Posted on by Cheryl Norman

Humble Yourself in the Sight of the Lord

Pastor Sherry’s message for August 31, 2025

Scriptures: Jer 2:1-13; Ps 81:1,10-16; Heb 13:1-8,15-16; Lk 14:1-14

I begin today by playing the acapella version of “Humble Yourself in the Sight of the Lord” (by The Acapella Company; see YouTube music).  These folks have very effectively combined the verse from James 4:10 (NRSV) :  Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you!—with our Gospel lesson and with verses from “Amazing Grace.”  It’s beautiful, isn’t it?  It seems that the way to elevate ourselves in God’s eyes is to be humble.

Consider this example from, “A radio conversation between a US naval vessel and Canadian authorities off the coast of Newfoundland.

Americans: Please divert your course 15 degrees to the North to avoid a collision.

Canadians: Recommend you divert YOUR course 15 degrees to the South to avoid a collision.

Americans: This is the Captain of a US Navy ship. I say again, divert YOUR course.

Canadians: No. I say again, you divert YOUR course.

Americans: THIS IS THE AIRCRAFT CARRIER  USS LINCOLN, THE SECOND LARGEST SHIP IN THE UNITED STATES’ ATLANTIC FLEET. WE ARE ACCOMPANIED BY THREE DESTROYERS, THREE CRUISERS AND NUMEROUS SUPPORT VESSELS.  I DEMAND THAT YOU CHANGE YOUR COURSE 15 DEGREES NORTH, THAT’S ONE FIVE DEGREES NORTH, OR COUNTER- MEASURES WILL BE UNDERTAKEN TO ENSURE THE SAFETY OF THIS SHIP.

Canadians: This is a lighthouse. Your call.”

(Borrowed from www.thepastor’sworkshop.com, 8/28/25)

Slightly embarrassing, wouldn’t you say?  The aircraft carrier captain had to humble himself or risk running aground on rocks, sandbars, or perhaps icebergs.  Having come from three generations of US naval personnel, I know that the worst offense one can commit in the Navy is to run your ship aground.  Any ship captain unfortunate enough to do this is immediately relieved of his command and can kiss his career in the service goodbye!

The Proverbs often point out that God hates human pride (8:13) and the Psalms(149:4) insist that He…crowns the humble with victory.

This is the point of all of our readings today.  Let’s examine them together.

A.  In Luke 14:1-14. Jesus appears intent on teaching the Pharisees a lesson on etiquette—but it’s more consequential than that.  He has been invited to dine at a Pharisee’s house. The Gospels record several of these occasions, each of which provides a lesson for the haughty religious leaders.  In this case, the host has set a trap.  It’s the Sabbath. They produce a man with “Dropsy”—what we today call “Edema,” serious swelling of the arms and legs—and watch to see what Jesus will do. This side of the Cross, we know Jesus will heal the guy, because He came to bind up the broken-hearted and to set the captives (of illness) free.

He asks the religious leaders (vv.3-4, NLT): Is it permitted in the law to heal people on the Sabbath day, or not?  When they remain silent, He asks them another question (v.5): Which of you doesn’t work on the Sabbath?  If your son or your cow falls into a pit, don’t you rush to get him out?  Of course events and needs occasionally necessitate that they work on the Sabbath.  (They defined healing as work.)  The religious leaders remain silent because their hearts are hard—they are blinded by their sin of pride.  They believe they know better than God’s own Son how folks are to behave on the Sabbath. 

The Lord then provides a lesson for the guests at the dinner, the “Parable of the Impolite Guests”:  In those days, there were no place cards to reserve seating.  Think about wedding receptions today.  The bride and her mother work tirelessly to be sure those seated next to each other are friendly and get along.  Woe be unto anyone who comes in and moves the place cards around to suit themselves! But Jesus observes that in their pride, these guests rush to put themselves in the seats of honor, the 4 middle of three seats on each side of a table; or if the seating arrangement were U-shaped, the seat of honor was at the bottom of the U.  Jesus watched these guests exalting themselves; each one was only thinking of himself.  Jesus instructs them to seek the least favored place and then be happily surprised when the host invites them to accept a more honored place.  He then summarizes His lesson in verse 11—>For those who humble themselves will be exalted and those who exalt themselves will be humbled.  We please God by being and behaving humbly.

(Darrell Bock, The NIV Application Commentary, Zondervan, 1996, pp.392-393.)

Jesus’ lesson for the hosts is similar: Serve the needy, not those for whom you feel a social obligation, for such humble service pleases God.

