and if you are immature, only drinking milk and never growing into something more, you will be deceived and derailed and “tossed to and fro,” but if you allow God to build and grow you, you will not be useless stinky stagnant water, but will be something amazing, as God intended.

One of the most common goals that people set at the New Year, and at other times, is a health related goal. Usually this takes the form of “I want to lose weight” Sometimes it is left at that, and sometimes it is more specific, “I want to lose 15 pounds.” Then, steps are added to accomplish the goal. “I’m going to walk/run/workout for 30 minutes a day.” “I’m going to start this or that diet.” “I’m going to cut out sugar/fats/carbs/sodas/candy/etc…” Sometimes the health related goals are more fitness related or targeted to a specific sport or objective. “I want to lift x pounds.” “I want to run x distance at x speed.” “I want more strength/endurance.” Even things like “I want to get more sleep/drink more water/be outside more/have less stress.” are health related goals. Health related goals are some of the most prevalent for several reasons.

1. Health related goals are often quantifiable and observable. We have a tangible starting line and goal line, and we can create obtainable steps to get from A to B. The actual results may be a little less tangible, or take longer to see, but the steps are very concrete. It may take several months to see a loss of weight, an increase in muscle, a change in how you feel (physically or mentally), but you can very easily know whether or not you drank 8 cups of water or walked for 30 minutes. 
2. Health affects everything we do every single day. Your health and fitness level, as well as your mental health, determines a lot about what you are able to do and what you want to do every day. Are you active? Do you play sports? Do you go outside? Can you do physical labor? Are you tired all the time? Do you hurt all the time? Are you excited and eager or depressed and anxious? Your physical health, while not the only factor, can go a long way in determining the type of life you live and the quality of that life, and your physical and mental health go hand-in-hand. In general, if one is unhealthy, the other will be as well, and if one starts to get healthier, so will the other one.
3. Our health can affect, not only our lives, but the lives of those around us, of our friends and family.

So, with that in mind, what sort of health goals do you have, because we should all have some sort of health related goal, but as you think about that, don’t just consider physical health. Think about these three types of health: physical, mental, spiritual. What goal do you have in each of those areas?

Now, let’s talk about these. Goals should not be self-centered, but rather founded on Christ, so what does the Bible have to say about this? Keep in mind as we are going through this, that this is a very cursory look at each of these. We could dive a lot deeper into each of these areas and look at very specific aspects of each, but this is just an overview.

God never intended us to be fat, lazy, tired, weak individuals. He sculpted and formed your body as something beautiful and majestic and strong and capable. It is true that we live in a broken/sinful world, and as part of that, corruption and flaw has infiltrated creation, including our bodies. This can manifest in sickness and disease, and sometimes people are born with crippling disabilities, however, for most people, we still have capable bodies, and we should be striving to be healthy and strong in those bodies.

In 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 we read, “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”

Then in 1 Corinthians 3:16-17, “Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple.”

In 1 Corinthians 6, Paul is specifically talking about sexual immorality and sin, but the concept is true for general care and health of our bodies. We, especially as Christians, are temples. A temple is a special, dedicated place to serve, honor, and worship God. It is not a dilapidated building with boarded up doors and windows. It’s not some nasty shop with peeling paint and moldy sinks. It’s not even just some “ok” common building. It is beautiful and ornate and intentional, and in the same way, God made us to be His holy temple, to be the house of God. We should take care of our bodies in every way we can imagine.  

Second, let’s look at mental health. As we mentioned before, mental health is another incredibly important part of our overall health, but, unfortunately, something that is often overlooked. Your mental health and physical health are closely integrated, and while it is possible to be super healthy physically and still unhealthy mentally, often when one improves, so does the other.

When we are talking about mental health we are talking about our mindset, our thoughts, the way we look at and think about the world and ourselves. Mentally healthy people tend to be fairly well regulated, are able to handle stress and difficulty well. They tend not to be depressed or anxious or sad all the time. This doesn’t mean that mentally healthy people are never scared or sad or overwhelmed, but it’s not the standard or default. They tend to be more encouraged and motivated and happy or joyful.

We see in Proverbs 17:22 “A joyful heart is good medicine,
    but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.”

We can probably all attest to the truth of this. When our mental health suffers, when our spirit is crushed, we tend to feel bad physically as well, as if we can’t do anything and have no energy, but when we are full of joy it invigorates us. 

Mental health is a bit more difficult to work toward as it is a lot more intangible, and there are certain aspects of it that may be chemical or something that we are a bit unsure about. However, there are things that we can do to work on our mental health. 

1. As mentioned before, being physically healthy can help with mental health, so stay physically healthy. Workout, walk, get outside in the sun and fresh air, drink water, eat well, sleep. All of these things will help with your mental health.
2. Be intentional about what you think about and what you allow to occupy your mind. This comes both in the form of choosing to think about things that are good and lovely and commendable and in the form of choosing not to partake in things that are dark and destructive. Just like if you put junk into your body, you're gonna feel like junk, if you put junk into your mind, you're going to have unhealthy thoughts. So don’t do it.
3. Just as your physical and mental health are connected, your mental and spiritual health are connected. Romans 8:6 says, “For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.” This speaks to what we were talking about before, of choosing to put good, not bad, into your mind, but this is specifically talking about spiritual health, not just thinking about good things and not bad, but thinking about Godly things.

This brings us to the final health aspect, spiritual health. It is entirely possible to be a fit, healthy, mentally stable and healthy individual, and yet still be incredibly unhealthy spiritually. At the end of the day, we are intended to be God’s temple, a place of worship and devotion to God, and if we aren’t spiritually healthy we aren’t living up to what we are supposed to be, and we aren’t fully healthy.

