If you’re interested in having me serve as a guest preacher one Sunday, please feel free to contact me.

You can listen to the message by clicking here. If you’d rather read it, the manuscript is available after the jump.

(Brief introduction): Although we’re both native Hoosiers, Christy and I met in undergrad at Milligan College in upper East Tennessee. In August, 1998, I married my best friend, and we’ve been on an amazing journey ever since! We have three children: Aiden (August, 2000), Alyson (April, 2002), and Mihret (October, 2007, adopted from Ethiopia in September, 2009). Our three children cannot be any more different! Aiden is the outgoing boy who loves Star Wars and wii, but can play almost any sport with ease. Alyson is our creative one, who can draw pictures that are already far beyond my own artistic ability. She also loves horses, and is planning on buying one instead of a car when she turns 16 (we’ll have to see about that one). Mihret is the most determined, happy, goofy little girl I’ve ever met. Because of her medical needs and developmental delays, it can be easy to look at her and “write her off.” Time and time again, however, she has proven therapists and medical experts wrong in their assessment. Through all three of our children, God has illustrated the power of His unending love and what it means to be adopted into His family.

We are in a time of transition right now. In fact, we’re in the middle of a big move. Christy starts a new job in Greenwood, Indiana, tomorrow morning and we’re relocating down there at the end of this week. So the last few weeks have been pretty hectic, trying to pack up the house while keeping life as stable and relatively normal as possible for the three kids. It’s definitely been an adventure. And along the way, I’ve discovered something and I’d like to share it with you this morning.

If you have your Bible with you – and I hope you do – please turn with me to the 11th chapter of the book of Genesis. If you don’t have your Bible with you, you’re welcome to use the one in the pew in front of you. Genesis 11 is found on page (???) in those pew Bibles. We’ll also have the Scripture up on the screen for you to follow along if that’s easier for you.

Our journey this morning begins with a man named Terah. Now, Terah was a man from the city of Ur, which was a large and wealthy city in what in what is now modern-day Iraq. Ur was a city of great influence in the region. It might have even been the largest city in the world at that time. It was dominated by a giant ziggurat – or step pyramid – that was dedicated to the moon god, Nannar, which was the center of life in the city. The ziggurat was surrounded by a market, a school, and a library. Ur was a bustling metropolis, the New York City or Los Angeles of its day. Living there meant security. Living there meant wealth. Living there meant influence. If you were going to be a successful man of the world, Ur was where you wanted to be. And Terah and his family, including his three sons, were there in the middle of it all.#

But then something changed. Here’s the account of what happened, beginning in Genesis 11:27.

Read Genesis 11:27-31a.

There’s a little bit more to this story that isn’t included here. If you can, keep your place here in Genesis 11 and turn with me to Acts 7 (it’s found on page ??? in those pew Bibles). Here, Stephen, who was speaking under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, shares a little bit more about the circumstances surrounding the move of Terah and his family from Ur.

It was because of his son’s invitation to follow God’s guidance.

Read Acts 7:2-4a (stop at ‘Chaldeans’).

When Abraham was called to go, Terah joined him on the journey of faith. And as it says here in verse 31 of Genesis 11, their goal was the land of Canaan – the Promised Land.

But something happened along the way.

Read Genesis 11:31b-32

Terah set out on the journey with Abram. We can assume that he was just as dedicated to following God’s direction, wherever He led them. After all, it took significant dedication and faithfulness to pick up and leave the center of civilization to go to a place where…well…he had no idea where. He just knew he was going somewhere “over there.”

But something happened along the way. Something kept him from going any further. While we don’t know what it was, we can conclude that it was something so life-altering that it even forced Abram, Sarai, and Lot to stay with him. Do you see that verb in verse 32 that the New International Version translates as “settled”? It’s really a much stronger word in the Hebrew. It means “to sit down.” When they got to Harran, he decided he wasn’t going to continue this journey. He was going to put down his roots in this town. He was not budging. And so Terah, who started out the journey so full of promise and hope and determination…didn’t die in the Promised Land. He died in Harran.

If we aren’t careful, we can wind up in the same place as Terah. We start this journey of following Jesus full of hope and promise and determination to shine the light of His love and mercy and peace into a world that desperately needs to know Him. But somewhere along the way, we can get careless. We can start picking up things during our journey that begin to weigh us down and eventually lead us to decide to sit down and put down roots and not budge when God is inviting us to continue to move in His direction. These extra things begin to take up room in our hearts and our minds and our souls. And if we’re not careful, they can take over our lives, giving the Holy Spirit very little room to move in us and work through us and change us.

As I mentioned earlier, my family and I are in the middle of a big move. We’ve been in the process of packing up all of our things as we prepare to relocate to Greenwood. One thing I’ve discovered while trying to fit everything into boxes: we’ve managed to accumulate a lot of junk over the years. It’s inevitable, really. But if we’re not careful, that junk can wind up overtaking our lives. So, we’ve been in a pretty serious purge mode over the last few weeks, getting rid of as many nonessential things as we can.

We need to do the same thing in our spiritual lives. Jesus has invited us on a journey with Him. He has invited us to follow Him to the place where He will show us. It’s an amazing journey of becoming more and more like Him as we draw closer and closer to Him. It’s a journey of holiness. It’s a journey to a life that is full of hope and joy and peace and abundance. But if we are going to go where He says go and do what He says do and become what He says become, then we’ve got to purge ourselves of some of the junk we can pick up along the way.

Fear
This is a very real, very powerful piece of junk that we can pick up along the way. We can become so consumed with fear – fear of the known, fear of the unknown, fear of failure, fear of loneliness, fear of pain, fear of illness and death – you name it, it’s likely that we can be afraid of it. And this fear can take over our lives, paralyzing us and keeping us from following Jesus on our journey of faith.

That’s what happened to Peter, wasn’t it? He had spent the better part of three years talking about how he’d do anything for Jesus and how he wouldn’t allow anyone to kill him. He believed he’d fight anyone to the death in order to protect his friend and Messiah. But when the rubber hit the road and he was within shouting distance of the mockery of a trial they put Jesus through, and all Peter had to do was shout his innocence and the whole proceeding would be over…Peter failed. Fear paralyzed him. Instead of being bold, Peter just cowered in the corner, paralyzed by fear and denying that he ever even knew the man. He caved in. He hid.  He huddled around a charcoal fire and trembled in fear, trying to be as anonymous as possible. When it was popular to be with Jesus, Peter was bold and confident. But when everyone left and Jesus became the most unpopular person in the nation, Peter’s fear paralyzed him. And he was frozen with his fear.

Similar things can happen to us, can’t they? We’re going along, following Jesus the best that we know how…not really expecting to get a response from anyone. And then, one day, someone asks us a question that opens the door to a spiritual conversation. We have a decision to make. Do we step out in boldness and confidence, or allow fear to take over?

A preacher friend of mine in Indianapolis tells this story about such an encounter:

I used to be completely paralyzed when it came to talking to people about Jesus in everyday conversations. One time in my early 20s, a lady giving me a haircut asked me what I did for a living. I was so afraid to tell her that I was a pastor, I lied… I made up some story about ‘helping troubled teens.’ Of course, when she asked questions I fabricated more detail. Like Peter, I had just denied the Lord…and I was a pastor and a hypocrite. I never felt more shame and guilt than I did that day.

He continues:
What a powerful stronghold the enemy had built up in my life! It was the fear of what others would think of me. Consequently, my subconscious definition of success was ‘What do I have to do to get you guys to like me?’ I couldn’t imagine myself ever talking to someone in the ‘real’ world about Jesus, because if I did, ‘What if you don’t like me? What if you think I’m weird? What if you laugh at me?’ I feared withdrawal and rejection.#

I gotta tell ya, I remember this story every time I sit down to get my hair cut. Inevitably, the conversation eventually gets around to “What do you do for a living?” And I have a decision to make: Do I try to somehow avoid the question because I’m sitting in a chair and can’t run away if the discussion gets too heated? After all, there’s going to be scissors involved. Or do I merely tell the truth and go from there? Thanks to my friend’s story, I’ve found myself less likely to be paralyzed by the fear that tries to creep up inside of me and am ready to share the story of my faith in those situations.

In his letter to his protégé, Paul encouraged Timothy with these words in 2 Timothy 2:7 – and they’re an encouragement to us, too:
“For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.” (NLT)

Stop carrying that junk around. Stop allowing fear to paralyze you and continue the journey in boldness and confidence.

Worry
Much like fear, worry can keep us from moving, too. And living with worry is much like using this fishing pole. We take our requests and our concerns and bring them to the Father’s presence. But then, we just reel them back in. When we do that, we’re telling God that He can take care of it for a while, but we’re really the ones who should be in control. It’s really a trust issue, isn’t it?

But Jesus tells us “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens: They do not so or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than the birds! Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?” (Luke 12:22-26, NIV)

When we began our adoption journey, I began to hear all kinds of stories about how God provides in those situations. I half-heartedly wrote them off by saying to myself, “Yeah, yeah. I know God provides. And that’s what you’re supposedto say in this situation.” It’s kind of like the expected, Sunday School response. You know – like “Elijah” or “Moses” are usually the go-to answers for any Old Testament question. And “Jesus” and “Paul” are the go-to answers for New Testament questions. When people would talk about how they were going to cover the expense of international adoption, the pat, go-to answer seems to be “God will provide.” Which is great. But I don’t know if I believed it. In fact, I know I didn’t. I was pretty worried about how all of these financial issues were going to work out.

Until we received unexpected news two summers ago. We received an email from our adoption agency informing us that we had been approved by the Ethiopian courts to adopt Mihret. This was a surprise to us, because we didn’t know we actually had a court date. And this meant we would be bring our daughter home with us much sooner than we’d initially thought. At the same time, the fees and travel expenses we knew were eventually coming were needed much, much sooner than we’d planned.

And we didn’t have the money.

At all.

When we came to this realization, we were crushed. How were we ever going to be able to make this work? I must confess, I began to panic just a bit. I didn’t have any answers.

A few days later, we received a letter from an organization called ShowHope, which helps provide financial assistance for adopting families. The letter informed us that we had received an adoption grant from them. And it covered the rest of the fees and the plane tickets. The date on that letter? The same date we found out we had passed court in Ethiopia!
I am convinced that God moved a mountain that day. And He began doing it before we even knew it was in our way.
Whenever I get worried about finances or how we’re going to be able to get through whatever mini crisis that arises, I remember this story. I remember how God has brought us to this point and He isn’t going to abandon us.
You want to follow Jesus wherever He leads? Cast all of your cares on Him. Stop reeling it back in. Stop worrying.