B. The writer to the Hebrews (13:1-8, 15-16) lists out for us behaviors, such as the following, that should characterize all Christians:

1. Love each other, as we are all brothers and sisters;

2. Show hospitality to strangers (and entertain angels?).  A clergy wife told me recently that her pastor husband encountered a homeless man at the mall, playing a guitar with an open guitar case to catch donations.  The young man was an excellent musician, and the pastor—a guitar player himself—was impressed.  So he complimented the man and dropped a $10.00 bill in his guitar case, and then walked away.  Thinking the young man may have been an angel, his wife asked him when he recounted the incident, “Why didn’t you invite him home for a shower and a meal, and offer to allow him to wash his clothes?”  She had remembered this verse from Hebrews 13

3. Remember those in prison and those mistreated;

4. Remain faithful in marriage;

5. Do not love money, but be satisfied with what you have;

6. Have no fear, because the Lord is our helper;

7. Remember your leaders who taught you the Word of God;

8. Praise Jesus often because…(v.8):  He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. 

We are also to continue to humbly do good, and to share with those in need, because (v.16): These are the sacrifices that please God.

C. In Jeremiah 2:1-13, the Lord is lamenting, through His prophet, how His Chosen People have deserted Him.  He poignantly reminisces about the “springtime” of their relationship with Him.  He protected them in the wilderness.  He brought them into a rich land.

But once they inherited the Land, they forgot Him (Read the books of Joshua and Judges).  Even the priests and the pastors deserted Him!

The people of Jerusalem and Judea fell into the 3 evils that universally and historically lead to a nations’ collapse:  (1) Spiritual apostasy—they abandoned the One, True God; (2) Moral awfulness—instead of behaving like a people group set apart, they joined into pagan sexual rituals and chose to serve false gods they could manipulate; and (3) Political anarchy.  As we think about these three causes of national collapse, consider where we are as a country today: Spiritual apostasy?  Check.  Moral degradation?  Check.  Political anarchy?  Almost.  In recognizing this, we can appeal to the Lord to help our country turn back to Him.  This takes concerted prayer and country-wide revival.

(Rev. Dr. J. Vernon McGee, Through the Bible Commentary on Jeremiah and Lamentations, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1991, p.29.) 

So how did the Southern Kingdom specifically and thoroughly offend God?  They rejected Him for idols and pagan deities, and they built shrines to these false gods and worshipped them.

Interestingly, God Himself humbly asks them (v.6): What did your ancestors find wrong with Me that led them to stray so far from Me? They worshipped worthless idols, only to become worthless themselves.  This is certainly a strong condemnation from the Lord!  Almost again, as in a law court, He is asking what He’s done or not done that justifies their defection.  He, the Creator of the Universe, is humble.

So too was Jesus, as He humbled Himself and endured a criminal’s death on the cross for our sakes. 

God concludes, in verse 13, that in their pride and arrogance, “My people have done two evil things:  They have abandoned Me—the fountain of living water, and they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all.”  Rather than humble themselves in the sight of the Lord, they adopted gods they could manipulate, gods whose worship included sexually immoral behavior, gods made in their image rather than in that of the Lord.

D. The portion of Psalm 81 that we read today (1, 10-16) is a call to celebrate God because He delivered them from bondage in Egypt and blessed them.  But as the author, Asaph, continues, it is clear that God is severely disappointed in them (vv.11-12): But no, My people wouldn’t listen.  Israel did not want Me around. So I let them follow their own stubborn desires, living according to their own ideas.  Who had become their God?  Just like Satan in his fall from heaven, just like Adam and Eve who wanted to be like God, they succumbed to their pride and decided for themselves who they would let act as their gods.  And like the lamenting Lord in Jeremiah 2, God states that if they would just return to Him, He would both subdue their enemies (protect them) and provide for their needs.  Humility before God is key. 

Remember Micah 6:8: He has shown you, O man [O woman], what is good.  And what does the Lord require of you?  To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.   There it is: Be just and merciful toward others, and walk humbly with God.  Our pride has no place in our relationship with God.  Our God could rightly shine forth with all pride and arrogance, but He doesn’t.  We are to be like Him in this, to be humble.  Like the aircraft carrier’s captain, we hold onto our pride at a serious potential cost.  Like the impolite banquet guests at the Pharisee’s house, we are to humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord so that He may lift us higher and higher.  Amen!

©️2025 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams 

Posted on by Cheryl Norman

Reading the Signs of the Times

Pastor Sherry’s message for 8/17/2025

Scriptures: Isa 5:1-7; Ps 80:1-2, 8-19; Heb 11:17-40; Lk 12:49-56

It’s pretty difficult for ordinary persons—those who lack the gift prophesy—to predict the future, isn’t it? One of my favorite stories about this phenomenon concerns a guy named Moshe, a medieval Jewish astrologer:

Moshe unwisely “…prophesied that the king’s favorite horse would soon die. Sure enough, the horse died a short time later.

“The king got really angry at Moishe, certain that his prophecy had brought about the horse’s death.

“He summoned Moishe and commanded him, “Prophet, tell me when you will die.” Moishe realized that the king was planning to kill him immediately no matter what answer he gave, so he crafted a careful response.

