Pastor Sherry’s message for June 28, 2026

Scriptures: Jer 28:5-9; Ps 89:1-4, 15-18; Ro 6:12-23;Matt 10:40-42

Chuck Swindoll tells the following story:

“Imagine, if you will, that you work for a company whose president found it necessary to travel out of the country and spend an extended period of time abroad. So he says to you and the other trusted employees, ‘Look, I’m going to leave. And while I’m gone, I want you to pay close attention to the business. You manage things while I’m away. I will write you regularly. When I do, I will instruct you in what you should do from now until I return from this trip.’ Everyone agrees. 

“He leaves and stays gone for a couple of years. During that time he writes often, communicating his desires and concerns. Finally he returns. He walks up to the front door of the company and immediately discovers everything is in a mess–weeds flourishing in the flower beds, windows broken across the front of the building, the gal at the front desk dozing, loud music roaring from several offices, two or three people engaged in horseplay in the back room. Instead of making a profit, the business has suffered a great loss. Without hesitation he calls everyone together and with a frown asks, ‘What happened? Didn’t you get my letters?’

“You say, ‘Oh, yeah, sure. We got all your letters. We’ve even bound them in a book. And some of us have memorized them. In fact, we have ‘letter study’ every Sunday. You know, those were really great letters.’ I think the president would then ask, ‘But what did you do about my instructions?’ And, no doubt the employees would respond, ‘Do? Well, nothing. But we read every one!’”

(Chuck Swindoll, Living Above the Level of Mediocrity, Thomas Nelson, 1987, p. 242.)

I wonder if God ever considers us and thinks that way. After all, He has left us the Bible for our instruction and edification. Do you ever wonder what He thinks when He observes you or me? The employees in the Swindoll story would all have been fired, right? But our God continues to offer us grace—chance after chance after chance. (Billy Graham’s daughter, Anne Graham Lotz, says our God is the God of the first and last chances, the fat chance, the slim chance, and the no chance—meaning His love for and patience with us is inexhaustible.)

Now compare that to this true story about the Dallas Cowboy quarterback, Roger Staubach:

“Roger Staubach who led the Dallas Cowboys to the World Championship in ’71 admitted that his position as a quarterback who didn’t call his own signals was a source of trial for him. Coach Landry sent in every play. He told Roger when to pass, when to run and only in emergency situations could he change the play (and he had better be right!). Even though Roger considered coach Landry to have a “genius mind” when it came to football strategy, pride said that he should be able to run his own team.

“Roger later said, “I faced up to the issue of obedience. Once I learned to obey there was harmony, fulfillment, and victory.”

      (Source Unknown, but quoted in www,Sermons.com., 6/18/26)

I saw Stauback play quarterback, in person, and beat Army, his senior year at the US Naval Academy (I was a college freshman). If you know anything about the service academies, their training to do whatever they are commanded to do is very rigorous. They, without question, learn how to obey a superior, or endure some pretty painful consequences. Since Coach Landry preferred to call all the plays, it’s a good thing for him that Coach had a quarterback who had been trained to follow orders. Staubach had been a Heisman Trophy winner for being a superb quarterback. But, even so, he obediently submitted to his couch’s will during 11 seasons in the NFL.

Our Scripture passages today all touch on the topic of obedience. Let see what each has to tell us:

A. Our Old Testament reading (Jeremiah 28:5-9) contains a stern warning. The prophet Jeremiah has a competitor for the people’s trust—a false prophet named Hananiah.  Earlier in the chapter, Hananiah has told the king and the citizens of Jerusalem that the people and the loot stolen by Babylon will be returned to the land very shortly (Their return came 70 years later!). The false prophet is selling them lies to improve their morale. Jeremiah, the true prophet of God, was at that time imprisoned with a wooden yoke about his neck, knows this is not so and says, “Not so fast my friend!”

To speak for God, a prophet must actually hear from God! Furthermore, what he relates as God’s words must actually come true—this is the mark of a valid prophet. Jeremiah is later told by the Lord to tell the false prophet that he will die that very year (which did happen 7 months later). The warning is not to speak for God unless the words you speak actually come from God Himself. Like Stauback’s pro coach, God calls the plays and even prophets must be obedient.