Bitterness
Paul commands us in Ephesians 4:31 to “Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.”
If we’re not careful, things can start to snowball, ultimately spiraling your life out of control. If you harbor bitterness, it hardens your heart. And bitterness leads to rage and anger. Rage and anger leads to fighting and slander along with every form of malice. These are all signs of hate. We need to get rid of these things in our lives because we’re supposed to be a people who are ruled by love. And it all starts with getting rid of bitterness.
When we encounter loss and pain and difficulties, it can lead to feelings of bitterness. It’s part of the human experience. But we cannot allow that bitterness to take root. We cannot allow our bitterness to harden our hearts. Because bitterness can lead to many undesirable results. A bitter heart is selfish, only thinking of yourself. A bitter heart is antisocial and is inconsiderate of others. A bitter heart complains incessantly and also motivates gossip. And although it leads you to become withdrawn from society, a hardened heart full of bitterness fragments other people’s lives. It’s like an explosion that shares its misery with those around you. It even grieves the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit’s presence in our lives is a sign of our redemption. And if we allow selfish bitterness to rule our lives and harden our hearts, how are we allowing the Holy Spirit to rule and work in our lives? How are we shining the light of God’s love if we’re walking around, acting like we’ve lost our last friend and were baptized in vinegar?
We’ve got to rid ourselves of all bitterness, or it’s going to encourage us to stay rooted in Harran when God wants us to go to Canaan.

Past
There are issues in all of our pasts that we are not proud of. All of us have made sinful choices and destructive decisions that have had their consequences. The Bible reminds us that all of us have sinned and fall short of God’s glory. But yet while we were still sinners – while we were in the Enemy’s camp – Jesus Christ died for you and for me. I don’t care where you’ve been or what you’ve done – Jesus Christ came to free you from being trapped in your past.
On the cross, He took our sins upon Himself. On the cross, He took on our punishment. On the cross, He put our sins to death. On the cross, He broke the chains that kept us bound to the past and set us free to follow Him wherever He may lead.

That’s what Jesus Christ did for you. That’s what Jesus Christ did for me. He gave up everything so that we could come back to Him.

Have you done that? Have you chosen to follow Him and give Him everything that you have and everything that you are? Have you chosen to allow Him to break the chains that have trapped you – the pictures that haunt you from your past of destructive decisions? The only way to be free from your past is to choose to follow Him. Keep your eyes focused on Him and don’t turn back. You cannot find freedom on your own. Freedom from your past can only be found through the power of God, as displayed when the perfect Lamb was slain on the hill of Calvary.

Are you trapped? Are you still caught in your past of sin and destruction. You cannot get out on your own. The Son, however, can set you free. And when the Son sets you free, you are free indeed – free to love, free to dance, free to share, free to give, free to live life the way God intended for it to be lived from the very beginning of time.

Are you looking for that freedom? Join Jesus on His journey. Follow Him. Stop lugging around this junk that’s in your life and start living a life full of hope and promise and abundance – the kind of life we were made to have.

The story of Terah doesn’t end with his death. His son responded. In verse 4 of Genesis 12, it says this: “So Abram went, as the Lord had told him.”

God is inviting you to do the same. Follow Him. Go wherever He leads. Do whatever He has invited you to do. Become who He wants you to become. And when the story of faith continues to be told and retold throughout the generations, your story will be the same as Abram’s:

You went, just as the Lord had told you.

Is that your life? Are you doing what you made to do? We were made to worship.

You can listen to the audio of Sunday’s message by clicking here. Click “Read More” for the manuscript.

Looking Upward
Revelation 19:9 & 10
August 21, 2011
Matt Todd

Neil Marten, a member of the British Parliament, was once giving a group of his constituents a guided tour of the Houses of Parliament. During the course of the visit, the group happened to meet Lord Hailsham, then lord chancellor, wearing all the regalia of his office. Hailsham recognized Marten among the group and cried, “Neil!” Not daring to question or disobey the “command,” the entire band of visitors promptly fell to their knees![1]

Like these visitors, I think there are times where we’ve misunderstood the command of Jesus to worship God with everything about us. It’s not uncommon, really. In fact, people have been misunderstanding how to truly worship God for generations. And God addresses that very issue for the early church in a book that might be a bit of a surprise for you. So…if you have your Bible with you – and I hope you do – please turn with me to Revelation chapter 19. If you don’t have your Bible with you, you’re welcome to use the one found in the pew in front of you. Revelation, being the last book of the New Testament, is found in the back of the Bible. More specifically, Revelation 19 is found on page 1084 in those red pew Bibles. Before we go any further, I’d like to you that it’s the book of Revelation, not Revelations. This is one continuous message from Jesus Christ himself. John is just sharing with us what Jesus revealed to him.

Now, Revelation is seen by many as a scary book. And I agree. It can be quite scary. There’s some pretty violent imagery used in the revelation from Jesus Christ Himself. I think many preachers shy away from it because of the imagery it contains. There has also been a lot of controversy surrounding the book because there are these different camps that have been set up about how to interpret the symbolism in the book. You’ve got those who read a pre-millennial view of the end-times into the book. And you’ve also got those who read a post-millennial view of the end-times. These viewpoints, and all others in between are trying to take what’s been revealed in Scripture and decide what, exactly, is going to happen when Jesus Christ returns and evil is destroyed and God makes all things new. Of course, everyone seems to be convinced that their interpretation of Revelation is the right interpretation of Revelation. And it can lead to division and argument and one side proclaiming the other side as being heretics. And when we allow that to happen, we lose the entire point of the book of Revelation.

Yes, the book does contain imagery of what is going to happen in a particular event in the future where Jesus Christ returns and makes things right. Revelation makes it very clear that Jesus will return. And it will be a literal even that takes place as a real historical event sometime in the future. And we should continue to look up, anticipating…no…. longing for His return. But Revelation doesn’t just talk about things in the future. Revelation is a book about how we should live today.

God uses prophecy in an amazing way. There are many times in the Old Testament where a prophet shared a message to the people about something that was happening around them. Their prophecies had an immediate meaning. But God also used that message to point His people to an event many years in the future. A great example of this found in the book of Isaiah. Every Christmas, we hear the prophecy in Isaiah 7:14 which says, “Behold, a virgin shall bear a son, and she will call his name Immanuel.” The meaning of the prophecy had an immediate message. Israel was facing annihilation by outside forces. Isaiah was saying that they would not be victorious. By the time a young woman became pregnant and had her child, the enemies would be eliminated. The immediate meaning of the prophecy was fulfilled with the ascension of King Hezekiah. But we also know that Isaiah wasn’t just talking about a human king in the near future. He was also predicting the coming of the King of Kings, some 700 years later. So you see what I mean, right? God uses prophecy to address an immediate concern as well as to display how He is going to work in the distant future.

I tell you this because it’s what’s happening in the book of Revelation. Yes, it announces what it’s going to be like when Jesus returns – and it uses some pretty vivid imagery in order to describe what it will be like. But it also has a powerful message about what we should be doing right here, right now, while we live and wait in this meantime between the First and Second Comings. The book of Revelation is a great instruction manual about how we should live when things are going amazingly well. It’s also a great instruction manual about how we should live when things are impossibly tough and the lowest they’ve ever been before. Because the book of Revelation is a book about worship. In fact, some biblical scholars believed that the ancient church used this letter as an outline for particular worship services, reading it aloud as they worshiped the Lord together. And if you scan through the book, looking for all of the times it describes someone responding in worship, you’ll find that it’s a pretty significant portion of the book.

From very early on, the church has associated the book of Revelation with the Apostle John.[2] I don’t see any reason to say otherwise. And if that’s true that the Apostle John was the one who saw this revelation from Jesus, his reaction is pretty remarkable. Remember – he has seen Jesus face to face. He spent three years with him. He was a close friend of his. He was known as the one whom Jesus loved. When he sees Jesus again, you might think he would be inclined to run up and give his old friend a hug. Or maybe a high-five. Or a fistbump, which has become popular today. His reaction, however, is completely different. In 1:17, he tells us that “When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as though dead.” If that’s how John reacted to the presence of Jesus, I’m thinking that’s a pretty good example of how we should respond to His presence, too. From the very beginning of this book, we are reminded to keep Christ in His proper place. He is the One on the throne. He is the One who is worthy of all of our worship and praise. Yes, He has called us His friends. Yes, we have become His brothers and sisters because we have been adopted by the Father. But Jesus Christ is still the King of Kings. He is still the Lord of Lords. He is still worthy of all honor and praise and glory. He alone should be worshiped. We cannot approach Him as anything else but the only One who is worthy of our adoration. Anything less is attempting to place Him in a place that’s lower than He is. As Christian author and pastor, A.W. Tozer says, “The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him.”[3]

Jesus tells us in the Gospel of Mark that the greatest commandment is to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30). Because Jesus Christ is Lord, worshiping Him has to have priority in our lives. “Our lives must be punctuated with praise, thanksgiving, and adoration,” keeping our eyes focused upward toward the throne as we continue to live our lives.[4]

And so as the vision unfolds before John, he describes what he sees. He tells us the awful destruction that the fallen will face. He describes how the old creation will be destroyed in a time of purification. It’s a violent book. But after each event, John describes what happens in the heavenly throne room…

Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor, and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say: “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being” (4:9-11)

Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea and all that is in them, saying: “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!” 5:13

And the twenty-four elders, who were seated on the their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying: “We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, the One who is and who was, because you have taken your great power and have begun to reign…” 11:16-17

And I heard a sound from heaven like the roar of rushing waters and like a loud peal of thunder. The sound I heard was like that of harpists playing their harps. And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders. 14:2

Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters, and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: “Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given to her to wear.” 19:6-8

That’s just a small sampling of the way all of creation reacts to the movement of God in the book of Revelation. There’s shouting and singing and praising and proclaiming because of what Jesus has done.

Can the same be said about our lives? During the highest of highs and the lowest of lows, God continues to seek us and draw us towards Him.[5] How have we responded to His invitation? Are we living lives of worship, proclaiming what Jesus has done?

In the artwork of the early church, there is a symbol that shows up over and over again. It’s the image of a man or a woman with arms lifted toward heaven. This was a common practice in the early church – this lifting of hands. It was a sign of surrender; of giving everything about your self over to God.

We have a decision to make each and every moment of each and every day. Are we going to live our lives with our hands clinched together, trying desperately to hold on to that which we know is not ours? Or are we going to live lives of worship: freely giving to God that which is already His?

Which symbol does our life proclaim to others? Self-preservation with clinched hands? Or God adoration with outstretched arms?

Worship is something that we do. It’s something we live. We need to keep looking upward, watching for the way God works. It could be in something small, like in the display of His creativity in the different songs sung by the birds or the beauty of a painted sky or a starlit night. It could be in the quiet calm of a sleeping newborn baby as you marvel at the way He has lovingly knit together each of our bodies. Or it could be something grand, like when you realize the amount of love that He has poured on you as displayed by His willing sacrifice for you and for me when He became our sin and nailed it to the cross. And even in the painful situations we encounter, our lives need to continue to proclaim that Jesus is Lord. He is holy. And all of His works and deeds are good – even when we don’t understand them or enjoy what we’re going through. When we see the destruction caused by war and the heartache brought about by broken families and dying children….even in those situations, our response should be the same as the responses described in Revelation when destruction was sent upon the earth: Worthy is the Lord. I may not understand it. I may not feel good about it. But God is worthy to be praised. And I will continue to worship Him in both the sunshine and the thunderstorms of life.