“I do not know when I will die,” he answered. “I only know that whenever I die, the king will die three days later.”

“Moishe lived a long life”.  (I am sorry that I cannot credit the source as it was unlisted in some old papers of mine.)

It is a good thing to be able to think quickly in times of trouble! Hopefully Moshe learned not to make pronouncements of future events unless directed to do so by the Lord.

In this morning’s Old Testament lesson, Isaiah 5:1-7, the prophet Isaiah is told by God to share the “Song of the Vineyard” with His Chosen People. It is an indictment against the Southern Kingdom. They have not learned anything from observing their Northern Brothers and Sisters get killed and captured by the terrifying Assyrian Army in 722BC. The 10 northern tribes had become idolaters. They lacked faith in God and they were not obedient to Him.  So He removed His longstanding protection (of 500 years) and they were devastated. Rather than look at that experience and determine to do better, the 2 tribes of Judah and Benjamin to the South, blithely fell into the same behavioral trap.

So God convenes court and invites Jerusalem and Judah to judge between Him and them.  He shares, in poetic form, a tale of how He (the pre-incarnate Jesus) worked to establish a lovely vineyard. All throughout the Old Testament, the vineyard is a metaphor for Israel. He says He planted His people on a fertile hill. As such, the vineyard would have good drainage, and no problem with the soil.  He removed the stones—probably using them to create a wall about the property. He built a watchtower, from which to guard it from predators, enemies, or squatters. He prepared a winepress, anticipating a good crop of grapes…but sadly, the grapes that grew were bitter. The Lord asks Jerusalem and Judah (v.4, NLT)—What more could I have done for My vineyard that I have not already done? The obvious verdict is Nothing. The Lord did His part, but the Southern Kingdom did not do theirs.

The prophet relays, in verses 5-6, what God’s judgment will be (NLT)—Now let me tell you what I will do to My vineyard:  I will tear down its hedges and let it be destroyed.  I will break down its wall and let the animals trample it. I will make it a wild place where the vines are not pruned and the ground is not hoed, a place overgrown with briers and thorns.  I will command the clouds to drop no rain on it. YIKES! Not only is the Lord going to neither prune nor weed among His people; but He is removing His hand of protection from them.  He had protected them from invasions for over 6oo years.  Now, there would be no walls or hedges to keep trampling or destructive animals like wild hogs or invading armies out.  Additionally, He will also deny it rain—it will experience severe, longstanding drought!  Israel profited from Fall and Spring rains.  Even today, the Fall rains have returned but the Spring ones have not. 

Why is God so put out? Why is He willing to lower the boom on them? How have they earned such costly judgments? Remember Micah 6:8, NIV—What does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. He expected them to act justly toward others, but instead found them oppressing the less powerful, those without influence.  He expected them to be righteous (love mercy), but instead found them acting with violence (v.7). 

Now, if we were to read the remainder of Chapter 5, we would see specifically the charges the Lord brought against them (think about modern day America as I present their sins to you):

1. They coveted what others had (Lust of the Eyes). Bigger businesses swallowed up smaller ones. Making a profit became their god—this is idolatry. So (vv.9-10) God sent famine into the land.

2. They habitually engaged in drunkenness and immoral pleasure-seeking (Lust of the Flesh). Like Jeffrey Epstein and P. Diddy, they indulged their carnal natures. Their punishment (v.12) was captivity and death.

3. They continued to sin without shame or conscience (v.18).

4. They attempted to destroy God’s standards of right and wrong (v.20).

5. They were proud of their rebellious selves (v.21)—Proverbs 6:16—There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to Him: haughty eyes [pride; this is listed first, even before murder], a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies, and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.

6. They had lost all sense of godly values.

The combined punishment from God for #3-6 (human pride and disregard for God’s standards of right and wrong) was God’s judgment, the Babylonian Captivity. If you observe our culture today, all 6 of these offenses against our Lord are rampant. I’m not a prophet, but I believe we are in the last days. We have no idea how long they will last. But, because we worship a merciful God, I also believe we can prevail upon Him, through our prayers and devotion, to give our nation more time to return to Him. 

Now contrast what the Father said through Isaiah with what Jesus says in today’s Gospel, (Luke 12:49-56):   Jesus is rebuking His disciples for making accurate predictions from weather signs,  while neglecting to consider the pain and destruction of the coming judgment upon the earth and all people. Remember, after the Great Flood, God told Noah He would never send flood waters to destroy the whole earth again.

Instead, what does Jesus say will happen (v.49)—I have come to set the world on fire and I wish it were already burning!  It sounds like He is referring to both the fire of Judgment, and the purifying fire of the Holy Spirit.  Remember, at Pentecost, tongues of fire rested over the heads of the disciples. The Bible says our God is a consuming fire. 

