Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard
Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Presbyterian Churches
Sermon “What is God's Plan” - Genesis 12:1-3
March 13, 2011
This morning we are continuing our Lenten Study on questions we have about God. Last week we asked with Adam and Eve about how we are to live our lives as God's creatures following what God tells us to do. We found out that we have been placed in a garden where all of our needs are met. But we lust for more, for those things which are prohibited. And this lust causes us to lose the blessing we had already received. Today we will ask God about God's plan for dealing with this situation we have put ourselves into. But first lets pray.
“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy Heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)
Our Old Testament reading for today comes from the familiar words of the twelfth chapter of the Book of Genesis. Genesis 12:1-9
12Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
4So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.5Abram took his wife Sarai and his brother’s son Lot, and all the possessions that they had gathered, and the persons whom they had acquired in Haran; and they set forth to go to the land of Canaan.
When they had come to the land of Canaan, 6Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7Then the Lord appeared to Abram, and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. 8From there he moved on to the hill country on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the Lord and invoked the name of the Lord. 9And Abram journeyed on by stages toward the Negeb.
Seven years ago I felt that something was missing in my life. I was active in church and civic clubs. I had friends. I was making money and could afford to do almost anything I wanted to do. But I had no wife, no children, and found myself lonely and wanting more. I had followed my own desires all my life but it still didn't seem to be enough. I thought it was a time to change my life and go in a new direction. I was a Bible teacher at church and I knew that what I needed to do was to follow the Lord. So I began to ask questions of my family and my pastor to try to discern where God was calling me. I finally decided that God was calling me into ministry of some kind. The Bible study I was teaching at the time was called the Bethel Bible Series, a two year look at scripture. The key text in this study was from the verses I just read, “we are blessed to be a blessing”. I realized that God had richly blessed me in many ways, and now God was calling me to be blessing for others.
Abram was facing similar challenges. Abram had a tough life. His wife, Sarai, was barren and he had no children, no one to inherit his land and no one to carry on his name. His brother had children. One of his nephews, Lot, came over to help him out, but it wasn't the same. Abram and Sarai had no children. Life for Abram must have been unbearable. So his father took the extraordinary step of emigrating to a new land. He told Abram, Sarai and Lot to pack up and get ready to move to a new home in Canaan.
This is often what we do when we feel something is missing. We just pack up and go away. We hope that life will be better in the next town, or the next job, or the next relationship. We figure that Florida would be warmer. We move on hoping to start over, hoping to have a new life.
Abram and his family only got as far as Haran when his father got sick and died, and Abram, Sarai and Lot were forced to start new lives without land or the support of friends and family. They were isolated and alone.
This is what happens when you try to deal with your problems by running away. Problems seem to catch up with you and you have a host of new problems to deal with too. You just can't leave the problems behind and run away.
One problem that Abram had was that he did not believe in God. Scripture tells us that Abram came from a family that worshiped other gods. So Abram was not familiar with the God who loves us and redeems us. All Abram had was a barren wife, a nephew and a lot of problems to deal with. What Abram needed was faith. He needed to know the creator God. He needed to be redeemed from all of his problems. He needed a cure for his unbelief.
A pharisee in the first century AD faced his own problems. He too lacked the comfort of knowing God and suffered from unbelief. His name was Nicodemus. Late one evening he came to see Jesus. It was dark. In John's gospel darkness is always a symbol of unbelief. Nicodemus did not believe. But he wanted to know more about Jesus and what Jesus doing. So one evening Nicodemus emerged from the darkness of unbelief and entered into the light of the world in Jesus Christ.
Jesus told Nicodemus that he needed to be born again. In his typical fashion, Jesus said this in a way that causes us the think. His language was ambiguous. What Jesus said could mean either “born again” or “born from above”. Of course this confused Nicodemus. How could anyone reenter his mother's womb and be born again? But Jesus meant that to have a relationship with the creator God you must be born from above; you must be born of the Spirit. This means that faith is a gift. God dispatches the Holy Spirit to plant within you the gift of faith. You are born from above by the Holy Spirit and believe that Jesus is Lord.
This is what happened to Abram. The Holy Spirit came upon him giving him faith in his creator. And the creator God told him to leave this place of loneliness and despair and go to a place of rich blessing. But first Abram had to act on his faith. God refused to tell him where he was going. Abram had to take the first step by faith alone. And that is exactly what Abram did. He left Haran and traveled to the place where God led him. And he found himself in Canaan, the very place where his father had wanted him to go. And there Abram was blessed with more than he had ever imagined. Sarai would give birth and his descendants would number more than all the stars in heaven, more than all the grains of sand on the beach.
This is the promise made to us. If we stop following our own lusts and begin following God we too will be richly blessed, more than we could ever imagine.
After talking with my parents, friends and pastors I decided to follow God and see to where it might leave. I left my home, church and friends and drove to California to study at Fuller Seminary. There I found my calling as a Presbyterian pastor and met my wife, Grace.
After his encounter with Jesus, Nicodemus continued to question his faith. He wasn't sure what he was called to do. But God had a most important mission for him. On the day that Jesus died someone needed to help Joseph of Arimathea to remove Jesus' dead body from cross and place it in the tomb. At the risk of great sacrifice for himself and his family Nicodemus was there outside the gate caring for Jesus body after his death.
What Abram and Nicodemus both discovered was that once you receive the gift of faith and all the blessings of God you now have the responsibility to be a blessing for others. That is your true vocation as the adopted children of God. You are blessed by God to be blessings for others. We usually think of ministry as something that happens here in the church. I am a minister so I must do ministry. And all the groups we have on Sunday mornings and afternoons, Wednesday evenings, choir practice, early morning prayers and board meetings are all ways of doing ministry. But in our Reformed tradition we believe that ministry does not stop at the church door. Rather ministry continues throughout the week wherever believers are present. You see you are all missionaries of Jesus Christ. You may be the only Christian missionary that the people in your office, or those in your civic group, or people you meet at school will see this week. So it is important to remember that you have been given the gift of faith and you have received blessings from God and now as a missionary in your home, or school or office, or club, you are called to be a blessing for others. So bless the people you meet this week with the good news that you have heard in church and invite them to join with us in questioning God about our faith and growing together as God's people.