Sometimes, however, we can get it wrong. We can focus on the wrong things. And that’s where the message of Revelation comes through most vividly. Here’s what John says happened to him as he experienced all of this…

Read Revelation 19:9 & 10

A few chapters later, at the end of the book, John tells us he did it again!

Read Revelation 22:7-9

If John, who saw Jesus face to face and was known as the one whom Jesus loved, can lose focus – I think it’s safe to reason that we can lose focus, too. We can get caught up in all of the side things about God or the side things about worship or the side things about church and even learn a bunch of knowledge about the Bible and facts about God…but that’s not why we’re here. That’s not what we were made to be. It isn’t what we were made to do. You want to live life to the fullest? You want to do all that God has created you to do? It starts by worshiping the Lord. Not just here. Not just on Sunday. But every day. Worship God with your mouth. Worship God with your heart. Worship God with your thoughts. Worship God with your hands and feet. Don’t look around you for satisfaction and fulfillment. Look upward. And worship Him.

Augustine of Hippo, one of the early church leaders, once said, “A Christian should be an alleluia from head to foot!”

And I think he’s right. Even when no one sees us, let us proclaim God’s worthiness with every breath that we have! And let us celebrate Christ’s victory with every fiber of our being!

You can click here to listen to Sunday’s message. If you’d rather read it, the manuscript is behind the jump.

Jonah & Me
The Book of Jonah
July 31
Matt Todd

As we get started in the message this morning, I want to invite you to go ahead and start turning to the first chapter of the book of Jonah. So, if you have your Bible with you – and I hope you do – go ahead and start looking for the book of Jonah. This book can be kind of tough to find. The best trick is to turn to Matthew at the beginning of the New Testament and then go back into the Old Testament about 7 books. That’s right around where the book of Jonah is. Of course, if you don’t have your Bible with you, you’re welcome to use the one in the pew in front of you. Jonah chapter 1 is found on page 800.

Now, while you’re turning, we’re going to have a little bit of congregational participation here. While you’re turning to Jonah chapter 1, I’d like for you to repeat after me:

“God is God.” (Repeat) “I am not.” (Repeat)

“God is God.” (Repeat) “I am not.” (Repeat)

This is the key message of the story of Jonah. And unfortunately, the key character – a prophet of God – did not understand that point.  In fact, through his entire journey away from God and even in his reluctant deliverance of God’s message, we see over and over again that Jonah completely misses the point. And there is no evidence in the text that by the end of the story that Jonah ever got it. We hope he did. But we don’t know that. In fact, we’re left hanging when we come to the end of the book. But now I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s begin at the beginning of the story, shall we? And we have a lot to learn from Jonah’s experience.

Read Jonah 1:1

I think we need to stop right here for a moment because there’s something missing here. I looked through seven different translations of this verse and every single one of them got the same thing wrong in this verse. It’s the first word. Some translations say “now.” Others, like the New International Version or the New American Standard ignore the word altogether. When we do that, we miss out on the beauty of just one word. In the Hebrew, the book of Jonah begins with the word, “And.” When I was in school, I would have gotten a letter knocked off my grade if I started a sentence with the word “And.” And if I’d tried to start a story with that word? Forget about it!

But here’s why the first word in Jonah’s story is important: it’s a reminder that God’s story does not begin with us. And it doesn’t end with us. “Though the Bible is comprised of sixty-six different books, it tells only one story; and God keeps communicating that message to us, even though we don’t always listen too attentively.”[1] In other words: God is God. I am not. His story continues to unfold in us, through us, and around us. It’s ultimately His story, though. Like Jonah, there have been times in my life that I have forgotten that. Maybe you have, too. That’s why I’m thankful that this story of a prophet’s adventure in missing the point has been preserved for more than 2,700 years, even though it kicks me in the teeth on occasion because I have tended to get things confused, too. Just like Jonah, I need to remember that God is God. I am not. This is His story. Not mine.

Anyway, back to the story: We know that Jonah was a prophet of the Lord, residing in the nation of Israel. He must have been a popular man around town because earlier in his ministry, he prophesied that the nation of Israel would regain territory it had lost to it enemies in previous years. And 2 Kings 14:25 tells us that this prediction did, in fact, come true. During the time of Jonah’s ministry, the nation of Israel had expanded to its largest size since the days of Kings David and Solomon. Nationalism and patriotism were at the highest they’d been in generations. Things were going along quite smoothly. Or so people thought. Then Jonah’s world was turned upside down when he received a message from the Lord.

Read Jonah 1:1-2

The Assyrians, and the people of Nineveh in particular, were notorious throughout the region for showing no mercy to their enemies. They were known for doing some awful things to their victims, killing people in conquered cities by the thousands and then stacking their bones in piles outside the city gates. If you really want to know more about how awful the people of Nineveh were, sit down and read the book of Nahum. He goes into vivid detail about how the people of Nineveh treated their enemies. It wasn’t pretty. And Jonah knew this. He knew that these were awful, nasty people and they had become the sworn enemies of Israel. And as the prophet himself explains later in the book of Jonah, he knew that if he went and preached this message of repentance to the Ninevites, they would repent. And God would forgive them. And Jonah wanted nothing to do with that. He wanted them to be destroyed. He wanted them to be wiped off the face of the earth. He wanted justice and condemnation to be poured out on his enemies. Jonah decided that he knew better than God did.

Read Jonah 1:3

Jonah did the only thing he could do: he ran. And he tried to run as far away as he could. As you can see from this map, Nineveh is to the north and east of Joppa, where Jonah was. It’s about 550 miles away. But Jonah goes the completely opposite direction from Nineveh. Scholars generally agree that Tarshish was in modern-day Spain, and it was as far as Jonah could go. This was considered the ends of the earth. He had taken things into his own hands and decided that he should go the complete opposite direction from where God was leading him.

But then Jonah was reminded of something: God is God. I am not.

You know how the story goes, right? It’s one of the most popular stories in the Old Testament. Jonah boards a boat, probably manned by Phoenicians, experts at seafaring, and who also happen to know nothing about the Lord. A great storm comes and threatens this boat. It’s such a terrible storm that it causes these seasoned sailors to panic. They started throwing cargo overboard and throwing out whatever prayers they could to whatever deity they could think of. They finally went and woke up Jonah and told him to pray to his God.

It was ultimately revealed that Jonah was the reason they were in such a mess. And they agreed with the prophet that they should throw him overboard. Before they did, however, they prayed, “Please, Lord, don’t let us die for taking this man’s life. Don’t hold us accountable for killing an innocent man!” It’s a sad thing, isn’t it, when people who have nothing to do with the Lord show more compassion for someone than a man of God does, isn’t it?

So they throw Jonah overboard. And as soon as he hits the water, the sea goes calm. And God sends a great fish to swallow Jonah. Many people assume this was a whale of some type. But there’s no hint in the text here to tell us what type of fish it was that God sent to swallow Jonah. All we know is that God is God and He can use whatever means He chooses to get our attention. Even if it means living in the belly of a fish for three days.

At this point, we need to step back and look at the big picture here. We have the sea, the wind, the thunder, the great fish, and even the heathen sailors who didn’t know the Lord – all of them obeyed God. All of them did what the Lord had commanded and were used by Him. On the other hand, here’s the man of God – the one who had given the Lord a voice to the people – and he’s doing everything he can to get out of doing God’s work. Because Jonah had decided that what he wanted was more important than what God wanted.

The story continues. Jonah cries out to the Lord and after three days, the great fish spits Jonah out onto dry land. And Jonah starts walking towards Nineveh. After about a month-long journey, he arrives at the city of sin, probably still smelling like fish and whatever part of his skin that wasn’t bleached by the fish’s digestive juices was probably scorched under the blazing sun during his 550 mile trek. He arrives at his destination and preaches a sermon that is only five words in Hebrew: “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” When the people of Nineveh heard this, they were cut to the heart and they believed in the Lord. Everyone, from the king of Nineveh to the lowest servant – and even the animals – fasted and wore sackcloth as a sign of city-wide repentance and seeking God’s forgiveness. And God spared them of their destruction.

I heard this story countless times as a child. And I have to admit, it wasn’t until I was in college that I discovered that the story of Jonah doesn’t end here with Nineveh’s repentance in chapter 3. I think that’s how we wish it had ended, though. It’s how the story usually ends in children’s Bibles (like this one). It would be so much easier to end the story here. It would definitely preach, wouldn’t it? Jonah begins by running from God. Then he runs towards God. And then he ultimately runs with God. And we could remind ourselves that you can run away from God, but you can’t outrun God. There – a nice three-point sermon wrapped up with a neat little bow. That’s good stuff, isn’t it?

But there’s one more chapter. And in it, we discover that Jonah still doesn’t get it. We also discover that Jonah has a pretty dark side. He thinks following God is really about providing his own comforts and his own desires. Because he wasn’t getting what he wanted, Jonah became very angry and threw himself a little temper tantrum.

Read Jonah 4

Earlier, the sea, the wind, the thunder, the great fish, and even the heathen sailors all obeyed God. And now you add into the mix that the Ninevites and their animals, the leafy plant, the worm, and the hot wind all listened to and obeyed the Lord’s commands. But Jonah still didn’t. He was convinced that he was the one in the right. God was in the wrong. It was still all about him.

I wonder how many times we have turned following Jesus into something that’s just supposed to be comfortable.  We pray things like “God, I hope you raise someone up to do something about the famine in the Horn of Africa.” But hesitate in lifting a finger to do anything to help. We acknowledge that the only way to get people like al Qaida and these other extremists who want to kill us is through a saving relationship with Jesus Christ, but we secretly think that the missionaries who have gone to places like Afghanistan, Pakistan, and other Muslim-dominated countries are…well…they’re just idealists and maybe a little bit crazy. Deep down, how many times do we think, “I’m glad they’re over there instead of me or my children or my grandchildren because I don’t want to have to make that kind of sacrifice”?

God is God. I am not. What He desires for us is better than we can possibly imagine – even when it seems painful.

Think about the times we choose to disobey Jesus because of convenience. How many times have you chosen to talk about someone who has wronged you instead of to that person? We want to avoid the pain. We want to avoid the sadness. We might even want to avoid hurting the other person’s feelings. But what does Jesus say to do in Matthew 18? He says deal with that person directly. How many times do we actually do this? How many times do we avoid this because we just don’t want to do it? When we do that, we’re committing the same sin that Jonah did – we’re announcing to the world that we know better than God does.

That last question that God asks Jonah kind of dangles in the air and it cuts right at our hearts. Jonah cared more about that plant that had died than he did about the Ninevites who were condemned because of their wickedness. When we’re more concerned about material things and personal comfort than we are about our neighbors who are walking in darkness and facing condemnation…something is out of alignment. When we don’t allow our hearts to break for the things that break God’s heart, we are announcing that we know better than God does. We’re no better than Jonah was.