Instead, I think the Lord is getting at something more positive for us here. Remember John the Baptist said (Luke 3:16)—I baptize you with water, but Someone [Jesus] is coming soon who is greater than I am—so much greater that I’m not even worthy to be His slave and untie the straps of His sandals.  He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Jesus came the first time to save us, not to judge. Judgment will characterize His 2nd Coming. So this fire He references is Holy Spirit power, a great move of God—a revival–drawing many hearts to Him. 

This won’t happen until after His crucifixion and resurrection. The disciples will see this manifested in them at Pentecost, 50 days later.  What the Lord is saying here is that He wants us to burn with passion for God!

Jesus forces us to make a decision for or against Him. This decision can and does separate us from members of our families and from former friends.

We no longer engage in the same activities. We no longer talk, dress, or even think the same way.  We may not even laugh at the same jokes.  Jesus says this as He is moving toward the Cross. He wants us to be able to discern spiritual truths and separate these out from whatever is circulating in the culture. He wants us to be aware of our relationship to God and to make the necessary adjustments now before it’s too late.         

The Signs of the Times suggest our time to decide to live for Christ—like that of Jerusalem and Judah in the late 500’s BC—is drawing to a close. We don’t want to be guilty of the kinds of things the Lord charged His vineyard with. I guess you could say that how we choose to live our life provides critical evidence of how sincere we are in our commitment to God. 

Consider the following parable written by the playwright, Oscar Wilde:  Jesus was walking through the streets of a city. In an open courtyard. He saw a young man feasting gluttonously and growing drunk with wine. “Young man.” said Jesus. “why do you live like that?” “I was a leper.” said the young man, “and you cleansed me. How else should I live?” Jesus went on and he saw a young girl clad in tawdry finery, a girl of the streets, and after her came a young man with eyes like a hunter. “Young man,” said Jesus, “why do you look at that girl like that?” “I was blind.” said the young man. “and you opened my eyes. How else should I look?” “Daughter.” said Jesus to the girl. “why do you live like that?” “I was a sinner.” she said. “and you forgave me. How else should I live?” Here were three people who had received priceless gifts from Jesus and who used them like that”. (William Barclay. And Jesus Said. Westminster Press, 1970, p. 141). 

Our church sign outside says we have been bought at a price.  Let’s be neither a rebellious nor an idolatrous vineyard.  Let’s read the spiritual signs of the times correctly and live like we know Jesus died for us. Let’s stay under the shelter of our Lord’s wings, close enough to hear His heartbeat. Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Alleluia!  Alleluia!

©️2025 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams 

Posted on by Cheryl Norman

Celebrate Freedom

Pastor Sherry’s message for July 6, 2025, 

Scriptures: 2 Kings 5:1-14; Ps 30:1-11; Gal 6:1-16; Lk 10:1-20

This morning, we pledged allegiance to our flag, heard a wonderful rendition of our national anthem, and prayed about the blessings we have as Americans. Hopefully, we have each thanked God in our hearts for our country and for the freedoms we enjoy based on His provision, our constitution, and our Bill of Rights—and also for those who fought and died to keep us free.

Contrast this, however, with this week’s opening of Alligator Alcatraz, a detention center for violent, criminal, illegal aliens. Located in about the middle of the Everglades, in Ochopee, and hemmed in by alligators and pythons–both apex predators–it is not a place I would ever want to go, would you?  I heard some commentator on TV say that neither gators nor pythons will attack a person.  I immediately thought guy is not from Florida.  I know people who have lost pets to Gators, and who have even had a bull gator chase them into their pickup, attacking their truck bumper in rage, and crushing it. There’s been a meme on social media, featuring a line of gators with Ice hats on their heads, as unofficial, unpaid government agents. Talk about a deterrent!  I would not want to encounter a gator there.  I would self-deport rather than be sent to “Gator Gitmo.”

We don’t have to worry about this, though, do we? One of our members from Thailand is already a naturalized citizen, and another from the Philippines has almost completed the process toward becoming an American citizen. The rest of us in this congregation were born here and are grateful to God for the freedoms we enjoy in “the land of the free and the home of the brave.”

Did you notice that our readings today, coming so soon after July 4th, also focus on freedom, but not political freedom. Instead they stress spiritual freedoms:  

A.  Our Old Testament lesson, from 2 Kings 5:1-14, focuses on one important Gentile (Naaman, commander of the Syrian armies) and two Israelites (the prophet Elisha and a young slave woman serving Naaman’s wife).  Naaman, even though an enemy of Israel, is by every secular criterion to be acclaimed. He has won many battles, so he is a competent professional; he is esteemed by his king and his troops; and he is wealthy.

What he is not is healthy. He has a skin condition all over his body.

Scripture calls it leprosy, but it may not have been what we today called “Hanson’s Disease.”  It may have been psoriasis or eczema.  The young, Jewish slave girl mentions there is a prophet in the Northern Kingdom of Israel, in Samaria (Elisha), who could heal the man. Naaman’s wife listens and gets word to Naaman, who confides in the king.  The king then gives Naaman leave to go and gifts with which to seek a healing.

But notice his response when he finally locates Elisha’s headquarters:

He becomes incensed over three affronts to his dignity: (1) The prophet never came out to greet or to meet him. So, (2) he did not see Elisha perform any kind of religious rituals.  And (3) the prophet sent him to wash himself 7 times in the muddy trickle of river called the Jordan.  His pride has been offended and-–before God heals him—He wants him freed of this sin.

We know that our God hates human pride:  Proverbs 16:18 (NLT) states, Pride goes before destruction and haughtiness before a fall.

In James 4:6-7 (NLT) we are told—God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble.  So humble yourselves before God….Naaman had to humble himself and follow what he thought were ridiculous directions.

He had to be freed from his pride before God would free him from his leprosy.  Our loving God wants to free us from our sins.

B. The message is very similar in Psalm 30:1-11. This psalm of thanksgiving was written by King David.  Biblical scholars believe David wrote it following being plagued by some profound sickness.  He feared he would die and cried out to God to heal him.  J. Vernon McGee, who was himself cured of cancer, says this is his favorite psalm.  He prayed it daily as he underwent his cancer treatments.  He refers to it as not the “Halleluia Chorus,” but rather, “The Cancer Chorus.”

(McGee, Through the Bible Commentary on Psalms, Thomas Nelson, 1991, p.168).

King David says the Lord brought him (v.11)—…from mourning into joyful dancing…and clothed me with joy.  Apparently the Lord healed him, freeing him from his illness as well as his grief over being debilitated.

So he ends the psalm with praise and sincere gratitude. 

C. Our Galatians lesson (Galatians 6:1-16) is a continuation of last reading.  Remember, Paul taught the Galatian Church that they no longer had to live as slaves to the Law, but rather by the Christian principle of love—love of God and love of people.   He shared a list of sins we might commit that demonstrate we are not living out the love principle.  And he also taught that there are 9 fruit of the Holy Spirit that indicate we are living out the love principle:  love, joy, peace, kindness, gentleness, goodness, patience, faith, and self-control.

In today’s lesson, he focuses on the fact that (v.8, NLT)—You will always harvest what you plant.  If we sowed peanuts, we will harvest peanuts, not wheat or watermelon.  In other words, we have another Christian principle—we reap what we sow.  Paul goes on to spell it out more fully:  (v.8) Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature.  But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit.  We are rewarded or punished according to the way we live out our lives here on earth.  This is not an issue of salvation.  If we are in Christ, we are saved.  It does, however, have some impact on the rewards we receive later in Heaven.

As I said last week, this principle frees us from trying to work way into heaven—which we cannot do.  Neither rule-keeping, nor doing good works, nor even circumcision will guarantee our heavenly rewards.  We just need to believe in Jesus and then try not to grow tired of doing good, Loving God and others, and manifesting the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

D. In today’s Gospel lesson (Luke 10:1-20), Jesus sends out the 72—His 2nd batch of disciples told to practice and do what He did.

He warns them (v.3) He is sending them into potential danger—so they should expect trouble.  He directs them to minister where they are received (vv.-9).  But where they are rejected, they are to say (vv.10-12)—We wipe even the dust of your town from our feet to show we have abandoned you to your fate.  And know this—the Kingdom of God is near!  In other words, Jesus did not expect them to succeed with everyone.

Jesus Himself did not succeed with everyone to whom He preached repentance or healed or delivered from demons.  Thus, neither should we get discouraged when we talk to others about Jesus and they reject our efforts.  We sow the seeds, God grants the growth.  I believe Jesus is hereby freeing us from ministry-related guilt.

As we think about July 4th and our national freedoms, let’s also be aware of and grateful for our spiritual freedoms in Christ.

(1) Sometimes being healed from disease requires our agreeing to be set free from a besetting or habitual sin.  It could be pride, or some other negative emotion or behavior.  Whatever it might be, we can ask the Holy Spirit to reveal it to us, and then ask the Lord to forgive us and set us free of it.

(2) When the Lord heals us or frees us from an illness, we should always remember to give God the credit or the glory.  We should always express our gratitude to Him for answering our prayers.

(3) If we can focus on loving God and loving others, we can feel freed from fearing the negative consequences of the Law of Sowing and Reaping.

Believing in Jesus gains us our heavenly reward.  Living out the fruit of the Holy Spirit shows God and others we are trying to live lives that are pleasing to the Lord.  Living out a Christ-like life attracts others to Jesus and somehow positively impacts (in ways I honestly don’t know yet but will when I get to heaven) our rewards in Heaven.

(4) And, while we want to witness to others about our faith in Jesus, whether or not they accept Him depends upon them, not us.  We do not have to feel guilty.  As Jesus says in Luke 10:16 Anyone who accepts your message is also accepting Me.  And anyone who rejects you is rejecting Me.  And anyone who rejects Me is rejecting God, who sent Me. 

On this 6th of July, let’s celebrate our spiritual freedoms!  Amen!  

©️2025 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams

Posted on by Cheryl Norman

We don’t have to live in Fear!

Pastor Sherry’s message for June 29, 2025

Scriptures: 2 Kgs 2:1-15; Ps 77:1-3, 11-20; Gal 5:1, 11-25; Lk 9:51-62

Among the “Joys and Concerns” we offer up to the Lord each Sunday is a request that He bring down the incidence of violent crime in our country.  Thursday of this week, we were confronted with gang-related shootings and a high speed police chase—not in New York, LA, or Chicago—but just a few miles away from us in Lake City.  Perhaps you have even purchased a meal at the Arby’s restaurant where this went down.

My understanding is that two 20 year olds and one 18 year old rode in from Jacksonville with the intent to kill a former felon, Jayden Randall, working at Arby’s on a Department of Corrections work-release program.  The older two entered the restaurant at 11:30am, dressed in black, with guns drawn.  They located Randall, then chased him into the kitchen, shooting him seven times.  He was air-lifted to a trauma treatment center in critical condition.

We pray for his full recovery.  They also shot a high-school student, an innocent by-stander, also employed at the restaurant.  He was treated and released the same day.  We pray he has no residual PTSD.  All three suspects were caught by the Florida Highway Patrol as they gave chase at speeds of 125MPH going north on I-75.

(The Lake City Reporter. Jun. 26, 2025.)

Reading about this made me grateful that none of my loved ones were in that restaurant at that time.  I’ve eaten there and probably many of you have, too.  I was also hopeful that the high school student is okay—that could have been one of our children or grandchildren.  I was also relieved that no other vehicles crashed during the police pursuit on I-75. 

In thinking about the incident since, several things have occurred to me:  (1) We really can’t predict what might happen to us in a given day.  (2) This is the kind of behavior we might expect of people who do not know or love Jesus.  The three suspects were exacting some sort of revenge.  We are taught not to seek revenge, but to pray for them and give them over to Jesus.  (3) Thank God we do know and love Jesus.

Thank God because we know a better way to live—St. Paul calls it a more excellent way– and thank God because He protects us.  As a result, we don’t have to live in fear!

In Galatians 5:1, 13-25, the Apostle Paul reminds us that because we are in Christ—i.e., we put our faith in Him as His followers—we have perfect freedom from having to slavishly live by the Law.  We are saved by God’s grace, through Jesus’ perfect sacrifice of Himself on the Cross.  As Paul says in verse 1, NLT—So Christ has truly set us free.  Now make sure that you stay free and don’t get tied up again to slavery to the Law.  We don’t have to follow a lot of rules to earn our salvation (known as works righteousness).  In fact, we can’t earn our salvation on our own efforts.  We need a Savior and we have one:  Jesus Christ.  He has done all the work for us.

Paul goes on to insist (vv.13-14, NLT) —For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters.  But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature.  Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love.  For the whole law can be summed up in this one command:  “Love your neighbor as yourself.”  In other words, we don’t live according to Laws, but rather according to Christian principles:

We’re to deny our sinful natures.  We are to focus, instead, on loving others.

And we are to (v.16) allow the Holy Spirit to guide our behavior (Be subject to the Holy Spirit rather than the Law).

But, there’s a nearly constant internal struggle going on in each of us, isn’t there?  Do what is right (live by the Holy Spirit) Vs. giving into our sinful desires.  Paul then supplies us with a sin list—If we do any of the sins on this “Works of the Flesh” list, we are not cooperating with the Holy Spirit—J.Vernon McGee says that Christians who do these things are Christian Cannibals  (J..Vernon McGee, Through the Bible Commentary on Galatians, Thomas Nelson, 1991,p.96)..  They devour others in the following ways: 

(1) Sexual immorality tops the list.

(2) Impurity and lustful pleasures are a close second—these 3 sins use others for a person’s selfish pleasure.

(3) Idolatry—worshipping anything other than God, and dragging others into these practices.

(4) Sorcery—calling on or utilizing power not of God, and recruiting others to do the same.

(5) Hostility and quarreling (offenses against loving our neighbors, and providing a poor example);

(6) Jealousy and envy (we are not to covet the blessings of another person);

(7) Angry outbursts (we’re called to be disciplined in the way we express anger—(Eph 4:26)—Be angry but sin not.);

(8) Selfish ambition (we want to be ambitious for God’s purposes only);

(9) Dissension and division (we encourage peace and unity.  I learned recently of a female ordained deacon who stirred up resentment toward the pastor of the church she was serving.  When he fired her, she went to another denomination, told her “sad story of having been abused by her former pastor,” and was rather quickly ordained a deacon by her new boss.  Neither the new pastor nor the new denomination checked with the former boss to learn she spreads dissension.  Since the single best predictor of future behavior is past behavior, they will undoubtedly discover they failed to do their due diligence.