Our ministries extend far beyond the eastern shore. As God told Abram we have been blessed to be a blessing and in us all the families of the world will be blessed. On Palm Sunday we will have the opportunity with Presbyterian churches across the country to bless families around the world with our One Great Hour of Sharing. Your contributions will bless poor families in America with the Self Development of People program. Your contributions will bless hungry families to become self sufficient with the Presbyterian Hunger Program. And your contributions will bless families that have been struck by disasters like earthquakes and tsunamis through the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance Program. As we go though Lent you will hear more about the One Great Hour of Sharing. Remember that God said in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.
Lord Jesus, we thank you for all the blessings we have received. Show us how we can use these blessings to bless others. Amen.
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Sermon “What Did God Say” - Genesis 2 and 3
Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard
Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Presbyterian Churches
Sermon “What Did God Say” - Genesis 2 and 3
March 13, 2011
We have arrived at the first Sunday of Lent. “The season of Lent is a time of prayer, fasting and self-examination in preparation for the celebration of the resurrection of the Lord at Easter. It is a period of 40 days — like the flood of Genesis, Moses’ sojourn at Mount Sinai, Elijah’s journey to Mount Horeb, Jonah’s call to Ninevah to repent and Jesus’ time of testing in the wilderness. (The Sundays in Lent are not counted in this reckoning of the time between Ash Wednesday and Easter, as every Lord’s Day is a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.) In the early church, Lent was a time of preparation for the celebration of baptism at the Easter Vigil. In many communities of faith it remains a time to equip and nurture candidates for baptism and confirmation and to reflect deeply on the theme of baptismal discipleship.” (http://gamc.pcusa.org/ministries/theologyandworship/worship-resources-lent/) Let us pray.
“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy Heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)
Our scripture this morning is the familiar text from Genesis chapters two and three which I will be reading from a new translation by Robert Alter.
The story you just heard is a parable. It is similar to the parables that Jesus told. It is a simple story that is very easy to remember, but also has a powerful point. This story was originally meant to be humorous. There are literary elements in it that the original audience would have found quite funny. There are a couple of puns in it. A pun is a wordplay where two words sound alike but have different meanings are put together to make a rhetorical point or to make people laugh. In Genesis 2 there is a pun on the words for soil and man. Soil is the adamah. Man is the adam. So the adam is made from the adamah. You get it. There is another pun in Genesis 3. The serpent is called crafty, arum. Adam and Eve are naked, arumim. The the arum (crafty) is trying to trick the arumim (naked). A Hebrew speaker would pick up on the puns immediately, but they are lost in our English translations.
Another literary device that the author uses to make this humorous is satire. Satire is a literary genre that is used to ridicule vises, bad practices, or abuse. The biblical author uses satire to poke fun at a group of people. These people had it made. They were blessed with everything you could ever want. They lived is a garden with plenty of delicious food to eat. And their vocation was to care for that garden so that the fruit and vegetables would grow in abundance. But these people wanted more. They weren't satisfied with what they had. They lusted for things that had been prohibited. And so they threw away all the blessings they had in order have what they thought they wanted. And in doing so lost everything they had. How stupid can you get? Ha Ha Ha
This story would be really funny to us except that we realize that we are the butt of the joke. We are the stupid ones who are never satisfied with the blessings we have received from God. We want more and more. We lust after what is prohibited, and find that we lose all the treasures we had whenever we reach for more. We are the ones the angels and all of heaven are laughing at.
When we read Genesis 2 and 3 we hear not a joke but a tragedy. We are the tragic figures. Rather than thanking God for all the blessings we have received we complain and complain about what we don't have. We lust after that which is not permitted. We desire that which is not beneficial. And this leads us to lose the blessings we already had. We lust after a new relationship and find ourselves divorced and no happier than before. We lust after more money, or power or prestige so we get a new academic degree, or change jobs, or move to a new location and find that the golden ring is still elusive. No matter what we do, and we try over and over again, we can never satisfy our lusts and we lose the treasures we once had. The more we try the worse it gets. We fall into a vicious cycle with no way out. This is what we call depravity. We are so consumed by sin that we are unable to stop sinning and return to God.
Recently, I saw a story on television about a man who had been walking on a seashore in New England. It was wintertime after a heavy snow. The beach was covered with a large mound of snow and ice. As he walked he began to realize the danger he was in. He could fall through the ice. So he turned around to head home. But suddenly the ice broke and he fell through a hole into a large ice cavern. He realized that he had to get out of the icy water immediately or he would quickly die. So he pulled himself up on a ledge of ice. As he look around he realized that there was no way out. There was no way he could crawl back to safety. He would die in this icy tomb unless someone came to save him. So he started to scream as loud as he could hoping that someone would hear him and come to save him.
This is the situation in which we find ourselves. Because of our sin, our disobedience to God, we have fallen into a hole and cannot get out. We try to save ourselves. We go to church. We read our Bibles. We pray every day. But no matter how hard we try save ourselves from sin we just fall deeper and deeper into the hole. The harder we try the more we fall. And we are drowning in a sea of sin.
Our only hope is that someone will hear our cries and save us. Someone heard the cries of the man who had fallen through the ice and came to rescue him. We too need a savior who will rescue us from the hole of sin that we have fallen into.
Adam and Eve tried their best. They sewed together some fig leaves and hid in the bushes. But it wasn't enough to deal with the downward spiral they had started. They were ashamed and fearful of God. They needed someone to come and restore the relationship they had with their creator. They needed a savior.