People may think we’re crazy sometimes. Our friends might not understand. I’m sure other Hebrews were upset with Jonah over this message that they preached to his enemies. But there’s something more important than merely earning the approval of our neighbors. Jesus needs to shine through our lives. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to look back on my life and wonder what would’ve happened if I’d really followed Jesus and didn’t keep him at arm’s distance when things got uncomfortable or undesirable.[2] I don’t want to be known as a Jonah, only living out my faith when it’s convenient and it makes me happy.

The truth of the matter is – no matter how much we want to think this isn’t the case…following the Lord really isn’t about me. It’s not about you. It isn’t even about this church building or the programs and services we provide. It’s all about Him. It’s all about His beauty. It’s all about His majesty. It’s all about His wondrous grace that He has willingly showered upon us. It’s all about His lovingkindness and His strength and His power and His glory and His fame and His generosity and His ability to change a wretch like me and adopt me as His child.

Because God is God. You and I are not.

It’s my prayer for us this morning that with our attitudes, with our actions, with our thoughts and with everything that we are or hope to be….that we will show the world that we believe this truth by putting it into action:

God is God.

I am not.

You can read the manuscript behind the jump. Or, you can click here to listen to the message.

Lessons From A Roller Coaster
Matthew 4:18-20 & John 21:15-19
July 17, 2011
Matt Todd

Well, we’re back. Our family has successfully completed our first vacation as a family of five and I think things went pretty well. Thank you, Bob, for sharing the message last week. I’m sure those who heard it were touched and challenged. A very interesting thing happened last Sunday morning while we were worshiping with our friends at a church in Charlotte: part of the message that God had laid on the preacher’s heart was from 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 – those of you who were here last week might think that sounds a bit familiar. That’s because it’s the same passage of Scripture that Bob shared from last week. I’m thinking God really had something important to say to us from those verses. Or maybe He just had an important message for me – like He was going to extremes to get something through my thick skull. That really doesn’t surprise me. Sometimes it takes quite a bit to get through my thick skull. Maybe you can relate? Or maybe it’s just me.

But that’s not the only experience that sticks out from our stay in Charlotte. Aside from the crazy streets we encountered while we were in the city itself, we had a fabulous time. It was great spending time catching up with old friends while we were there. And the highlight of our time with our friends was probably this past Monday when we spend the day at Carowinds amusement park. And while we were there, we discovered a pretty neat little secret to having the whole park to yourself: 1) Go on a weekday because everyone goes on the weekend. 2) Go when the heat index is hovering around 100 degrees because…well…you’ve got to be insane to want to stand in that kind of heat all day. Just make sure you don’t get heat stroke or anything like that.

If you follow these two simple steps, you’ll encounter empty lines for the rides all day long. Fortunately, there’s free ice water and plenty of shade so it wasn’t quite as unbearable as it sounds.

I was amazed at another discovery that my family made while we were there: my two older children love riding roller coasters! Now, I’m not talking about the little kiddie-coasters that are gentle on the stomach and don’t go too fast. These were the big-huge, gigantic roller coasters with scary names like the Cyclone, the Hurler, and the Intimidator. Just watching some of the drops on some of those rides can make you feel a little bit light-headed.

But the kids were excited to try them. Maybe they didn’t know any better. Or maybe they were more fearless because their friend, Caleb, was there with them. I don’t know. But after riding some of the more tame coasters for adults, Alyson decided it was time to ride on of the big, hardcore rides: The Carolina Cobra. And so she, Caleb, and Caleb’s dad got in line. And because the lines were so short, there was very little time for her to talk herself out of getting on the ride.

The Cobra is a pretty intimidating ride when you look at it. You load onto the cart, they strap you in, and then they pull you back…and up the rail, so you find yourself suspended in the air, waiting for the lock to release you into this whirlwind of…well….it might be easier if you just watch this video to see what it’s like…

Of course, our hearts skipped a beat or two as we waited for what seemed like an eternity as we watched our daughter dangle there in the middle of the sky, waiting for certain doom to come upon her.  Our minds raced through all kinds of scenarios about what could possibly happen to her while she was on this monster of a ride. Of course, none of this happened. But we were full of all of these “What if…” questions.

And you know, the more I think of it, the more I realize that this roller coaster ride (and others like it) can be a pretty good example of what life is like as a follower of Jesus Christ. It’s full of twists and turns and the highest mountaintop experiences and the deepest most difficult valleys and questions and even some uncertainty but in the end, it’s the most exhilarating thing you’ve ever experienced and you want to get right back on, doing it again and again and again.

I can’t help but think of the Apostle Peter when contemplating the ups and downs of life as a follower of Jesus. If you have your Bible with you – and I hope you do – please turn to the Gospel of Matthew, which is the first book in the New Testament. We’re going to begin by reading from Matthew 4:18-20. If you don’t have your Bible with you, you’re welcome to use the one in the pew in front of you. Matthew 4 is found on page 837 in the red pew Bibles.

After Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, he went into the wilderness and was tempted by Satan for 40 days. After his time of fasting was completed, Jesus emerged from the wilderness preaching a fiery message about the kingdom of God and urging those who heard him to repent and turn towards God. While walking along the countryside, Jesus came upon a small outfit of fishermen. And that’s where we’re picking up the story in the Scriptures.

Read Matthew 4:18-20

And so it began. Now, keep your Bibles open because we’re going to be moving on to another part of Peter’s story in a few minutes, but right here we see here that as Jesus began his ministry, he was regularly bumping into fishermen, tax collectors, political activists, and other people, inviting them to follow him. “Astonishingly, these men” beginning with Peter and his brother, “abandoned their careers, their families, and their futures to follow Jesus.”[1] They heard a simple invitation: Follow Me. And they responded with reckless abandon. Sure there was uncertainty. Sure there was the risk of failure. Sure it could end in disaster, like a roller coaster train flying off the tracks. Why would Peter give up all he knew to follow Jesus into what he didn’t know? Because, somehow he knew that life with Jesus is what he had been searching for all his life. Something about Jesus drew Peter in and he “knew that life’s greatest adventure was waiting just beyond the limits” of a calm, easy, careful, predictable life.[2] He knew there was something waiting for him that was just beyond his reach. And that same longing for something more, something greater, something real, something…adventurous that is just beyond our own reach, is embedded in our own hearts, too.  The Teacher, who wrote the book of Ecclesiastes, reminds us in Ecclesiastes 3:11 that “(God) has set eternity in (every) human heart.”[3] Jesus has invited us to a deeper, richer, more adventurous life than we could ever dream or imagine – even if it means we never leave the streets of Cowan.

Are you willing to abandon everything? Am I? What about our jobs? Or your retirement? What about security? Or even our homes? That sounds quite scary, doesn’t it? But there is a possibility that accepting the invitation to follow Jesus means accepting the invitation to give up all that we hold dear. But, as those who love roller coasters know, the most thrilling part of the ride is once you let go.

And that’s what Peter did. He dropped his nets and followed Jesus. And it was quite a wild ride, although he certainly didn’t enjoy all of it while it was happening. Jesus said things that were hard to understand. He said things like “Love your enemies,” “Pray for those who persecute you,” “When someone takes your shirt, give him your coat, too,” “Let the little children come to me because the kingdom of heaven belongs to people like them,” and “It’s easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” Conventional wisdom says that this isn’t how you gain a following. And it’s certainly not how you make friends with the rich and powerful. But Jesus kept surprising him with twists and turns and unforeseen rises and dips. But part of the adventure of following Jesus is the fact that it’s unpredictable: He cannot be confined into our limited understanding of who God is and what He should be doing.

But following Jesus was also full of amazing surprises and exhilarating experiences along the way, too. Peter was an eye witness to the most amazing miracles anyone had ever seen. Jesus made the blind to see, those who could not walk were able to walk, the broken were made whole, the sick were healed, thousands of people were fed with just a few scraps of food, and the dead were made alive again. Nearly every step along the way, Peter was smacked in the face with a new revelation from Jesus about himself. Peter surely felt like he was on something like a roller coaster ride as he attempted to follow Jesus. With each new twist, with each new and unexpected turn that revealed something new about Jesus, it was an invitation to follow Jesus more closely, to know him and be known by him more deeply; to become so wrapped up in Him that when the crowds or the Pharisees or any other people they encountered saw Peter, they saw a reflection of the Master Himself.

But it wasn’t always easy. There were some pretty serious uphill climbs in the journey of following Jesus. And Peter failed many times. There was the time in Matthew 16 where Jesus predicted his own death, burial, and resurrection. Peter pulled the Master aside and told him that this could never happen to him; probably because he thought that was what Jesus wanted to hear. After all, it’s a pretty good sign of devotion to say that you’ll fight for someone, isn’t it? But Jesus rebuked him, even calling him a stumbling block from Satan. Over and over again, Peter just didn’t get Jesus and his mission. He didn’t understand what the journey was all about. All of this talk about death and dying and things like eating Jesus’ body and drinking his blood…it was just too much for many people. And they stopped following Jesus. It was almost too much for Peter – especially in what could have been his greatest opportunity to give up his life for Jesus. Instead, he cowered in the corner and denied that he ever knew the man when he could have ended the entire façade of a trial by merely standing up in his defense. But he didn’t. He caved in. He hid. He huddled around a charcoal fire and trembled in fear, trying to become as anonymous as possible. When it was popular to be with Jesus, Peter was bold and confident. But when everyone had left, he showed his true colors. He was a coward. And in the world’s darkest hour, he gave up on Jesus. The cost had been too great. The journey had been too exhausting. He desperately wanted to be the hero. He even tried to fight the Roman soldiers when they came to arrest Jesus. But he wound up a colossal failure.

This could have been the most depressing story ever told in the history of human storytelling if that was the end of the story, right? Everyone abandoned Jesus, even his most vocal and loyal followers. And Jesus died on a cross outside of Jerusalem, mocked and scorned and ridiculed by all who passed by. He was even rejected by the Father Himself. The ride, it seemed had come to a crashing halt.

Ever felt like that? Ever wondered if the cost of following Jesus is too great? It’s easy to sit in this Sanctuary, surrounded by other believers and sing songs about how we love Jesus and how we’ll follow Him to the ends of the earth. It’s quite another thing when you’re having a one-on-one conversation with a neighbor or a family member who is hostile to the good news of Jesus Christ. Do you show that same kind of boldness on Tuesday that you do on Sunday? Or are you like Peter and cower in the corner when things get too tough?

Ever think the valleys you’ve encountered when following Jesus have been too long and too dark? Ever think the climb was too steep to really put forth the effort? Ever want to just throw up your hands and say “I can’t take it anymore! Enough already!”? If you search down deep enough, I’d take a guess that somewhere along your journey, you’ve been tempted to think something like that. Somewhere along your journey of following Jesus, you’ve failed. You’ve screwed up. Big-time. And it felt like the ride came to a crashing halt.