(10) Drunkenness and wild parties (we do not lose our self-control).

Notice Paul follows this up with a list of 9 characteristics/or fruit of the Holy Spirit.  We can tell a person is walking in the transformative power of the Holy Spirit if we can see evidence in their lives of:

(1) Love,

(2) Joy, 

(3) Peace,

(4) Patience, 

(5) Kindness, 

(6) Goodness,

(7) Faithfulness, 

(8) Gentleness,

(9) and Self-control.

The truth is our Lord wants us to manifest this fruit.  In Matthew 13:3-9, Jesus says we are to be fruitful bringing back to Him thirty, sixty, or 100 times what He has given us—and not just with money.  We can’t do this on our own, but we can if we allow Christ to live His life in and through us.

Last week I focused our attention on how Satan uses discouragement as a tool to draw us away from God.  Fear is another very effective tool of his. But we don’t have to fall for it.  We know that [God’s] perfect love drives out all fear (1 John 4:18), and that…God did not give us a spirit of fear but of power, love, and a strong mind (2 Tim 1:7).  As Paul reminds us (vv.24-25), we can nail our fears to the Cross of Christ.  Think about how we say at the end of our service each Sunday, “All our problems, we send to the Cross of Christ;  All our difficulties, we send to the Cross of Christ; All the devil’s works, we send to the Cross of Christ.”  These are the Bible verses that practice is derived from.  We can go even further and nail our sinful natures to the Cross of Christ.  Additionally, we can ask Jesus to replace our fears, for instance, with love, joy, and peace, the fruit of the Spirit.  In fact, we can ask Jesus to replace all of our sinful tendencies with the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

I feel sorry for the 3 thugs from Jacksonville who shot those two people Thursday out of a desire for revenge. They are clearly living out their sin nature!  And where has it gotten them?  They are slaves to the devil and bound for prison and—without true repentance—they are headed to an eternity in Hell.  Let’s hope and pray someone in jail reaches out to them with the message of the Good News of the Gospel.  Let’s hope and pray they ask God’s forgiveness and accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior.  Let’s hope and pray they nail their sinful mindsets and antisocial life-styles to the Cross of Christ and exchange them for the fruit of the Holy Spirit.  Let’s hope and pray that they, like us, do not have to live in fear or as men who are lost in their sins.

  As I prepared this message, I was reminded of the lyrics to the hymn, “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing,” written by a Methodist pastor who had come out of a criminal background, back in 1758:  

Come Thou Fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing Thy grace;

Streams of mercy, never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise.

Teach me some melodious sonnet, sung by flaming tongues above.  

Praise the mount!  I’m fixed upon it, mount of Thy redeeming love.

Here I raise mine *Ebenezer, hither by Thy help I’m come;

And I hope, by Thy good pleasure, safely to arrive at home.

Jesus sought me when a stranger, wandering from the fold of God;

He, to rescue me from danger, interposed His precious blood.

O to grace how great a debtor daily I’m constrained to be!

Let Thy goodness, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to Thee.

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love;

Here’s my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for Thy courts above.

(*An Ebenezer is a physical monument to a significant move of God.)

©️2025 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams

Posted on by Cheryl Norman

Holy Trinity Sunday

Pastor Sherry’s message for June 15, 2025

Scriptures: Pro 8:1-4, 22-31; Ps 8; Ro 5:1-5; Jn 14:15-29

The following two stories illustrate the fact that the Trinity is just too big and too deep for us to get our mortal minds around:

In the first, a young American woman is traveling in France.  She goes into a bookstore and asks the small, elderly Frenchman who waits on her for a map of France.  He spends some moments in the back of the store and then he proudly presents her with an armload of maps, including one for Paris, a 2nd one of Marseilles, and a 3rd one of Lyons. 

The young woman is dismayed and says to the Frenchman, “But I just want a single map of the whole of France.” The older gentleman pulls himself up to his full height and proudly responds, “But Mademoiselle, France is too big to be captured in just one map.”

(Fairless & Chilton, The Lectionary Lab Commentary, Yr. C, 2015, p.195.)

The second concerns a family from India who visited with friends in California.  While there, the parents left their 11 year old daughter with their Christian friends, as they participated in a professional conference.  The family invited the girl to attend church with them on Sunday.  She went along and  quietly took in all she saw and heard.  

When they got back home, the host asked the girl for her impressions.  She then told him, “I don’t understand why the West Coast isn’t included too,” she replied. When they inquired what she meant, she added, “You know, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the whole East Coast.”

(Contributed by Ann Spivack, Reader’s Digest, as shared on www.sermon illustrations.com, 6/10/25.)