Eventually God arrived and looked for his creatures. He realized that the man and woman he had created had chosen to satisfy their own lusts rather than obey his commands. He knew that they were ashamed and fearful So what did God do? Did he open a hole in the ground to swallow up his evil creation? No. Did a flood cover the face of the earth? No. Did fire destroy the garden? No. What God did was to get out the sewing machine and make his beloved creatures new clothes to wear. You see, no matter how far we have fallen, no matter how deep a hole of sin we're in, no matter how much we are separated from God, God still loves us, cares for us and wants the best for us.
So when we find ourselves lusting for the things we are not suppose to have and when we have acted on those lusts, you will lose many of the blessings you had received from God. That's just the way it is. But you will never lose God's love.
Heavenly Father, on this first Sunday in Lent we have gather to confess our sins to you. We have been following our own way for far too long. We desire to have a better relationship with you. So help us to amend our lives and faithfully trust in your love. Amen.
Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Presbyterian Churches
Sermon “What Did God Say” - Genesis 2 and 3
March 13, 2011
We have arrived at the first Sunday of Lent. “The season of Lent is a time of prayer, fasting and self-examination in preparation for the celebration of the resurrection of the Lord at Easter. It is a period of 40 days — like the flood of Genesis, Moses’ sojourn at Mount Sinai, Elijah’s journey to Mount Horeb, Jonah’s call to Ninevah to repent and Jesus’ time of testing in the wilderness. (The Sundays in Lent are not counted in this reckoning of the time between Ash Wednesday and Easter, as every Lord’s Day is a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.) In the early church, Lent was a time of preparation for the celebration of baptism at the Easter Vigil. In many communities of faith it remains a time to equip and nurture candidates for baptism and confirmation and to reflect deeply on the theme of baptismal discipleship.” (http://gamc.pcusa.org/ministries/theologyandworship/worship-resources-lent/) Let us pray.
“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy Heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)
Our scripture this morning is the familiar text from Genesis chapters two and three which I will be reading from a new translation by Robert Alter.
The story you just heard is a parable. It is similar to the parables that Jesus told. It is a simple story that is very easy to remember, but also has a powerful point. This story was originally meant to be humorous. There are literary elements in it that the original audience would have found quite funny. There are a couple of puns in it. A pun is a wordplay where two words sound alike but have different meanings are put together to make a rhetorical point or to make people laugh. In Genesis 2 there is a pun on the words for soil and man. Soil is the adamah. Man is the adam. So the adam is made from the adamah. You get it. There is another pun in Genesis 3. The serpent is called crafty, arum. Adam and Eve are naked, arumim. The the arum (crafty) is trying to trick the arumim (naked). A Hebrew speaker would pick up on the puns immediately, but they are lost in our English translations.
Another literary device that the author uses to make this humorous is satire. Satire is a literary genre that is used to ridicule vises, bad practices, or abuse. The biblical author uses satire to poke fun at a group of people. These people had it made. They were blessed with everything you could ever want. They lived is a garden with plenty of delicious food to eat. And their vocation was to care for that garden so that the fruit and vegetables would grow in abundance. But these people wanted more. They weren't satisfied with what they had. They lusted for things that had been prohibited. And so they threw away all the blessings they had in order have what they thought they wanted. And in doing so lost everything they had. How stupid can you get? Ha Ha Ha
This story would be really funny to us except that we realize that we are the butt of the joke. We are the stupid ones who are never satisfied with the blessings we have received from God. We want more and more. We lust after what is prohibited, and find that we lose all the treasures we had whenever we reach for more. We are the ones the angels and all of heaven are laughing at.
When we read Genesis 2 and 3 we hear not a joke but a tragedy. We are the tragic figures. Rather than thanking God for all the blessings we have received we complain and complain about what we don't have. We lust after that which is not permitted. We desire that which is not beneficial. And this leads us to lose the blessings we already had. We lust after a new relationship and find ourselves divorced and no happier than before. We lust after more money, or power or prestige so we get a new academic degree, or change jobs, or move to a new location and find that the golden ring is still elusive. No matter what we do, and we try over and over again, we can never satisfy our lusts and we lose the treasures we once had. The more we try the worse it gets. We fall into a vicious cycle with no way out. This is what we call depravity. We are so consumed by sin that we are unable to stop sinning and return to God.
Recently, I saw a story on television about a man who had been walking on a seashore in New England. It was wintertime after a heavy snow. The beach was covered with a large mound of snow and ice. As he walked he began to realize the danger he was in. He could fall through the ice. So he turned around to head home. But suddenly the ice broke and he fell through a hole into a large ice cavern. He realized that he had to get out of the icy water immediately or he would quickly die. So he pulled himself up on a ledge of ice. As he look around he realized that there was no way out. There was no way he could crawl back to safety. He would die in this icy tomb unless someone came to save him. So he started to scream as loud as he could hoping that someone would hear him and come to save him.
This is the situation in which we find ourselves. Because of our sin, our disobedience to God, we have fallen into a hole and cannot get out. We try to save ourselves. We go to church. We read our Bibles. We pray every day. But no matter how hard we try save ourselves from sin we just fall deeper and deeper into the hole. The harder we try the more we fall. And we are drowning in a sea of sin.
Our only hope is that someone will hear our cries and save us. Someone heard the cries of the man who had fallen through the ice and came to rescue him. We too need a savior who will rescue us from the hole of sin that we have fallen into.
Adam and Eve tried their best. They sewed together some fig leaves and hid in the bushes. But it wasn't enough to deal with the downward spiral they had started. They were ashamed and fearful of God. They needed someone to come and restore the relationship they had with their creator. They needed a savior.
Eventually God arrived and looked for his creatures. He realized that the man and woman he had created had chosen to satisfy their own lusts rather than obey his commands. He knew that they were ashamed and fearful So what did God do? Did he open a hole in the ground to swallow up his evil creation? No. Did a flood cover the face of the earth? No. Did fire destroy the garden? No. What God did was to get out the sewing machine and make his beloved creatures new clothes to wear. You see, no matter how far we have fallen, no matter how deep a hole of sin we're in, no matter how much we are separated from God, God still loves us, cares for us and wants the best for us.