Peter’s story doesn’t end there. And neither does yours. If you still have your Bibles open, please turn with me to the end of the Gospel of John. John 21 is found on page 946 in the pew Bibles. Jesus has appeared to the Disciples on two previous occasions, but Peter has not had the opportunity to speak with him. In his heart, he is still a failure of colossal proportions. There’s no way he could ever forgive himself for giving up on Jesus.

That’s when Jesus invited him to a breakfast on the beach: a breakfast consisting of bread and fished cooked on a charcoal fire – the same kind of fire that Peter stood around and denied any connection with Jesus. And…in a way that only Jesus could do it…he does something unexpected and amazing here.

Read John 21:15-19

After all that Peter had done…after all that he had said (and didn’t say)…Jesus gave Peter the same invitation that he gave the first time they’d met on the docks some three years prior: “Follow Me.” And he did exactly that. He followed Jesus to the ends of the earth.

The roller coaster ride of a journey did not stop with Peter’s failure. It didn’t stop with the dark valley. And it didn’t stop when the journey became too tough. When you read the opening chapters of the book of Acts, you see that the ride had only just begun. Peter’s life following Jesus led him on a great adventure that there’s no way he could have imagined when he stood there at the beach with his Risen Savior.

Where are you in your journey of faith? Are you in a dark valley? Or do you feel like a colossal failure because you didn’t stand up for Jesus the way you should have? Are you considering whether this whole following Jesus thing is really worth the blood, sweat, and tears? Is it really worth the cost?

Jesus has an invitation for you: “Follow Me.” Keep pursuing Him even in the midst of the darkness. Draw closer and closer to Him as He guides you on an amazing journey of faith. You’ll find it to be the most exhilarating thing you’ve ever done.

Oh – and one more thing about our experience at the amusement park – after Alyson got off the Carolina Cobra, she ran to her brother and to me and couldn’t stop talking about how amazing the ride was. She did everything she could to convince us to join her on the ride because, by golly, she was going on it again. Once you’re on the journey with Jesus, you can’t stop talking about it. You want others to be part of this amazing journey, too. It’s not something that you force – it’s a conversation that just…happens, because it has totally consumed you. In fact, if you ask Aiden about the Carolina Cobra today, almost a week later, I’ll bet he’ll talk your ear off about it. It was that inspiring. It was that life changing.

And that’s nothing compared with the journey with Jesus. Are you on that journey, or have you put yourself in park and decided to wait on the sidelines? Being on the journey doesn’t necessarily mean God is going to lead you halfway around the world to share the good news of Jesus or to build wells or to care for orphans – although He might. He might be inviting you to follow him across the street or around the block or even into the next room to share His love with someone who desperately needs to know Jesus.

The adventure has just begun. And the invitation to Peter is the same one He has for you: “Follow Me.”

It’s a choice we have to make every minute of every day. But it’s a decision that will change your life forever.

Thank you for your patience!

It is important for us to look back on our lives and see where God has brought us, remembering the times in our lives where it was abundantly clear that God had intervened. And once we see how far God has brought us, we can continue to look forward and go where God wants to lead us.

Click here to listen to Sunday’s message:From Ichabod to Ebenezer. You can read the manuscript after the jump.

From Ichabod to Ebenezer
1 Samuel 7:2-12
Matt Todd
May 29, 2011
Memorial Day Weekend

If you weren’t here with us last week, you missed out on the introduction of a new game show that’s sweeping the nation at the speed of…molasses: Before and After. We showed different pictures of famous people before they were famous – like a childhood picture of President Obama and a picture of the first Ronald McDonald (which was quite frightening, by the way) – and had our contestants guess who these people were in order to win a fabulous prize. I don’t know if anyone remembers what we talked about after that, but I’m pretty sure you remember some of the pictures – right? Well, piggybacking off of last week’s pictures, I have some more pictures to show you this morning. We’re not going to do it as a game show or anything like that. If you know where the picture was taken, just go ahead and shout it out:

Show Monuments: Gettysburg “High Water Mark,” “Shot Heard ‘Round the World,” George Rogers Clark Memorial, United 93, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

There’s something about us as human beings that has the need to commemorate important events. These monuments tell part of our story. When we see them, we are reminded of that part of our story and challenged to move forward as our life stories continue to be written. Monuments like these can commemorate times of immense heartbreak and sorrow. But they can also remind us of times of courage and honor – even in the midst of impossible odds. Monuments like these declare to us “This is it! This is where everything changed. For better or worse, this is where history changed its course.” They point to a significant event and they challenge us to keep moving in the right direction.

Throughout the story of the people of God, we find many different monuments erected as reminders to everyone else about how God had intervened in the unfolding of their stories.

When Jacob had his dream of a ladder with angels descending and ascending on it, he knew that God had revealed Himself to Jacob in a remarkable way. He took the stone that he had been using as a pillow (which sounds very uncomfortable to me – but that’s beside the point, isn’t it?)…anyway – he took the stone he’d been using as a pillow and set it up as a pillar and dedicated it by pouring oil over it. He gave it the name, Bethel, which means “House of God,” saying, “This place is amazing! It’s like a gate to Heaven! Surely this is the House of God.” Whenever he and his descendents passed the pillar of Bethel, they remembered how God had revealed Himself in that place.

Last week we talked about how Joshua and the Israelites conquered the city of Jericho with the help of a woman named Rahab. But before that happened, the army had to cross a flooded Jordan River. God stepped in and they walked across the Jordan on dry land – just like they had done when crossing the Red Sea some 40 years prior. While they were crossing the Jordan, Joshua had 12 men pick up 12 large stones from the middle of the dry river bed. After they had crossed the river, they set up those 12 stones on the river bank to mark the place where the waters had opened and they had finally crossed into the Promised Land. And every time the children of God saw that altar, it reminded them that God had already brought them this far – He was going to continue to guide them and provide for them.

These altars, these memorials served as physical reminders to the people of Israel about how God had brought them to this particular point in their story. One monument carried a powerful message with it, and it proclaimed God’s power to everyone who saw it. The monument is called Ebenezer.

If you have your Bible with you – and I hope you do – Please turn with me to 1 Samuel 7:2. If you don’t have your Bible with you, you’re welcome to use the one in the pew in front of you. 1 Samuel 7:2 is found on page 239 in those red pew Bibles.

Now, if you’re like me, the first thing you think of when you hear the name Ebenezer is Ebenezer Scrooge from the Dickens novel. When many people hear the phrase “raise my Ebenezer,” they can’t get the image of a friendless miser in London who is visited by three spirits on Christmas Eve. But there’s much more to the name than a fictional character from the 19^th century. But in order to fully understand the meaning behind the name Ebenezer, we first have to discuss another name: Ichabod.

Early in the ministry of the prophet Samuel, the Philistines, the arch-rival of ancient Israel, attacked and defeated God’s people in a fierce battle. Confused and concerned about their unexpected defeat, the leaders of Israel tried to make sense of it all. “How did this happen? How do we make sure it doesn’t happen again?” they asked themselves. And they came up with a plan: they would bring out the Ark of the Covenant, a physical reminder of the presence of God, to rally the troops and possibly even guarantee a victory over the hated Philistines. When Hophni and Phinehas, sons of the chief priest, brought the Ark into the army’s camp, a loud roar erupted from the troops. You’d think this would discourage the Philistines. It didn’t. In fact, it challenged them to fight even harder. And that’s what they did.

They were trying to use God as some sort of magic talisman or a good luck charm, hoping it would somehow rub off on the army of Israel. They didn’t really believe in the power of God because they didn’t even inquire of Him. To them, this was just a magic box.

The magic failed to show up. God refused to be taken for granted. And the Philistines routed the army of Israel. They were so overwhelming that the Israelite survivors ran away and hid in their tent. The army of Israel was defeated. Hophni and Phinehas were killed. And the Ark was captured by the hated Philistines.

In the midst of all of this disaster, the wife of Phinehas went into labor. Her husband, brother in law, and father in law had all died as a result of this defeat. And when she heard the news of how one catastrophe had happened upon another, she went into labor. She gave birth to a son and named him Ichabod.

I know. You’re thinking of Ichabod Crane from the Headless Horseman. But this is where the character’s name comes from. Ichabod means “No Glory.” What a horrible name to be given! Every time family and friends called out to this little child, they would be reminded of how the glory of God had left Israel when the Ark was captured. Surely that didn’t help this child’s self-esteem.

As the Philistines held the Ark in captivity, strange things began to happen. They would put the Ark in their sacred temple as an offering to their chief god and the next day, they’d go into the temple and discover the idol was face-down before the Ark. Don’t tell me God doesn’t have a sense of humor! And every city where the Ark was held captive would experience strange phenomena, like the appearance of boils and tumors on the inhabitants of the Philistine cities.

After seven months, the Philistines decided to return the Ark to the people of Israel. They were tired of being cursed by the presence of the box. So they put it on a cart, attached some cattle to it, walked to the edge of the Israelite territory, and let it loose.

Can you imagine being out in the field, harvesting your wheat when you see this speck coming towards you from a distance? As you watch, you see that it’s a team of cattle pulling a cart – and there’s no driver. And then, as it finally gets close enough, you see what’s on the cart: The Ark that you’d thought was lost forever!

They were ecstatic! They took the cart, chopped it up and lit a fire. On the fire, they sacrificed the two cows that the Philistines had sent. But they still apparently thought this was just a magic box because 70 of them decided to lift up the lid of the Ark and look inside. The people’s joy immediately turned to grief.

Ultimately, they brought the Ark to its rightful place. And they began to take God’s power and presence seriously.

Read 1 Samuel 7:2-12

“Thus far the Lord has helped us.”  This monument was set up as a reminder to the people of Israel that God has brought us this far – and He’ll continue to bring us victory…if we continue to choose to follow Him and take Him seriously.

We all need Ebenezers like that. We all need reminders of where God has brought us and the promise that He will continue to guide us. That’s what baptism reminds us of. It’s a powerful symbol of how God changes lives. And every time we witness a baptism, we are reminded of how far God has brought us.

We also reminded ourselves of how God delivered us from the depths of our sin when we celebrated the Lord’s Supper a few moments ago. The broken body and torn flesh of Jesus, represented by the bread that we ate; and the blood that was willingly poured out for us so our sins could be washed away, represented by the cup that we shared…those are powerful reminders…Ebenezers….that God uses to remind us of what He has done for us – and that He’s not through with us yet.

We need to take these symbols, as well as other events in our lives, and continually remember how God has used circumstances to shine His light in amazing and remarkable ways.