That should be obvious, shouldn’t it?

B. Psalm 89 is a maschil psalm, or a hymn of instruction. The psalmist, identified as Ethan the Ezrahite, is a Levite who worked in the Temple.

In verses 1-4, he begins with praise to God for His faithfulness and love, and he also reminds us of God’s Covenant Promises to King David that a descendant of his would always sit on the throne of Israel. This side of the Cross, we know this descendant to be Jesus. In verses 15-18, we are taught that God is our strength and our protector.

In the entire psalm, the faithfulness of God is mentioned 10 times! Remember, in those days they had no bold key on the computer, no emoji’s and no exclamation points, so to demonstrate that something was important, it was repeated time and again. Ethan the psalmist is teaching us that we can and should trust in God, and we can and should obey Him, because He is completely trustworthy. I suspect this fact was very obvious to Ethan the Ezrahite.

C. St. Paul, in Romans 6:12-23, makes a similar point but comes at it from a different angle. Because we live and move and have our being due to God’s love and grace, we are not to think—or act—like we can still live sinful lives!No, we owe God our obedience. Jesus said in John14:15-→If you love Me, obey My commandments. The Christian life is not about living according to a bunch of rules and regulations. We can probably all think of people we have known who live according to what they consider the rules—don’t smoke or drink, or cuss, or wear short skirts, or attend movies, or dance, put on too much make- up—but do not really behave like Jesus. In their private lives, they explode with anger, or they gossip destructively, or they behave immorally, etc.  They have missed the important point—which should be obvious–that to be a Christian is to behave like Jesus did. The word, Christian, after all means little Christs. 

However, we can’t do this in our own strength—our fleshly natures, the culture, and the devil are all too persuasive. We need the guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit. And we need to be obedient to His nudges. Paul makes the point that we are all obedient to some kind of master. We could subject ourselves to the tyranny of pleasing other people, or to pleasing ourselves! But Jesus set us free from all of these influences. As Paul writes, (vv.22-23, NLT)-→But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

We are saved by faith and we are to live by faith—not so obvious, but true!

D. Finally, in the Gospel (Matthew 10: 40-42), Jesus teaches us 4 ways to reap a reward in Heaven. Now to my mind, going to Heaven is enough reward in itself, but apparently there are other rewards given out once one is there. Jesus says some rewards are given out based upon whether or not we were (1) kind and generous toward children or others without much influence; (2) we recognized and were hospitable to righteous persons; (3) we welcomed and were loving and grace-filled toward a prophet; and (4) welcomed anyone who came in Jesus’ name. We will somehow be rewarded in Heaven for exhibiting these behaviors—all Christ-like behaviors. They involve our being obedient to Jesus, not to our own wills, to our self-interest, or to the demands of the world or of the devil.

During my vacation, I read a book by the Messianic Jewish Rabbi, Johnathan Cahn, entitled The Dragon’s Prophesy. He maintains that the terrorists of Hamas are the new descendants of the Philistines, perennial enemies of God’s Chosen People (and by adoption, all Christians). Their very name, in the Hebrew, means “violence, evil, destruction…brutality, immorality, falsehood, lawlessness, injustice, and acts of cruelty, plunder, murder, slaughter, and terror”—all of which we saw carried out on October 7th, 2023, against civilian Israeli’s (p.139). Cahn makes the point that the terrorist organization, Hamas, is a tool of the Dragon, or the Devil, in his fight against everyone who loves God. This of course includes the Jews, but also we Christians. As Paul reminds us in Ephesians 6:12-→For we are not fighting against flesh and blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.

And he concludes that all Christians (and Jews) must become “dragon fighters”—not in our own strength, but by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimonies. If you read pages 259-260, you see and remember that all the great world powers who have come against the Jewish people have dropped out of human history. The Jews, targets of tyranny across the millennia, continue to exist because they are still loved (and protected from extinction) by God. We know the final outcome as it is told to us in Revelation. We are on the victorious side! 

Becoming dragon fighters will require our obedience to Christ and our belief and trust in His power and His faithfulness. Amen. May it be so!

©️ 2026 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams