From Pr. Hendry’s sermon:
We have all felt it in our hearts –
that it is useless to serve God.
The LORD makes a note of those
who fear Him and esteem His name.
He calls them His Treasured Posession.
God acted for us greatly
in not sparing His own Son.
He makes us righteous by His Holy Spirit
when we do not see it.
So we should continue to serve Him,
remembering
that we were bought with a price.
The Malachi Window, Grace Lutheran Church, San Diego
From Pr. Hendry’s sermon:
Our Gospel reading today
is scary, but
we know there is both
foreboding and joy.
Foreboding, but this is
our opportunity to bear witness.
Foreboding of great destruction
and persecution.
Joy that
our redemption draws near.
So then,
Follow Jesus at whatever cost.
Hear His words continually
and be led by them.
This is the Pantokrator, meaning Ruler of All. Notice what’s under His left foot.
From Pr. Hendry’s sermon:
Our reading brings us
before the throne of God.
Honor God for the salvation
He so freely gives.
Honor God for the worship
the martyrs give now.
Honor God for the joy
the martyrs have now
and the joy
to which we look forward.
From Pr. Hendry’s sermon:
The 3 Solas:
Sola Scriptura – Scripture Alone.
The truth about our world,
God’s promises, Direction in life.
Sola Fide – Faith Alone.
Faith = Believing.
By faith, we are justified – found not guilty.
Sola Gratia – Grace alone.
Our works cannot justify us.
What Jesus did for us justifies us.
And so we are found not guilty,
and saved, a free gift.
From Pr. Hendry’s sermon:
From the very first generation,
Man has needed God’s mercy.
Cain, a murderer, received a mark
so that he would not be attacked
as he wandered the earth.
We sinners are also marked,
with the blood of Christ,
a sign of great mercy.
When God looks at us,
He sees His Son.
From Pr. Hendry’s sermon:
Keep on praying for your needs
and the needs of others.
How? Take look at the Psalms.
“A Father to the fatherless” Ps 68
“For he knows our frame” Ps 103
“Though the Lord is high,
he regards the lowly” Ps 138
and of course,
“The Lord is my shepherd” Ps 23
From Pr. Hendry’s sermon:
What have the witnesses (martyrs) told us?
Jesus was faithful
in His suffering for us.
Jesus was faithful
in gaining eternal life for us, the elect.
Jesus is faithful
in His promise to us of victory over death.
By Jaime Nava –
So my wife was at a Trader Joe’s market. Zoey, our daughter, was with her. As she describes it, some guy with mad scientist hair approached her. In a non-aggressive or confrontational way he tells my wife, “You know, your daughter’s condition is correctable”. Zoey, my little three year old, has Down syndrome. She always has. She always will.
Maybe I should take a little time to explain Down syndrome (also called trisomy 21). This syndrome has a spectrum of people with some who have certain cells having extra chromosomes to others with all cells having extra chromosomes. The odds of a child with Down syndrome are about 1/1000. Most children with Down syndrome are born to women under 35 but that tends to be because women don’t have as many kids over that age too. They are often born with heart defects as well. Zoey has extra chromosomes in all cells and was born with heart defects. People with Down syndrome learn to walk later, talk later, potty train later, pretty much do everything later. Should we compare people with Down syndrome to those who do not, it would seem that they have poor quality of life because they can’t always do what most people can do. There’s another way to look at it. They don’t live at most people’s pace.
So this fellow sees my daughter and probably read an article or saw something on T.V. and thought that my Zoey needed some fixing. After all, he was only trying to help. You know, people with disabilities are a drain on parents. They require all their attention. People with disabilities are a syphon on society. They use all that valuable tax money. It would be much better for our freedom and for our bottom line if we just rounded them up and fixed them, if we could. If we couldn’t, well, maybe we just abort. 90% of all people with Down syndrome are aborted (i.e. killed) in the womb. Imagine a school with only 10% of the kids there. Imagine your church with 10% of the people. Why are they gone? Because they were a burden on me and society. That is how our culture, especially many doctors, view people with Down syndrome. The great “straw-man knight”, Richard Dawkins, once tweeted to a woman with a Down syndrome person in her womb, “Abort it and try again. It would be immoral to bring it into the world if you have the choice.” So there we have it. Liberty over life. Morality means no burden. Let us make our fellow man in our image.