So when we find ourselves lusting for the things we are not suppose to have and when we have acted on those lusts, you will lose many of the blessings you had received from God. That's just the way it is. But you will never lose God's love.
Heavenly Father, on this first Sunday in Lent we have gather to confess our sins to you. We have been following our own way for far too long. We desire to have a better relationship with you. So help us to amend our lives and faithfully trust in your love. Amen.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Sermon “Coping With Our Critics” - 1 Corinthians 4:1-5
Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard
Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Presbyterian Churches
Sermon “Coping With Our Critics” - 1 Corinthians 4:1-5
Adapted from: Lewis Smedes, http://www.csec.org/csec/sermon/smedes_4508.htm
March 6, 2011
Today, I will be concluding my series of sermons drawn from the first four chapters of the book of First Corinthians. We have seen that Paul loves these churches very much and wants to help them overcome their difficulties resulting from the fact that they have been served by several different preachers. Paul wants them to focus on Jesus Christ crucified as a way of uniting. I urge you to continue to read First Corinthians on your own and see how Paul helps the churches of Corinth deal with problems of person ethics and practices in worship. Today we will look at how Paul teaches them to deal with the underlying problem they have: they are judging one another. But first lets pray.
“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy Heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)
I am going to talk with you about how to cope with people who set themselves up as your critics. We all have critics; I have had a fair share of them in my time. All of us have people around us who tell us whether we dress right, talk right, think right, or do right. Critics can make us feel guilty, or ashamed, or just plain incompetent—if we let them. So one of the most important lessons about life that I, for one, am still learning, and maybe you are too is this: How to cope with our critics?
There are two mistakes people often make when they are trying to cope with their critics. One mistake is to ignore them. But the trouble with ignoring our critics is that we may discover that they were right and that we would have been better off if we had listened to them. So it is a mistake to ignore our critics. On the other hand, it is an even bigger mistake to take them too seriously—to let them have the last word, as if they were our judges and were always right. The trick, then, is to listen to our critics, but never, never let our critics be our judges. Here is the key. A critic is one thing. A judge is another. Critics give us their own opinion, and it is up to us to take it or leave it. But judges are different; when they deliver their judgment, we have no choice, we simply have to take it. This is why I say: listen to your critics, but never let them be your judges.
The Apostle Paul had his share of critics and what he said to his critics has always been helpful to me. Our scripture reading for today is 1 Corinthians 4:1-5
You will notice that he had three kinds of critics: first, other people, second, himself, and, third, the Lord. Three critics. We have the very same ones: other people, our own selves, and the Lord.
Let’s first talk about our human critics: Our friends. People who go to our church. Our mothers. Even our own children. They can criticize us for just about everything. The apostle’s critics, for instance, were carping at him for the way he carried on his missionary work. How did he respond? He simply said: "I am listening. I hear what you are saying. What you say matters to me. But when the chips are down, and you have had your say, your words are never the last word for me. You are not my judges."
When we let our critics become our judges, we let them decide whether we are good enough or beautiful enough to be loved and accepted. I knew a woman once who had just about everything a beautiful woman, fifty-ish, could want: besides being good looking, she was well educated, and wealthy, and on top of that she was a very good, generous human being. But with all her fine qualities, she was miserable. Deeply depressed, she sometimes thought of taking her own life. How did she get in that terribly sad state of mind? I will tell you. She got into that sad state of mind by letting her critics become her judges. She had lived her whole life to win their approval. She lived in fear that if she did not measure up to their judgments, she would not be good enough for anyone, especially God, to love her. What happened to this wonderful woman? I am happy to say that she finally learned how to deal with her critics. She found the courage to say to them all: "I respect your criticism, but from now on, I will not let you be my judge."
Very often we have the hardest time when our critics are the very people we love and admire. When I was in college, I had a wonderful teacher whom I greatly admired. And I wanted his approval above almost every thing else. And if I did not have his approval I would be crushed. In short I was letting my professor and critic be my judge. It took me a long time to say to myself: " I want him to be my critic, I will always take his opinion seriously. But I will not let him be my judge." I can tell you that the day I decided that my college idol would not be my judge, I found a new freedom to follow my own path without worrying about what he thought of what I was doing.
Critics are a blessing. We can all profit from them. But they can be a curse if we let them be our judges. Our second critic is our own self. God has made us with the ability to examine our own lives, to take stock of ourselves and be our own critics. The only way we will ever improve our lives is by being critical of ourselves. But, oh, we make a huge mistake if we become our own judges. The apostle Paul knew this, so when he refused to let his critics be his judges, he added these words: I do not even judge myself.
It is important here to recall the difference between a critic and a judge: a critic gives you his or her opinion and you can accept it or your can reject it. But when a judge pronounces his or her judgment, you are stuck with it.
The apostle was his own toughest critic. He took the measure of his own life and criticized himself very honestly. He said: "I find that I often do the very things that—in my deepest spirit—I do not really want to do. And I often fail to do the very things that, deep in my spirit, I really want to do." Yes, the apostle was his own toughest critic. And he urged us to examine ourselves and be critical of what we see in ourselves. But be our own judges? Not on your life.
We are simply not competent to judge ourselves. When we take stock of ourselves, we tend to see what we want to see. When we are feeling good about ourselves we want to see only the good things about ourselves. When we get down on ourselves we actually look for bad things in ourselves. How we see ourselves is always blurred by the mood we are in. When we feel good about ourselves, we are too easy on ourselves. When we feel down, depressed, we are too hard on ourselves. The Bible says that all our hearts are deceitful, and they never deceive us so badly as when we are trying to examine our own selves.