When we began our adoption journey, I began to hear all kinds of stories about how God provides in those situations. I half-heartedly wrote them off by saying to myself, “Yeah, yeah. I know God provides. And that’s what you’re supposedto say in this situation.” It’s kind of like the expected, Sunday School response. You know – like “Elijah” or “Moses” are usually the go-to answers for any Old Testament question. And “Jesus” and “Paul” are the go-to answers for New Testament questions. When people would talk about how they were going to cover the expense of international adoption, the pat, go-to answer seems to be “God will provide.” Which is great. But I don’t know if I believed it.

Until we received unexpected news two summers ago. We received an email from our adoption agency informing us that we had been approved by the Ethiopian courts to adopt Mihret. This was a surprise to us, because we didn’t know we actually had a court date. And this meant we would be bring our daughter home with us much sooner than we’d initially thought. At the same time, the fees and travel expenses we knew were eventually coming were needed much, much sooner than we’d planned.

And we didn’t have the money.

At all.

When we came to this realization, we were crushed. How were we ever going to be able to make this work? I must confess, I began to panic just a bit. I didn’t have any answers.

A few days later, we received a letter from an organization called ShowHope, which helps provide financial assistance for adopting families. The letter informed us that we had received an adoption grant from them. And it covered the rest of the fees and the plane tickets. The date on that letter? The same date we found out we had passed court in Ethiopia!

I am convinced that God moved a mountain that day. And He began doing it before we even knew it was in our way.

Whenever I get worried about finances or how we’re going to be able to get through whatever mini crisis that arises, I remember this story. I remember how God has brought us to this point and He isn’t going to abandon us.

We tell our stories and raise up our Ebenezers – monuments to how God has worked – not only to remind ourselves, but to proclaim the glory of God to everyone else around us. We raise our Ebenezers so that we and the rest of the world might know and remember who He is.[1]

You have a story to share. It’s one that reminds you of what God has done, but it also proclaims it to the rest of the world. Are you telling it? Are you allowing it to be shown in the way you live?

I don’t care what you’re doing this Memorial Day weekend: You could be watching the Indy 500 or the Coca Cola 600. You could be visiting the cemetery or going to a family cookout. Or you could just be spending the rest of the weekend by yourself. Take a few minutes this Memorial Day weekend and remember. Remember what God has done for you already. Remember how much He has changed you already. Remember how He has been there for you every step of the way – even when you didn’t feel His presence. And begin to live with confidence that God is in complete control. You just have to rely on Him.

Maybe you even need to build your own Ebenezer – something physical and tangible that will remind you of the momentous ways that God has brought you out of darkness into His glorious light. And raise up your Ebenezer so all can see, giving Him all of the glory and honor He so richly deserves.

You can click here to listen to Sunday’s message: Don’t Look Back! Or you can read the manuscript after the jump.

Lot’s Wife: Don’t Look Back!
Genesis 19
Matt Todd
May 5, 2011

Now that the Royal wedding – which was apparently the wedding of the century – is out of the way, we can finally start to focus on something on this side of the Pond – something as American as apple pie: Baseball and softball. Fortunately, Opening Day at Cowan Little League is just six days away.

We’ve been practicing for about a month, and it’s finally time to get this ball rolling, so to speak. During the game, when our team is up to bat, there’s one thing I stress above any other when it comes to running the bases. I yell it constantly, because I see it constantly. Aiden, do you remember what I say? Where are your eyes supposed to be looking?

Right – you look at your coach. Don’t look at the ball. You don’t know how many times I see a player stare at the ball after he’s hit it. I know it’s a great feeling when you hit the ball. It’s cool to see where it went. But hitting the ball is something that happened in the past. In order to move forward, you have to set your focus on First Base, and get there as quickly as you can. Turning your head to watch something that…really…had happened in the past is going to slow you down. It doesn’t matter how good the hit was, if you stare at it, admiring what you did, they’re still going to get you out if you don’t get to First Base before the ball does. Dwelling on that past event is going to become a stumbling block for you. When you’re a base-runner, you don’t look around and you certainly don’t look back. You run as hard as you can, looking at what is in front of you.

You know, there’s a good life-lesson in that. Don’t look back. Keep pressing on. Keep your eyes forward.

It’s a lesson we could all learn. It’s certainly one Lot’s wife should have learned.

If you have your Bible with you – and I hope you do – please turn with me to Genesis 19. If you don’t have your Bible with you, you’re welcome to use the one in the pew in front of you. Genesis 19 is found on page 14 of those red pew Bibles. Genesis is the first book in the Bible, and it’s a book of origins. It tells the origin of God’s creation – how He spoke it into being by just saying “Let there be…”; it’s the story of the origin of the human race – when He formed Adam and Eve with His own hands and called them “Very good,”; it’s the story of the origin of our fallen state, when Adam and Eve ate from the forbidden tree; it’s also the story of the origins of our faith – following Abraham and his descendents: Isaac, Jacob & Esau, and Joseph and his eleven brothers.

It’s here, in Genesis 19, that we see the most memorable and terrifying event in the life of Abraham’s nephew, Lot, and his family. In fact, it might be one of the most memorable events in all of the Old Testament. But, before we get to this event, we must get into a little bit of background.

When Abraham, who was called Abram at the time, responded to God’s invitation to follow His lead out of the land of Ur and into a foreign land where he would establish his household, his nephew, Lot, brought his own household with Abram as well.

But you know how things get when you try to mesh two families together – sometimes…well….it just doesn’t work out…

And it didn’t for Abram and Lot. Both of them had amassed large flocks of sheep and had many head of cattle. With a large amount of sheep and cattle comes a large amount of shepherds and cowboys and other servants – and it becomes necessary to have large amounts of land so the animal can be properly nourished.  Well…the land wasn’t big enough for both enterprises. In order to settle the disputes once and for all, Lot and his uncle decided to part ways. Lot chose the lush land of the Jordan Valley. Tending his sheep and cattle would be easy in this kind of environment. Abram agreed and stayed in the less-attractive land of Canaan. And Lot pitched set up camp near the town of Sodom, which was already known for being unusually wicked and sinning greatly against the Lord.[1]

The sinfulness of Sodom and neighboring Gomorrah was well-known. So much so that God had had enough. As He was talking with Abraham one day, he said, “I’ve heard a great outcry from Sodom and Gomorrah because their sin is so flagrant. I’m going to destroy the cities.”

Abraham, out of concern for Lot and his family, eventually convinced the Lord that if He could find 10 righteous people in the city of Sodom. The odds were stacked in Sodom’s favor. After all, Lot and his family were there. We know he had a wife and two daughters, who were engaged to be married. So…there’s six right there. And Lot had become a leader in the community, serving as a judge. Surely he had enough influence on the people around him that God would be able to find just four more righteous people in the entire city of Sodom.

You’d think this would have a happy ending. But it doesn’t. Because instead of being an influence, changing the culture from the inside out by being a powerful dose of salt and light…

Lot and his family allowed the sinfulness of the community around them to influence them. To bring them down. That’s why Lot made the offer he did. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s pretty dehumanizing. And it’s found in the early part of the 19^th chapter of Genesis. That’s why Lot’s future sons-in-law laughed at him when he told them to get out of the city because God was going to destroy it. Lot and his family were in a position of influence. But instead of living a life of holiness in the midst of sinfulness, they chose to allow the corruption to taint their own lives as well.

But God was merciful on them. And He warned Lot and his family that the cities were about to be destroyed.

Read Genesis 19:12 & 13

I don’t know about you, but I listen to these words a little bit differently after the events of this week – don’t you? I watched the news with sadness as news began to trickle in about the devastation in Mississippi and Alabama. Our family was gripped to the Internet weather reports as we discovered that our friends in upper East Tennessee were destined to get part of that same storm, with golf ball-sized hail and  the very real threat of tornadoes, which is quite unusual for that region of the country. Johnson City, Tennessee, isn’t anywhere near tornado alley. As the warnings began to spread, people began to seek shelter immediately. Even Milligan College put their tornado drills into practice as the evacuated all of the dorm residents into their respective basements. That evening, we prayed for everyone’s safety and searched for any updates we could find.

Then, at approximately 11 p.m., the warning siren went off in Cowan. We’d been watching the weather and were surprised by this. There was no indication that there was a tornado near our area. All the major stuff had already passed and the next round wasn’t due to hit us for another two hours or so. So we had a decision to make: do we listen to the warning, wake up the kids, and seek shelter? Or do we take a chance and ride it out, hoping it’s a false alarm?

After what felt like a few hours, but was probably only a few seconds of indecision, we decided to get the kids up and seek safety.

Better safe than sorry, we said.

As soon as we got everyone together and ready to hide, the siren stopped.

Then, as soon as the kids started heading back to bed, the siren went off again. Again, we decided that it was better to be safe than sorry. And so we sought shelter.

We came to find out, after all was said and done, that a tornado was sighted, not very far from us. And it had appeared very quickly – with little warning ahead of time.[2] So whatever warnings that were given by the people who knew what they were talking about…they certainly needed to be listened to. In this case, to delay a decision is to make a decision. And that decision is to ignore the warning.

When the time comes and you have to evacuate – you’d better do what you’re told. We always think about the things we’re going to grab –mementos and pictures that are special to us. But that all gets thrown out the window when the time to move actually comes. Because you’re not going to have much time to react.

After Lot had warned his family and friends and very few people believed him, God’s envoys had a very specific message for Lot. Listen to how insistent they are.

Read Genesis 19:15-22

Get out! Go! Hurry! Don’t stop! Don’t hesitate! Get as far away as you can – as fast as you can – or you’ll get caught up in the destruction. You get a sense that Lot and Company are delaying. That they’re dragging their feet. And God’s messengers are saying, “What part of ‘Flee’ do you not understand?!? Get out of here!”[3]

What was their problem? What took them so long to get out of there?

One scholar I read suggests that Lot and his family dragged their feet so much because they really didn’t want to leave Sodom. That’s understandable, to a degree. After all, Sodom was their home. And they didn’t want to leave it. They were probably members of the country s in the club, the softball league, and even the community theatre. They could have even hosted neighborhood block parties on a regular basis. There wasn’t an organization in town that they were not involved with. They loved the get-togethers This family was well-known in the community, even though they were relative newcomers. They were right in the thick of it all. And they didn’t want to leave. Their hearts were in Sodom.[4]

And it shows, doesn’t it? God was trying to bring them somewhere else – somewhere full of life instead of destruction – and they wanted to stay. This foot-dragging and refusal to leave the past behind eventually caught up with Lot’s family.

Read Genesis 19:23-26

And thus we read what might be the shortest biography in all of history: Lot’s wife looked back and turned back and turned into a pillar of salt.

We don’t know anything else about her, other than she was married to Lot and that she couldn’t take it anymore. She had to look back.

And in that moment of hesitation, the destruction caught up with her, and she was wrapped, head-to-toe in sodium chloride – smothering her and building around her a sarcophagus made of salt.[5] In an instant, she became a statue. This wasn’t a unique punishment, really. She was receiving the same judgment that her evil neighbors were receiving when God was raining down fire and burning sulfur – traditionally translated as “brimstone” on the wicked cities. Sodom and Gomorrah have been wiped off the map. But historical geographers place the two cities at the south end of the Dead Sea. “At thirteen hundred feet below sea level, the Dead Sea is full of chemicals, salt, and the smell of sulfur.”[6] You’ve seen the effects of a bomb hitting its target – right? The ground and everything around it is thrown into the air. When the fire that was sent from Heaven hit its target, the same thing happened – the ground, with all its chemicals and salt and sulfur, was thrown into the air, landing on the townspeople and covering them. Make no mistake: this was no mere geological incident. This was an act of God. And by lingering behind and looking, Lot’s wife chose to identify with her neighbors who were also doused with salt.

But she had an escape route. She was offered salvation and didn’t take it. She was paralyzed by indecision. And in so doing, she made her decision. Some scholars have declared the salt pillar that Lot’s wife became as a “shrine of unbelief.”[7]

All because she ignored the repeated warnings: Don’t look back!

When Jesus came to give Himself as a sacrifice for our sins, He came to rescue us from the destructive paths that we were on. Like Lot and his family, we, too, had pitched our tents within the city limits of the wicked. And that sinful choice demands judgment. It demands punishment. It demands death.

We were doomed to the same fate of Sodom and Gomorrah. But God has given us an escape route through Jesus. He has invited us into a life that is full of hope and joy and peace and abundance. And it’s a journey. It’s a journey away from the things that are not of God. It’s a journey of holiness. It’s a journey of becoming more and more like Him as we draw closer and closer to Him. God has amazing things ahead of us. He has amazing things He wants to do to us, in us, and through us – right here, right now…and in the future, too.

But Jesus reminds us in Luke 9:62 that “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”[8]

We cannot drag our feet. We cannot turn back and secretly long for the lifestyle we once had before we came to know Him. We must put all of that behind us and move away from it. That’s why Jesus Christ came to die for us – He came to put that past behind us. Don’t allow it to become a stumbling block for you today. Don’t allow it to be a speed bump as you follow Jesus up to the highest mountaintops, down through the lowest valleys, and even through the driest of deserts.

Throughout the story of the people of God as displayed in the Old Testament, we see time and time again how when things got a little bit tough, they started to wonder what might have been if they’d stayed where they were. Let me tell you: God loves you where you are. But He doesn’t want to leave you there. He wants to shape you and make you into the person He has planned for you to be since the dawn of creation. He has amazing things He wants to accomplish through you – good works, which He has prepared for you in advance. But you can only reach the potential that God has envisioned for you if you leave that past life – the one of sinful choices and destructive, self-centered decisions – in the past. It’s time to turn the page to the next chapter of your life.

And don’t look back.

Sunday’s message discusses the power of one kiss. Judas sent a loud message with his kiss on Thursday night. What message are we proclaiming with our lips?

Click here to listen to The Power of a Kiss. A manuscript is available after the jump.

The Power of a Kiss
Luke 19:28-40; 22:47-48
Matt Todd
April 17, 2011

A student at a Christian college was a dedicated soul. He wanted to make sure that everything he did lined up with Scripture. So, if he could quote a verse in the Bible – chapter and verse – to justify his actions, he figured it was OK.

He did alright with this for quite a while. Then he started to notice something. He was falling in love with a beautiful classmate of his. With every fiber of his being, he desperately wanted to kiss her. But he just couldn’t find a Scripture to OK it. So, true to his conscience, at the end of each night, he would walk her up to her dorm lobby, look at her longingly, and then say, “Good night.” He’d then turn around and walk back to his dorm.

This went on for several weeks. All the while, he was searching and searching the Bible – trying to find some verse that would give him permission to kiss this lovely lady goodnight. But he couldn’t find anything.

Finally, he found it. The holy grail. It was the passage in Romans that says, “Greet one another with a holy kiss.”

“Bingo!” He shouted out loud. He finally found the verse he was looking for!

That morning after class, he mentioned this verse to his professor. It was then that he realized that this passage really didn’t mean what he thought it meant. It was meant for a church setting, not a dating situation. And this type of kiss was actually more like a handshake or possibly a side-hug-type greeting that we give each other today.

So once again, he found himself without a passage to OK kissing his girlfriend goodnight.

That evening, he walked her to the dormitory. Once again, he looked longingly into her eyes, trying to hide his disappointment. He held out his hand to tell her goodnight. As he did, she grabbed him, pulled him toward her, and planted a big, wet kiss – right on his lips!

Stunned, the student gasped for air and finally shouted out, “Chapter and verse! Chapter and verse!” The girl grabbed him a second time, and just before kissing him again, said, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

Kissing. It’s kind of a big deal, isn’t it? A kiss can communicate a wide range of emotions. In many situations and many occasions, a kiss can show a deep connection and acceptance. Take, for instance, these two pictures that are among my most favorite pictures taken of my family during the last two years:

This was Mihret’s homecoming. And I promise this wasn’t staged. At some point, while Aiden was holding his new sister for the first time, he bent down and kissed her on the forehead. Many have said that this is the sweetest picture from a homecoming like this that they’ve ever seen.

One Sunday afternoon, I was goofing around on the floor with Alyson and Mihret, when all of a sudden, they both started kissing me on the cheeks. It was a pretty special moment. And it’s even more special that Christy managed to have a camera with her and quickly grabbed this picture before they stopped.

Many of the kisses performed in Scripture are like the one the young man discovered in the story we just heard. They’re kind of like a handshake. Others were similar to the ones I showed you in these pictures. They communicated a certain level of love and acceptance.

We find many times in Scripture – especially in Old Testament settings – that a kiss is given during a meaningful family event, like a reunion or a reconciliation. That’s what we see when Jacob and Esau met again, many years after the younger brother had tricked Esau out of his birthright.

“He himself went on ahead and bowed down to the ground seven times as he approached his brother. But Esau ran to meet Jacob and embraced him; he threw his arms around his neck and kissed him. And they wept.” – Genesis 33:3 & 4

And when Joseph finally revealed himself to his brothers who had sold him into slavery and told their father, Israel, that he was dead, here’s how he reacted:

“Then he threw his arms around his brother Benjamin and wept, and Benjamin embraced him, weeping. And he kissed all his brothers and wept over them. Afterward, his brothers talked with him.” – Genesis 45:14 & 15

After Moses’ self-imposed exile in the desert, God finally told him it was time to return to Egypt.

“The Lord said to Aaron, ‘Go into the desert to meet Moses.” So he met Moses at the mountain of God and kissed him.” – Exodus 4:27

You get the point, right? And that’s not surprising. We give big hugs and sometimes even kisses on the cheek and forehead at family reunions all the time – right? The same thing happens at tearful farewells. Like when Naomi tried to convince her widowed daughters in law, Ruth and Orpah, to return to their homelands and Orpah agreed…

“At this they wept again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her.” – Ruth 1:14

And when Jonathan discovered that his father really did want to murder his best friend, David, they had one last parting moment together:

“David…bowed down before Jonathan three times, with his face to the ground. They kissed each other and wept together – but David wept the most.” – 1 Samuel 20:41

Of course, there’s the more romantic form of kissing, which is displayed fully in the book of Song of Solomon, including this section said by the Bride in this wedding poem:

“Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth – for your love is more delightful than wine.” – Song of Solomon 1:2

There’s a closeness that’s communicated with a kiss. It’s been that way throughout most of human history. That’s why the author of Proverbs tells us:

“An honest answer is like a kiss on the lips.” – Proverbs 24:26

There is, however, another role of the kiss in ancient Israel. It’s how one would show honor to the person being kissed – and it was especially practiced by subjects of the king. Many times, we’re shown that they’re kissing the king’s hand or his feet or even sometimes the ground he walks on. It’s what Samuel did when he anointed Saul as the first king of Israel:

“Then Samuel took a flask of oil and poured it on Saul’s head and kissed him, saying ‘Has not the Lord anointed you leader over His inheritance?’” – 1 Samuel 10:1

in first-century Jewish culture, a kiss was a sign of love and loyalty. A disciple might kiss his master to signify the specialness of their relationship. It was something similar to the sort of kiss a son might give his father – but…deeper.

Along those similar lines of love, loyalty, and honor, there’s another word that is not translated as “kiss” in any English translation of the Bible that I’ve ever seen or heard of. But it’s there. It’s used 60 different times in the New Testament. And if you know your Greek, it’s plain as day. It’s the word that we translate as “worship.”

That’s right. The word commonly used in the New Testament that means “to worship” comes from the combination of two words: “toward” and “to kiss.”[1] The word worship literally means “to kiss towards.” It’s offering a kiss of honor, loyalty, love, reverence, and submission to the One that is being worshiped. So when we gather together to worship the Lord each Sunday and in our own personal times of worship, we are offering a kiss towards our Heavenly Father.

And although the word isn’t used in any of the accounts of the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, it is certainly a worshipful environment. They are proclaiming all glory and honor is due to God as their Rescuer and their Salvation. They are offering a kiss towards God and His promised Messiah.

If you have your Bibles with you – and I hope you do – please turn with me to the Gospel of Luke. This is an account which is contained in all four of the Gospel accounts, but we’re going to use Luke’s telling of this event. It’s found in Luke 19. If you don’t have your Bible with you, you’re welcome to use the one in the pew in front of you. Luke 19 is found on page 913 in those red pew Bibles. <slide>

This was the day the people of Jerusalem had been looking for since the days of the prophets from generations ago. From the moment the city of Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians in 587 BC, the people began to look for the Promised One: the one who would deliver the people from their captors and establish the reign of God right here on earth with Jerusalem as His capital. In the midst of that expectant searching for God’s Messiah, the prophet Zechariah, in around 520 BC, promised this sign about the promised King:

“Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your King comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey” (Zechariah 9:9).

After hundreds of years of watching and waiting and hoping and seeking, they saw that the time was finally here. And they couldn’t help but break out into praise and worship.

Read Luke 19:28-40

When we see Jesus at work, we cannot help but react in worship. In fact, if we choose not to worship, creation will do our job for us. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want a rock or a tree to take my place in the chorus of voices shouting God’s praises.

And when the people saw this prophecy coming true right before their eyes, they had to celebrate! The palm had become a symbol of liberation and freedom. They knew that their Deliverer had finally come. The Promised One was finally in Jerusalem. And they burst forth in worship and praise.

The Disciples were there with him, joining in the chorus. The text gives us no reason to suspect that any of them were missing from this triumphal entry. There is no reason to suspect that any of them refrained from joining in the celebration.

That means that Judas was there, in the midst of things. That means that Judas was there, shouting praises, proclaiming Jesus as the Promised Prince of Peace. That means that Judas was offering a kiss towards Jesus with his worship, honoring his Master with his praise and obedience.

Oh, how quickly things can change.

As you know, less than a week later, Judas offered another kiss towards Jesus. This one was filled with hatred. It was filled with disgust. It was filled with deception.

Please turn a few pages from Luke 19 to chapter 22, verse 47. It’s found on page 917 in the pew Bibles.