What can be done with all of this? Shall we spout righteous brimstone? Before I get there, I find some interesting things in media regarding people with Down Syndrome. Have you heard of the runway model with Down syndrome? I’ve also seen videos of a girl singing and a young man who is a weight lifter, each with the same syndrome. I’m torn when I see these things. On the one hand I see a person who is elated with their achievements. What we take for granted is still left for trailblazing. We celebrate their hard work and dedication. On the other hand, I can’t help but think that there’s a hint of “that’s normal so that’s better”. Do we find people more acceptable if they’re more like us? Does the gap between them and us grow smaller when they do what we do? Why do we think there’s a gap at all, us and them? I don’t want to downplay the hard work of those with major obstacles. I do want to point out that one reaction we have to disabilities is to try to make them more like us. This brings us back to the mad scientist at Trader Joe’s.
My first reaction is to give him a mitt in the gob, a molly wop if you will. That’s my gut reaction. The other reaction is to build myself a stilted horse with “pity” on the side so I can look down on the poor fellow and feel sorry for his lack of empathy. The reality is Zoey feels the effects of Adam and Eve’s rebellion far more than we. She carries the weight of the curse with such grace and humble stride that I am ashamed at myself. She doesn’t shake her little fist at God or at her parents. In fact, I dare you to find someone more loving, caring, peaceable, generous, and so much more than my Zoey. What I see in my daughter is God’s power made perfect in weakness. Grace is made sufficient for Zoey. She will have to rely on Christ for all her needs of body and soul. She will have to remain in someone’s nearby care all her days. She is not a burden on society, she is a burden on Christ and on His mercy. It is the exact burden God Himself desires for us all.
Zoey knows what it is to be poor in spirit. Can we say the same? Do we look to make other men into our image or do we cherish them for who they are, the burden of God? The great equalizer of the grave comes for us all. Where is our strength then? We can only find it, as Zoey does, in Christ alone.
I was working as a waiter in a cafe just into my twenties. I remember this one fellow walking up to me and speaking to me about the end of the world. He told me that if I wasn’t ready, I’d be left behind. I bring this up because this fellow, who was telling me about the fire and brimstone of being left behind, thought he was doing something he wasn’t. He thought he was doing evangelism.
Why was he not doing evangelism? Wasn’t he sharing things in the bible to someone who he thought didn’t know things about the bible? Whether he was sharing things that were biblical is debatable but more importantly, he wasn’t evangelizing because he wasn’t sharing the Good News. The word evangelism comes from the Greek. It’s two words mooshed together. The first word is Eu (pronounced yoo). Eu means good. The second word is angelion. You can see the word angel in there. Angelion means news or message. As a side note, angel means a messenger. So Eu + Angelion = Good Message or Good News. This is where we get our word evangelism from. The eu became ev at some point but that’s language for you.
So we have some shmancy Greek talk about the word Euangelion, so what? The euangelion or evangelism is telling people good news. Telling someone that if they are going to be left behind if they don’t believe is not good news. Actually, it’s bad news. What’s the Good News? The Good News is this, no matter how good you are or how bad you are, God saves you anyways because of Jesus. The Good News is not about you, it’s about Jesus for you. The Good News is that, despite being a crummy Christian, Christ is perfect for you. The Good News is that no matter how long it has been since you’ve been to Church, Jesus will always welcome you back. The Good News is that if you have been hurt by the church, even by other Christians, there are still places that proclaim that Jesus loves sinners, even me and even you. The Good News is free for you because Jesus paid it all. The Good News is that a holy and righteous God sees perfection in you because of Jesus for you.
If you have a church, go there and listen for the Good News. If not or if you’ve been gone from the church for a long time, if you don’t think you’re good enough to go to heaven, if you have been hurt by the Christians, you are welcome to join rotten, hypocritical sinners like you at Good Shepherd. We preach evangelism every Sunday. In fact, we do Evangelism every day because sinners like us need it every day. For us, Jesus is the center of our service, our sermons, everything because seekers or not, we all need Jesus all the time. The Good News is Jesus Christ forgives you despite you. That’s Good News. That’s Evangelism.