Besides, we are too complicated for us to understand ourselves—even when we are honest with ourselves. The smartest psychiatrist in the world can spend five years with a patient and never really unravel the mystery of his patient’s spirit. Look inside yourself, and you will find shadow and light, evil and goodness, ugliness and beauty, hate and love, all mixed up together like a tossed salad.
I worry about people who, when they look inside themselves, always come up feeling smug, and thoroughly pleased with themselves. I also worry about people who look inside themselves and come up feeling as if their souls were cesspools. Neither of them has seen themselves for what they really are.
Their mistake is not that they criticize themselves. Their mistake is that they judge themselves. I know good people who are going through life judging themselves to be flawed and blemished and hopeless persons. Yes, I worry about good people who judge themselves and always find themselves wanting. On the other hand, I have known people who made a living by lying and cheating and stealing who convinced themselves that they were really models of good character. Yes, I worry about people who judge themselves and always find themselves innocent. No wonder the apostle Paul said to his critics: I not only refuse to let you be my judges, I do not judge myself. I criticize myself, but I do not judge myself.
Which leaves just one more critic: The Lord himself. The apostle not only refused to let his human critics be his judges, he would not let himself be his own judge. But now comes the clincher. It was not as if he refused to be judged by anyone. He had a judge and told his critics who his judge was. He said: "My judge is the Lord." Think for a moment. God is qualified to be our judge because he knows us right down to the core, knows everything there is to know about us, good, bad, and indifferent. How can we live with the one critic who really has the competence to be our judge?
For myself, I have found that the way to live with my divine critic is to know that whenever he judges me, he also loves me, forgives me, and accepts me. Nothing I have ever done or ever will do can persuade God to reject me.
Jesus himself had critics who judged him to be deserving of the death penalty. But what his judges did not know, was that when they condemned Jesus to death, God himself was in Jesus bearing their judgment. And since that moment when God was judged, he is the God who forgives.
One last word. We all have to live with critics. That’s life. But the only critic who is qualified to be our judge is the Lord himself. And the good news about our divine judge is that he refuses to condemn us. Let me put it in the apostle’s own words: there is therefore no condemnation. No condemnation. No condemnation at all. There is only forgiveness. There is only love.
Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Presbyterian Churches
Sermon “Coping With Our Critics” - 1 Corinthians 4:1-5
Adapted from: Lewis Smedes, http://www.csec.org/csec/sermon/smedes_4508.htm
March 6, 2011
Today, I will be concluding my series of sermons drawn from the first four chapters of the book of First Corinthians. We have seen that Paul loves these churches very much and wants to help them overcome their difficulties resulting from the fact that they have been served by several different preachers. Paul wants them to focus on Jesus Christ crucified as a way of uniting. I urge you to continue to read First Corinthians on your own and see how Paul helps the churches of Corinth deal with problems of person ethics and practices in worship. Today we will look at how Paul teaches them to deal with the underlying problem they have: they are judging one another. But first lets pray.
“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy Heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)
I am going to talk with you about how to cope with people who set themselves up as your critics. We all have critics; I have had a fair share of them in my time. All of us have people around us who tell us whether we dress right, talk right, think right, or do right. Critics can make us feel guilty, or ashamed, or just plain incompetent—if we let them. So one of the most important lessons about life that I, for one, am still learning, and maybe you are too is this: How to cope with our critics?
There are two mistakes people often make when they are trying to cope with their critics. One mistake is to ignore them. But the trouble with ignoring our critics is that we may discover that they were right and that we would have been better off if we had listened to them. So it is a mistake to ignore our critics. On the other hand, it is an even bigger mistake to take them too seriously—to let them have the last word, as if they were our judges and were always right. The trick, then, is to listen to our critics, but never, never let our critics be our judges. Here is the key. A critic is one thing. A judge is another. Critics give us their own opinion, and it is up to us to take it or leave it. But judges are different; when they deliver their judgment, we have no choice, we simply have to take it. This is why I say: listen to your critics, but never let them be your judges.
The Apostle Paul had his share of critics and what he said to his critics has always been helpful to me. Our scripture reading for today is 1 Corinthians 4:1-5
You will notice that he had three kinds of critics: first, other people, second, himself, and, third, the Lord. Three critics. We have the very same ones: other people, our own selves, and the Lord.
Let’s first talk about our human critics: Our friends. People who go to our church. Our mothers. Even our own children. They can criticize us for just about everything. The apostle’s critics, for instance, were carping at him for the way he carried on his missionary work. How did he respond? He simply said: "I am listening. I hear what you are saying. What you say matters to me. But when the chips are down, and you have had your say, your words are never the last word for me. You are not my judges."
When we let our critics become our judges, we let them decide whether we are good enough or beautiful enough to be loved and accepted. I knew a woman once who had just about everything a beautiful woman, fifty-ish, could want: besides being good looking, she was well educated, and wealthy, and on top of that she was a very good, generous human being. But with all her fine qualities, she was miserable. Deeply depressed, she sometimes thought of taking her own life. How did she get in that terribly sad state of mind? I will tell you. She got into that sad state of mind by letting her critics become her judges. She had lived her whole life to win their approval. She lived in fear that if she did not measure up to their judgments, she would not be good enough for anyone, especially God, to love her. What happened to this wonderful woman? I am happy to say that she finally learned how to deal with her critics. She found the courage to say to them all: "I respect your criticism, but from now on, I will not let you be my judge."
Very often we have the hardest time when our critics are the very people we love and admire. When I was in college, I had a wonderful teacher whom I greatly admired. And I wanted his approval above almost every thing else. And if I did not have his approval I would be crushed. In short I was letting my professor and critic be my judge. It took me a long time to say to myself: " I want him to be my critic, I will always take his opinion seriously. But I will not let him be my judge." I can tell you that the day I decided that my college idol would not be my judge, I found a new freedom to follow my own path without worrying about what he thought of what I was doing.
Critics are a blessing. We can all profit from them. But they can be a curse if we let them be our judges. Our second critic is our own self. God has made us with the ability to examine our own lives, to take stock of ourselves and be our own critics. The only way we will ever improve our lives is by being critical of ourselves. But, oh, we make a huge mistake if we become our own judges. The apostle Paul knew this, so when he refused to let his critics be his judges, he added these words: I do not even judge myself.
It is important here to recall the difference between a critic and a judge: a critic gives you his or her opinion and you can accept it or your can reject it. But when a judge pronounces his or her judgment, you are stuck with it.
The apostle was his own toughest critic. He took the measure of his own life and criticized himself very honestly. He said: "I find that I often do the very things that—in my deepest spirit—I do not really want to do. And I often fail to do the very things that, deep in my spirit, I really want to do." Yes, the apostle was his own toughest critic. And he urged us to examine ourselves and be critical of what we see in ourselves. But be our own judges? Not on your life.
We are simply not competent to judge ourselves. When we take stock of ourselves, we tend to see what we want to see. When we are feeling good about ourselves we want to see only the good things about ourselves. When we get down on ourselves we actually look for bad things in ourselves. How we see ourselves is always blurred by the mood we are in. When we feel good about ourselves, we are too easy on ourselves. When we feel down, depressed, we are too hard on ourselves. The Bible says that all our hearts are deceitful, and they never deceive us so badly as when we are trying to examine our own selves.
Besides, we are too complicated for us to understand ourselves—even when we are honest with ourselves. The smartest psychiatrist in the world can spend five years with a patient and never really unravel the mystery of his patient’s spirit. Look inside yourself, and you will find shadow and light, evil and goodness, ugliness and beauty, hate and love, all mixed up together like a tossed salad.
I worry about people who, when they look inside themselves, always come up feeling smug, and thoroughly pleased with themselves. I also worry about people who look inside themselves and come up feeling as if their souls were cesspools. Neither of them has seen themselves for what they really are.
Their mistake is not that they criticize themselves. Their mistake is that they judge themselves. I know good people who are going through life judging themselves to be flawed and blemished and hopeless persons. Yes, I worry about good people who judge themselves and always find themselves wanting. On the other hand, I have known people who made a living by lying and cheating and stealing who convinced themselves that they were really models of good character. Yes, I worry about people who judge themselves and always find themselves innocent. No wonder the apostle Paul said to his critics: I not only refuse to let you be my judges, I do not judge myself. I criticize myself, but I do not judge myself.
Which leaves just one more critic: The Lord himself. The apostle not only refused to let his human critics be his judges, he would not let himself be his own judge. But now comes the clincher. It was not as if he refused to be judged by anyone. He had a judge and told his critics who his judge was. He said: "My judge is the Lord." Think for a moment. God is qualified to be our judge because he knows us right down to the core, knows everything there is to know about us, good, bad, and indifferent. How can we live with the one critic who really has the competence to be our judge?
For myself, I have found that the way to live with my divine critic is to know that whenever he judges me, he also loves me, forgives me, and accepts me. Nothing I have ever done or ever will do can persuade God to reject me.
Jesus himself had critics who judged him to be deserving of the death penalty. But what his judges did not know, was that when they condemned Jesus to death, God himself was in Jesus bearing their judgment. And since that moment when God was judged, he is the God who forgives.
One last word. We all have to live with critics. That’s life. But the only critic who is qualified to be our judge is the Lord himself. And the good news about our divine judge is that he refuses to condemn us. Let me put it in the apostle’s own words: there is therefore no condemnation. No condemnation. No condemnation at all. There is only forgiveness. There is only love.
Sermon - 1 Corinthians 3:10-23 – God's Holy Temple
Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard
Sermon - 1 Corinthians 3:10-23 – God's Holy Temple
Beaver Dam and Pitts Creek Presbyterian Churches
February 20, 2011
This is my fifth sermon drawn from Paul's first letter to the Church of Corinth. The church has been divided into groups supporting different preachers. Paul has told them to always focus on Jesus Christ. Today we will listen as Paul tells this church about what church really is. And this has very important implications for us who continue to gather as church and focus on our Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray.
“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy Heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)
1 Corinthians 3:10-23 10 According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building on it. Each builder must choose with care how to build on it. 11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw-- 13 the work of each builder will become visible, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each has done. 14 If what has been built on the foundation survives, the builder will receive a reward. 15 If the work is burned up, the builder will suffer loss; the builder will be saved, but only as through fire. 16 Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? 17 If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy that person. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple. 18 Do not deceive yourselves. If you think that you are wise in this age, you should become fools so that you may become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, "He catches the wise in their craftiness," 20 and again, "The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile." 21 So let no one boast about human leaders. For all things are yours, 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future-- all belong to you, 23 and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.
As Americans we are part of an individualistic culture. We celebrate “rugged individualism”. Our capitalistic economy is based on each of us making decisions in our own self interest. “Peace and quiet” is what we all long for. Reading books, listening to the radio, watching television, doing crossword puzzles and surfing the internet are all solitary events. One 0f our of the most popular card games is called “solitaire” which, of course, is played alone. Even our national founding document is called the Declaration of Independence. We like to be left alone.
But church was always something different. We always came together on Sunday mornings for church. And many of us still do. For many people church is a source of friends and social activities. This is all good. But in the last century this changed and religious entrepreneurs began taking advantage of our desire to be alone. Radio spawned a new kind of Christian proclamation. Charles E. Fuller, founder of Fuller Seminary, had a very popular weekly radio program called the Old Time Revival Hour. People could sit at home, alone, and listen to church on the radio. Eventually people could attend church from the comfort of their living rooms by watching religious services on the television. And now there is an almost infinite number of sermons that you can read and listen to on the internet. Even my sermons are available on the church's web site.