We see in Proverbs 3:7-8 “Be not wise in your own eyes;
    fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.
  It will be healing to your flesh
    and refreshment to your bones.”

We see this same idea that being spiritually healthy is empowering and refreshing and healing, and this doesn’t come through knowing everything and working hard and being dedicated to your commitments. It comes through fearing the Lord, which doesn’t mean to be afraid, but rather to respect and have reverence and awe for, and from turning away from those things that are evil, those things that are in opposition to God and His plan and design for you.

Each and every one of us was fearfully and wonderfully made and designed with intentionality. God knew us and had a plan for us when He made us, and part of that plan, for you and I, is to love and follow Him, not just to have head or cultural knowledge of Him, but to be devoted to Him in every way. If we aren’t, if we haven’t given our lives over to Him and turned from evil, we are spiritually unhealthy, and if we are spiritually unhealthy there is no way that we will ever be fully healthy.

Spiritual health is the foundation for a fully healthy life. So, I encourage you to set some health goals and start pursuing them, not because they will make you a better person, but because it is what God wants for us. Become spiritually healthy, which begins with giving your life to Christ, and then continues with growing in your relationship with Him, praying, studying the Bible, and turning from evil. With that foundation, become intentional about what you think about, the content that you allow to permeate your mind, and be dedicated to being physically healthy. Your body is a temple. Treat it as such.

As we start a new year a lot of people are going to make resolutions and goals. Honestly, a week into the new year, a lot of those resolutions and goals are probably already broken, but regardless, this is the time when people take a look at their lives and make decisions about the types of things they want to change or remove or improve on. While there’s not really anything special about the start of a new year, we still take this time to examine ourselves, and even if we don’t “officially” make any New Year’s Resolutions we still probably all can identify things in ourselves that we like and want to fortify and make stronger, things that we want/need to improve on, and things that we want to change or just get rid of entirely. These may be skill sets, or attitudes, or habits, or mindsets, or relationships, or activities, etc… 

So, how about you, what do you want to accomplish this year? What do you want to get rid of? What do you want to add? What do you want to change? Do you have health related goals, education related goals, sports related goals, family or friend related goals, God related goals? Take a minute to think about this, and take note of everything that comes to your mind, regardless of how huge or small it may seem.

Goals are important. A lot of people tend to discount them, especially when they are positioned as New Year’s Resolutions, because, frankly, most people aren’t very serious about keeping them or pursuing them, so they become just a thing that we do without any real intention of following through or making any change. However, goals are still wildly important. You need to have something that you are moving toward in life, something that you are pursuing, otherwise you will, almost inevitably, just stay stagnant in life, never doing what God has intended for you.

Here’s the thing though, when we set goals, when we make plans, we need to make sure that those goals and plans are firmly rooted and set on something secure, otherwise, they will be easily knocked down, discarded and destroyed.  

Matthew 7:24-27 says, “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”

We see here Jesus giving an example of two houses. It looks like both are identical, or at least we are going to assume so. There’s nothing to indicate otherwise. So, we have two houses, both built with the same material, to the same specs. Both go through storms: rain, floods, wind. The only difference in these two houses is the foundation that they are built on. One is built on rock and the other on sand, and what we see is that the difference in the foundation is incredibly important. The difference in foundation results in one of the houses standing and weathering the storms that come against it and the other collapsing in fantastic fashion. 

Obviously, Jesus is not literally talking about houses here, but rather, He is challenging us to look at what we have as a foundation for our lives and how that can change the trajectory of our lives. Just like both houses go through storms, each and every one of us has gone/is going/will go through storms in our lives. These storms may come in the form of the death of a loved one, a friend or family member. They may be in the loss of a relationship, not through death, but through abandonment, betrayal, or just growing apart, divorce, etc.... We may face storms of struggles in school or sports or your job or whatever hobby you have. You may face storms of self-identity, self image or bullying. You may face storms in your family with your siblings or your parents or your children. You may face financial storms. You may face health storms, sickness or injury. You may face mental health storms: depression, anxiety, apathy, suicidal thoughts. You may face spiritual storms, doubt, fear, etc…

So, again, I want you to take a moment to think about some of the storms that you are currently experiencing.

No one is immune from storms. They are going to come to everyone. What these verses in Matthew are asking us to consider, however, is what happens when those storms hit. When you come up against something that is hard and overwhelming and works against you and against the goals that you are pursuing, do you crumble, or do you stand? When we build our lives and set our goals on “sand” on something that is insecure and shifting and uncertain, we can’t hope to be able to stand in the storms, we are going to fall. Those hardships in life will derail our hopes and dreams and pursuits and we will find ourselves constantly trying to rebuild, constantly trying to come up with some workaround to compensate for the sand that our lives are built on. However, if we have a firm foundation, a foundation of rock, something secure and solid and immovable, while the storms may beat and batter, while our lives and goals may be damaged for awhile or need some shoring up, they won’t fall. We won’t fall. We will be able to stand and move forward and grow and be a place of refuge and comfort and security.

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” This firm foundation is found in Jesus, in His words and teachings, and in following Him.

“For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” – 1 Corinthians 3:11

There are plenty of things that you can choose to build your life on, plenty of worldviews and beliefs that are external to you. You can build your life on a foundation of personal ability or money or power or character. You can build your life on a foundation of doubt and uncertainty. You can even choose to build your life on love and generosity and kindness and relationships, all good things, but absent from Jesus, none of it stands on its own. There may be elements of all of this interwoven in the firm rock foundation that is Jesus, but if you don’t have Him as the foundation to everything you pursue, it will, ultimately, all be wobbly at best, and will almost certainly fall at some point, but when your life is built on Christ, it may get battered and bruised, but it will stand the test of time.