If you would like to hear more or discuss something you read here feel free to contact me, Rev. Jaime Nava at Good Shepherd. 909-790-1863
My three year old daughter loves to watch Sesame Street. One of her favorite monsters is Elmo. You know the little guy; big eyes, bright red hair, high-pitched voice. One thing about parenting is this, whatever your child watches, you watch. So I get caught watching a little red monster with my daughter. Elmo has a segment called “Elmo’s World”. It’s a whole thing built around his imagination. Within Elmo’s World there is a real goldfish inside a fishbowl. Her name is Dorothy. Elmo talks to Dorothy. Although we can’t hear Dorothy, Elmo seems to understand exactly what this gold fish is saying. You’ll hear Elmo say, “What’s that Dorothy?” and he will tell my daughter and me what Dorothy is saying. As I watched Elmo with my daughter something occurred to me. The conversation between a red monster and a gold fish can be found in the church too. I don’t mean the actually creatures. I mean the technique Elmo employs to hear what his gold fish says.
Have you ever heard this phrase, “God put it on my heart…”? I’d be shocked if Christians have not heard other Christians use this phrase. It’s used in books by guys like Steven Furtik[1], from churches like NewSpring[2] and by Christians wanting to start a biker church[3]. Search Google with that phrase. The number of pages is virtually unending. It comes in other forms as well. People also say things like, “I was led by God to…” fill in the blank. Break it down and this is what is being said, “The future is unknown. Even so, I have a certain feeling/emotion about that future. I believe the emotion I feel is God communicating directly to me. I trust that this feeling will lead to a good outcome if I act on it.” This is integrally connected to the way many churches and Christians operate today. They look internally (i.e. emotionally) for God and His Word, His voice. On the flip-side, not feeling moved for Jesus is a cardinal sin for many American Christians.
This actually changes how God’s Word functions. Along these lines the Word isn’t the guide, it needs one. So we guide the Word to fit what we feel God is saying. Step out in faith like Peter. Don’t doubt like Thomas. Be courageous like Paul. Slay those big Goliaths in your life like David. The Word is meant to move in the direction from external to internal. In this case, though, we’ve twisted to move from internal to external. It takes the firm foundation and turns it into silly putty. What is that end? We end up like a little red monster talking to his fish.
Saying “God put it on my heart” means you become a prophet for God. “Thus saith the Lord” is no different. It means you become a prophetic mediator between God and your neighbor in this instance. By your feelings, you bridge the gap between the hidden will of God and the world. The problem is this, just as Elmo explains something that is basically made up, we do the very same when we say, “God put it on my heart”. Our heart becomes the goldfish that is moving and we interpret that move as God speaking, God moving. How do you know? “I just do!” No, you really don’t. You’re making things up just like Elmo does when he speaks to his goldfish.
What if you’re wrong? What if the feeling you have is because you heard a song you like or ate a bad burrito? Depending on the situation, it can have disastrous results. What else is the problem? Well, first we are neglecting God’s Word. “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.” (Hebrews 1:1-2) The Great High Prophet has come and revealed everything God wants us to know. Jesus has taught all we need to know in scripture. Where do we find it today? Not in our heart. It’s in the Word outside of your heart. This means that where the Bible speaks, so do we. It also means that where the Bible doesn’t speak, neither do we. So if we say “God put it on my heart” you’d better be able to back it up with a Bible verse in its context. I guarantee you won’t find a verse in the bible that tells you to quit your job to start a church or leave your current wife for another one or to choose one college over another. It’s not there. Stop acting like a better prophet than Jesus. Stop talking to goldfish.
The Christian life, Christian preaching, the point of God’s Word is about sinners who are witnesses of the crucifixion and resurrection of God’s own Son. It’s not finding God in our feelings, in our fish bowls, in the minutia of the day. It’s not in the tea leaves of my emotions. It’s about God’s external Word that kills you, buries you in Jesus’ tomb, and carries you along in His resurrection. It’s not about you. It’s about Jesus FOR you. It’s about what God has already said in His Word that all points to Jesus (John 5:39).
So what about those unknown things you feel God is calling you to do? Well, first speak with your family. Check your budget. Don’t be foolish. If there are multiple ways to go, listen to Yogi Berra, “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” Your decisions will be tainted with sin because you are a sinner (Isaiah 64:6; 1 John 1:8). Despite you, God is bigger. God will do what needs to be done. By grace, sometimes He might even use you to do it. Stop looking for God’s will in goldfish. Speak what God says and accept the fact that God will use you wherever you are to accomplish His will, that is, to forgive sinners through Jesus Christ.
Rev. Jaime Nava
[1] (p. 57. Furtik, Steven. Sun Stand Still. 2010)
[2] See https://www.facebook.com/notes/newspring-church/no-encounter-is-too-brief-to-be-filled-with-the-hope-of-christ/178167017121
[3] http://www.marshallnewsmessenger.com/news/2015/apr/04/revved-up-for-religion/