As people began to worship God in isolation, a new theological concept was born. We began talking about having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. All you have to do to have a personal relationship with Jesus is to pray and read your Bible daily, and listen to your favorite preacher on radio, TV or the internet. Having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ is a good thing, but Paul would have cautioned us that individual worship is not the same thing as church. For Paul church is a gathering of people. It is only when we join together with others in a faithful community that we are truly worshiping God. And so we need to do more than just listen to sermons on the internet. We also need to be in church on Sunday morning to have a true relationship with Jesus Christ.
Paul said that church is like a building. We sometimes think that church is a building. We see a edifice with a steeple and and cross and we call it a church. For Paul, church did not refer to a building. Rather church was made of people worshiping Jesus Christ. But Paul did use a metaphor to describe the church, and said that a church of people worshiping God was like a building. The foundation of this building is Jesus Christ. Jesus is the only solid foundation that we have upon which to build the church. Any other foundation will not withstand the satanic forces at work trying to undermine the church.
Several years ago I was in Southern California during a wet and rainy winter. One day, just after a hard rain. I heard a news story about six homes sliding down the side of a hill. These were brand new multi-million dollar homes being destroyed by some rain. It turned out that forty years before a developer wanted to put homes on that hill, but the engineers said that he had to anchor the foundation forty feet underground to make it stable. That developer decided that it was too expensive to build the homes. But forty years later a new developer, ignoring the engineering studies, built those homes without a firm foundation and discovered their costly mistake the first time it rained. The church must be built on the solid foundation of Jesus Christ , or it will collapse at the sign of trouble.
Paul also said that the people who make up a church are like a building in that quality materials must be used in its construction. Unless quality is build into the church it will fall in the first strong wind. In the mid 80's I bought a townhouse in Northern Virginia. It was a beautiful place, surrounded by trees, near a lake. I lived there for 18 years. Around year 15 or so I heard that people in the community were having problems with their roofs. The plywood they had used on the roofs in 1984 was beginning to deteriorate from the constant freezing and thawing that followed. The result was a brittle roof that would one day cave in during a heavy snow. I didn't want that to happen, so I bought a new roof. Over the weekend all the materials arrived for the new roof. On Monday the old roof, shingles and plywood were all removed. The attic was exposed to the sky, and I was concerned that if it rained that night my house and everything in it would be destroyed. But they threw a large tarp over the exposed roof, and thankfully God held back the storms that night. And my new roof was installed the next day.
For a church to proper and grow it too must be constructed of quality material. Regular prayer is vital for building a ministry. So too are programs for Christian education for all ages with quality curricula and dedicated teachers. It is important for pastors and teachers to be trained to understand what the Bible says and to recognize how God is working in the world. If we have all of these building blocks church can be constructed to withstand the storms that will come.
As we build the church on the foundation of Jesus Christ using the materials of prayer and Christian education we have to be ready for the arrival of the building inspector. If you are building a house or office building the final inspection is from the fire marshal. The Worcester Fire Marshal checks to see that extinguishers are in place, emergency lighting works, and escape route are open. Only when the building is suitable will he permit the building to be used. According to Paul, God is the building inspector for the church. Anything that does not meet God's high standards will have to be removed. But anything that God blesses will grow and prosper.
Once God has inspected the building blocks of the church and has given us permission to open the church we have made will be visible to all. This is the vital nature of the church. If all you have is an isolated personal relationship with God then there is nothing for others to see. If you worship alone with the radio, TV or internet your worship is hidden from others. But if you join with other believers and build a church then your faith is visible to the world. Through you the world will know that the church is resting on the sure foundation of Jesus Christ. And in you the world will see the building blocks of the church that have been forged in the furnace of prayer and Bible study and have received God's seal of approval.
But there is one more thing that Paul has taught us. An award awaits for us. If we gather together as church, if we place church on the solid foundation of Jesus Christ, if we build church with the solid rock of prayer and Christian education, then God will bless us richly. We will belong to Jesus Christ. This is the great blessing of being church, we not only have a relationship with Jesus, but we also belong to Jesus as his followers.
Some of you are not members of the church. You worship with us, study Bible with us and pray with us, but you are not yet members with us in the church. So I will be teaching a class on Sunday afternoons on what Presbyterians believe. This will be an introduction to reformed faith. The class will begin three weeks from today on Sunday, March 13 from 2-3. Everyone is invited to attend this class, but those who have not yet joined the church have a special invitation. This is your chance to find out what Presbyterians believe so that you can make an informed decision about whether or not to join our church. One our our historic catechisms begins with the following question and answer: “What is your only comfort, in life and in death? That I belong—body and soul, in life and in death—not to myself but to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.”
Lord Jesus, we rest confidently on the foundation that you have set for the church. We are building your church with prayer and Christian education. We await God's inspection and judgment. And we look forward to the day when we are rewarded by belonging to you. In your glorious name we pray. Amen.
Sermon - 1 Corinthians 3:10-23 – God's Holy Temple
Beaver Dam and Pitts Creek Presbyterian Churches
February 20, 2011
This is my fifth sermon drawn from Paul's first letter to the Church of Corinth. The church has been divided into groups supporting different preachers. Paul has told them to always focus on Jesus Christ. Today we will listen as Paul tells this church about what church really is. And this has very important implications for us who continue to gather as church and focus on our Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray.
“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy Heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)
1 Corinthians 3:10-23 10 According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building on it. Each builder must choose with care how to build on it. 11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw-- 13 the work of each builder will become visible, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each has done. 14 If what has been built on the foundation survives, the builder will receive a reward. 15 If the work is burned up, the builder will suffer loss; the builder will be saved, but only as through fire. 16 Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? 17 If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy that person. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple. 18 Do not deceive yourselves. If you think that you are wise in this age, you should become fools so that you may become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, "He catches the wise in their craftiness," 20 and again, "The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile." 21 So let no one boast about human leaders. For all things are yours, 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future-- all belong to you, 23 and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.