Jesus has shared his final meal with his friends and followers. Now they’re in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus feels the gravity of the situation pressing down on Him. He is so overwhelmed that he begins to sweat drops of blood. And in the midst of His agony and grief in anticipation of the most painful experience of His life – the most painful experience that has ever been endured in all of creation – He was met by one of His friends. And everything fell apart.

Read Luke 22:47 & 48

With his own lips, Judas had sung and shouted the praises of God, offering a kiss towards Him with his worship. Now, with his own lips, Judas betrayed the Son of God. With his own lips, Judas handed Jesus over to the officials. Now, just a few days later, he has given up his own soul with a kiss. For thirty pieces of silver.

How many times have we been like Judas? How many times have we betrayed Jesus – not in the obvious and literal way of Judas, but in our own hearts and in our own actions?

It has been said that “the greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips and walk out the door and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.”[2]

The world is watching us to see if we believe what we say we believe. The world is watching us to see if Jesus has changed us the way we say He can. The world is watching us to see if we really believe Jesus is our Lord and Leader – or if it’s something we just say on Sunday morning when we’re together.

How many times have we confessed Jesus Christ as Lord, placing Him on the throne of our lives and offering kisses towards Him with our songs and our offerings…only to turn around and enthrone ourselves as the true lord of our lives?

How many times have we gathered to worship the Lord, only to focus on ourselves? How many times have we sung praises to God with our lips, but focus more on what we can “get out of it” instead of on Him and what we can give to Him?

It took a few days before Judas betrayed Jesus. How often does it take us just a few moments to do the same?

Judas betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver.  How often does it take less than that for us to do the same? At what cost do we betray our Lord?

Are we acknowledging Him with our lips, offering kisses towards Him on Sunday morning and betraying Him by Thursday? We’re not much better than Judas.

There is hope, however.

Because Jesus came for us. He endured the betrayal for us. He endured Peter’s rejection for us. He suffered a horrific death on the most cruel instrument of torture that a society could ever invent…for us.

There’s nothing we can do to make Him love us more. There’s nothing we have to do to earn this salvation.

Sunday’s message focused on what Jesus went through for our redemption, what He endured for our freedom.

You can listen to Sunday’s message here.

By His Wounds
Isaiah 53
Matt Todd
April 10, 2011

This weekend started off with some tense moments coming out of Washington, DC. As you probably know, the Federal government was on the brink of the first extended shutdown since 1995-96. All nonessential Federal government offices and services were scheduled to close in the middle of the night on Friday night. But the crisis has been averted – for now. Now that our Legislature and President have agreed on a continuation of the spending bill that is supposed to lead to the passing of a budget that will be good for the rest of the fiscal year, we can go about our daily business, knowing that the threat of government shutdown has passed. And it’s one of those great phenomena of American politics where both sides leave the table acting like they’ve won.

This potential shutdown cast a long shadow over many people’s lives as they were concerned about whether they were going to be able to go to work on Monday morning. It also cast a long shadow over the city of Charleston. If the Federal government shut down, then that would have meant that the National Parks would be closed, too. This would have disrupted major plans in Charleston because of a monumental anniversary that occurs this week.

One thousand re-enactors are expected to gather in Charleston Harbor to commemorate the 150^th anniversary of the Confederate attack on Ft. Sumter, which began at 4:30 in the morning on April 12. Although things had been in a downward spiral between the North and the South for decades, things had gotten progressively worse between the two sides in the months leading up to the worst period in American history: the time when brother fought against brother and it appeared that our national house was so divided that we would not, in fact, be able to stand – the U.S. Civil War.

It was the bloodiest four years in American history.  More American soldiers died in this conflict than in all of the other US military conflicts combined. And it changed the face of the United States forever. While the issues leading up to the attempted secession of the southern States from the Union were complex and numerous, there was one underlying issue that had essentially divided the North and the South since we declared independence in 1776: whether someone has the right to treat another human being as property and to make that person a slave. Slavery is one of the darkest issues in American history. And our country paid for it with the US Civil War. Many cities in the South were burned to the ground. Hundreds of thousands of lives were lost. Families were torn apart. The United States paid for its ongoing sin of slavery with its own blood. In the end, the North lost 10% of their men aged 20-45 as a result of this conflict. The South? 30%. That’s a lot of young men who died.[1]

In the end, however, people were ultimately set free and slavery was abolished.

As bloody and violent and awful as the US Civil War was, a much greater price was paid to free us from our own enslavement. Because of our own rebellion against the King of Kings, we had chosen to side with the Enemy. And that willful rebellion came with an awful price: slavery to sin. When we chose to sin, we chose to allow sin to have control of our lives. And there’s nothing we could do about it. There’s nothing we could do to make things right. There’s nothing we could do to restore the close friendship with our Father in Heaven. There was absolutely nothing we could do. We were trapped in our own sin. Nothing good could be done on our own. We were slaves, bound by the chains of sin.

But that’s not how God wanted this story to end. He has a deep, powerful love for you. And so from the very beginning, God laid out a plan for how He was going to rescue you and me from our slavery.

If you have your Bibles with you – and I hope you do – please turn with me to the 53^rd chapter of the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah is found towards the middle of your Bible, following the books of Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon. If you don’t have your Bible with you, you’re welcome to use the one in the pew in front of you. Isaiah 53 is found on page 633 in those red pew Bibles.

Isaiah is considered one of the Major Prophets – not necessarily because his message was more important than the messages from prophets like Joel and Micah, but because we have so much of it. The book of Isaiah is 66 chapters long. We have a pretty good idea when Isaiah lived because he was a key messenger of God to King Hezekiah. Some of his prophecies he proclaimed dealt directly with the kings of his time, like Hezekiah. Other messages point towards a Messiah, a coming King who will rescue His people and usher in the Kingdom of God. We know that Isaiah had regular meetings with King Hezekiah. Hezekiah died in 698 BC. That’s 700 years before the birth of Jesus Christ. That’s an important thing to remember as we listen to these words from the prophet Isaiah as he shares the message of hope: that one day God’s Chosen One would come to rescue us from our slavery. But He’s going to pay an enormous price.

Read Isaiah 53.

He was pierced for our transgressions.
He was crushed for our sins.
The punishment that we deserved – the only one that could free us – He took it upon Himself.

This was no accident – this execution of Jesus on the cross. It was planned from the beginning. The vision Isaiah had of this Messiah was detailed enough for him to share this grim picture of what it would take to rescue us. He even saw nails piercing his flesh – a punishment that was not in practice during Isaiah’s life. But he saw it. Because God already had it all planned out. He knew what needed to be done to free us from the enslaving chains of sin.

First they beat him. They took a whip and they slashed his back open with them, tearing into his flesh like a knife cuts into raw meat. They mocked him, forcing a crown of pointy thorns on his head, pressing into his scalp and covering his face in blood. They continued to mock him by placing a purple robe on him. They probably left it on just long enough to allow the wounds on his back to begin to scab over. Then they ripped the robe off of him, tearing open those wounds on his back once again.

After parading him through the streets, the beaten, bloody, and bruised Jesus was led to a hill called the Skull, which was right outside the city of Jerusalem, along a busy thoroughfare. There they put him down on the ground, stretched out his arms, and nailed them to the crossbeam that he’d been forced to carry through the streets until he was so exhausted he could not do it anymore.

“The Romans used spikes that were five to seven inches long and tapered to a sharp point at the end.”[2] And they took those nails and ran them through his wrists, crushing the largest nerve going out of his hand. Go ahead. Feel right there on your wrists. You can feel it up and down your arm, can’t you? Imagine taking that nerve and pressing and twisting and squeezing it nonstop. That’s the pain he endured when they nailed him to the cross.

The Romans were experts at pain. Crucifixions like this were meant to be public spectacles, reminding the common citizen that you don’t mess with Rome. Because if you do mess with Rome….this would be your fate.

As a child growing up, we know that his adopted father, Joseph, was a carpenter. Surely Jesus helped his dad in the workshop. If nothing else, he watched. He knew why he was here. He knew what was going to happen to him. I wonder if he ever winced when he heard his dad hit a nail with his hammer. I wonder if…when no one was watching…I wonder if he took one of those nails from his father’s carpentry shop and held it up against his wrist. He knew what had to be done. He’d known since the beginning of time. But that doesn’t minimize the agony he went through for you and for me.

His pain was excruciating. And it didn’t stop. Once he was nailed to the crossbeam, they hoisted him up and attached it to a vertical stake. And then nails were driven through Jesus’ feet. Again, nerves in his feet would be crushed and he would have a similar type of searing pain pulsing up through his legs now, too.

The nails in his feet, however, were especially cruel. You see, when your body is hanging with its arms outstretched like this, you have difficulty breathing. You have to lift yourself up in order to exhale. The nail was place there to encourage the condemned to breathe more. It gave the person being crucified just enough leverage to elevate his lungs enough so that they’re not being crushed. The person would take a breath, then push up on his feet to breathe out. He repeated this with every breath he took. The nails rubbed against the wounds. His bloodied back scraped against the coarse wood.

That nail in his feet was to keep him alive even longer, prolonging the agony as he tried to keep himself from suffocating. Because of this, Roman crucifixions were known to last for days. They were experts at making people suffer.

As Jesus struggled to breathe, carbon dioxide in his blood became carbonic acid, causing the acidity in his blood to increase. This led to an irregular heartbeat. With his heart beating erratically, he knew the time was near and he cried out to the Father. And his heart exploded. Jesus literally died of a broken heart.

According to Old Testament law, the Jewish people had to offer a lamb sacrifice on the Day of Atonement, rolling back their sins for the year. These sacrifices didn’t bring about forgiveness. They merely delayed punishment for another year. There on the cross when Jesus was executed, the perfect Lamb of God was sacrificed.

There on the cross, He took on our sins. There on the cross, He took on our punishment. There on the cross, He put our sins to death. There on the cross, He broke the chains and set us free.

That’s what Jesus Christ did for you. That’s what Jesus Christ did for me. He gave up everything so we could come back to Him.

Have you done that? Have you chosen to follow Him and give Him everything that you have and everything that you are? Have you chosen to allow Him to break the chains that have ensnared you – the chains you put on with your own destructive decisions? The only way to break the chains is to choose to follow Him. You cannot do it on your own. It can only be done through the power of God, as displayed when the perfect Lamb was slain on the hill of Calvary.

Are you trapped? Are you caught in the chains of sin and destruction? You cannot get out on your own. It’s only by the grace of God which was so powerfully displayed on the cross that we can have true freedom. When the Son sets us free, we are free indeed – free to love, free to dance, free to share, free to give, free to live life the way God intended for it to be lived from the very beginning of time.

Because of His death, we can have abundant life. Because of His sacrifice, the Son sets us free.

By His wounds, we are made whole.

By His wounds, we can be restored to a right friendship with the Father.

By His wounds…we are HEALED!