As Americans we are part of an individualistic culture. We celebrate “rugged individualism”. Our capitalistic economy is based on each of us making decisions in our own self interest. “Peace and quiet” is what we all long for. Reading books, listening to the radio, watching television, doing crossword puzzles and surfing the internet are all solitary events. One 0f our of the most popular card games is called “solitaire” which, of course, is played alone. Even our national founding document is called the Declaration of Independence. We like to be left alone.
But church was always something different. We always came together on Sunday mornings for church. And many of us still do. For many people church is a source of friends and social activities. This is all good. But in the last century this changed and religious entrepreneurs began taking advantage of our desire to be alone. Radio spawned a new kind of Christian proclamation. Charles E. Fuller, founder of Fuller Seminary, had a very popular weekly radio program called the Old Time Revival Hour. People could sit at home, alone, and listen to church on the radio. Eventually people could attend church from the comfort of their living rooms by watching religious services on the television. And now there is an almost infinite number of sermons that you can read and listen to on the internet. Even my sermons are available on the church's web site.
As people began to worship God in isolation, a new theological concept was born. We began talking about having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. All you have to do to have a personal relationship with Jesus is to pray and read your Bible daily, and listen to your favorite preacher on radio, TV or the internet. Having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ is a good thing, but Paul would have cautioned us that individual worship is not the same thing as church. For Paul church is a gathering of people. It is only when we join together with others in a faithful community that we are truly worshiping God. And so we need to do more than just listen to sermons on the internet. We also need to be in church on Sunday morning to have a true relationship with Jesus Christ.
Paul said that church is like a building. We sometimes think that church is a building. We see a edifice with a steeple and and cross and we call it a church. For Paul, church did not refer to a building. Rather church was made of people worshiping Jesus Christ. But Paul did use a metaphor to describe the church, and said that a church of people worshiping God was like a building. The foundation of this building is Jesus Christ. Jesus is the only solid foundation that we have upon which to build the church. Any other foundation will not withstand the satanic forces at work trying to undermine the church.
Several years ago I was in Southern California during a wet and rainy winter. One day, just after a hard rain. I heard a news story about six homes sliding down the side of a hill. These were brand new multi-million dollar homes being destroyed by some rain. It turned out that forty years before a developer wanted to put homes on that hill, but the engineers said that he had to anchor the foundation forty feet underground to make it stable. That developer decided that it was too expensive to build the homes. But forty years later a new developer, ignoring the engineering studies, built those homes without a firm foundation and discovered their costly mistake the first time it rained. The church must be built on the solid foundation of Jesus Christ , or it will collapse at the sign of trouble.
Paul also said that the people who make up a church are like a building in that quality materials must be used in its construction. Unless quality is build into the church it will fall in the first strong wind. In the mid 80's I bought a townhouse in Northern Virginia. It was a beautiful place, surrounded by trees, near a lake. I lived there for 18 years. Around year 15 or so I heard that people in the community were having problems with their roofs. The plywood they had used on the roofs in 1984 was beginning to deteriorate from the constant freezing and thawing that followed. The result was a brittle roof that would one day cave in during a heavy snow. I didn't want that to happen, so I bought a new roof. Over the weekend all the materials arrived for the new roof. On Monday the old roof, shingles and plywood were all removed. The attic was exposed to the sky, and I was concerned that if it rained that night my house and everything in it would be destroyed. But they threw a large tarp over the exposed roof, and thankfully God held back the storms that night. And my new roof was installed the next day.
For a church to proper and grow it too must be constructed of quality material. Regular prayer is vital for building a ministry. So too are programs for Christian education for all ages with quality curricula and dedicated teachers. It is important for pastors and teachers to be trained to understand what the Bible says and to recognize how God is working in the world. If we have all of these building blocks church can be constructed to withstand the storms that will come.
As we build the church on the foundation of Jesus Christ using the materials of prayer and Christian education we have to be ready for the arrival of the building inspector. If you are building a house or office building the final inspection is from the fire marshal. The Worcester Fire Marshal checks to see that extinguishers are in place, emergency lighting works, and escape route are open. Only when the building is suitable will he permit the building to be used. According to Paul, God is the building inspector for the church. Anything that does not meet God's high standards will have to be removed. But anything that God blesses will grow and prosper.
Once God has inspected the building blocks of the church and has given us permission to open the church we have made will be visible to all. This is the vital nature of the church. If all you have is an isolated personal relationship with God then there is nothing for others to see. If you worship alone with the radio, TV or internet your worship is hidden from others. But if you join with other believers and build a church then your faith is visible to the world. Through you the world will know that the church is resting on the sure foundation of Jesus Christ. And in you the world will see the building blocks of the church that have been forged in the furnace of prayer and Bible study and have received God's seal of approval.
But there is one more thing that Paul has taught us. An award awaits for us. If we gather together as church, if we place church on the solid foundation of Jesus Christ, if we build church with the solid rock of prayer and Christian education, then God will bless us richly. We will belong to Jesus Christ. This is the great blessing of being church, we not only have a relationship with Jesus, but we also belong to Jesus as his followers.
Some of you are not members of the church. You worship with us, study Bible with us and pray with us, but you are not yet members with us in the church. So I will be teaching a class on Sunday afternoons on what Presbyterians believe. This will be an introduction to reformed faith. The class will begin three weeks from today on Sunday, March 13 from 2-3. Everyone is invited to attend this class, but those who have not yet joined the church have a special invitation. This is your chance to find out what Presbyterians believe so that you can make an informed decision about whether or not to join our church. One our our historic catechisms begins with the following question and answer: “What is your only comfort, in life and in death? That I belong—body and soul, in life and in death—not to myself but to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.”
Lord Jesus, we rest confidently on the foundation that you have set for the church. We are building your church with prayer and Christian education. We await God's inspection and judgment. And we look forward to the day when we are rewarded by belonging to you. In your glorious name we pray. Amen.
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