Today is both Father’s Day and Trinity Sunday.  Happy Father’s Day to all our fathers, and especially to God our Father!  We know that God the Father has both created all creatures on earth and has provided for them.  As our Proverbs lesson tells us (Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31), He also created wisdom.  We can, like King Solomon, ask God to give us wisdom.  Initially, wisdom is personified as a woman, but as we see in verses 22-31, if you examine these proverbs carefully, it’s clear that Jesus, the architect of Creation, is God’s wisdom (“I am the way, the Truth [wisdom], and the life.”  John 14:6).  The Son has redeemed us and reconciled us to His Father.  In our Psalm today (Psalm 8), King David both celebrates the 

Father’s creation and the Son’s second coming in power, when He will put all things into subjection under His feet (Hebrews 2:5-8).   And the Holy Spirit, according to our Gospel passage today (John 14:15-29), is our Advocate, like our defense attorney.  He reminds us of all that Jesus taught, leads us into all truth [wisdom; Jesus], and guides us and sanctifies us (helps us or heals us to) become like Jesus. .

That’s roughly how the three persons of the Trinity separate out their work.  However, we want to bear in mind that St. Augustine of Hippo once wrote,  

“WHOEVER DENIES THE TRINITY IS IN DANGER OF LOSING HIS SALVATION :”  “ YET ON THE OTHER THE SIDE OF THE COIN.”  HE SAID, “WHOEVER TRIES TO UNDERSTAND THE TRINITY IS IN DANGER OF LOSING HIS MIND.”

(As quoted in www.sermoncentral.com, 6/10/2025.)\

Any analogy or metaphor we might use to try to explain the Trinity is probably too simplistic.

So, let’s instead focus today on our passage from Romans 5:1-5.  Paul wants us to be sure we understand all of the benefits we derive from having been saved by Jesus Christ.  He lays it out for us in just 5 pithy verses:

(1) First, (v.1) we have Peace with God the Father.  We all know of folks—and perhaps have experienced ourselves—being cut off emotionally from some family members.  We are related by blood, but for a myriad of reasons do not have any real or meaningful contact with each other.  Maybe they were abusive.  Perhaps their addictive behaviors or their cruelty were just too dangerous for us to be around.  Maybe they lied about us or believed the lies about us told to them by others.  Perhaps every time we are around them, they wound us again.  We or they have decided that spending time together is emotionally dangerous and damaging.  We or they have decided to act like the other person is dead to us to avoid additional pain.  It’s not what God would want from us, but it is a way to keep ourselves emotionally–and perhaps even physically–safe.

But we don’t want to, or have to, live that way with God the Father. Whether we knew it or not, we were cut off from Him, due to our sinfulness, until we accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. In other words,  God loved us but was against us until then. However, now, as believers in Jesus, we are justified by our faith. Jesus effected for us a complete and total reconciliation with God the Father.  Remember, God cannot abide sin. Our sin cuts us off from God as though we are the toxic relatives.  But through Jesus’ atoning death on the Cross, He paid the penalty for our sins, past, present, and future.  Our redemption by Jesus saves us from hell, but even better enables us to have an intimate and loving relationship with the Father. This peace with God is a huge blessing!

(2) Next (verse 2), Paul says we now have access to God the Father through prayer.  This is also a tremendous blessing! This is so big that many non-believers mock it. They say things like, “For real!  You really think Almighty God would care about the fact you are worried about your grandchild or that you have an ear ache?”  But we know that He is “the God of the Big Picture” but also “the God of the Details.” He loves hearing from us and wants to share in our lives, even down to the minutia.  If something bothers us and we bring it to Him, He listens.  And if we ask for His help, He responds.

(3) Third (verse 2), we have hope.  I love the way retired Anglican Bishop N.T. Wright puts it: 

“As a result of being justified by faith, we are, in the old phrase, ‘in a state of grace,’ a status, a positon where we are surrounded by God’s love and generosity, invited to breathe it in as our native air.  As we do so, we realize that this is what we were made for; that it is the beginning of something so big, so massive, so unimaginably beautiful and powerful, that we almost burst as we think of it.  When we stand there in God’s own presence, not trembling but deeply grateful, and begin to inhale His goodness, His wisdom, His power and His joy, we sense that we’re being invited to go all the way, to become the true reflections of God, the true image-bearers, that we were made to be.  Paul puts it like this:  we celebrate the hope of the glory of God.”

(N.T. Wright, Paul for Everyone, Romans, Westminister John Know Press, 2004, p.83.)

Later in Romans (8:25), Paul will write, And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them.  Since we can trust that God works all things together for our good, we can always have hope, despite our circumstances.   After all, we worship “the God of all hope!”

(4) Fourth (verses 3-4), we have Triumph in times of trouble (i.e., we can celebrate in our suffering!). YIKES! This is a hard one to understand! The point Paul is making is that our God uses our suffering—which we will endure in this broken world—to prune us, to transform us, to mold and shape us into the best version of ourselves. The process helps us develop patience or endurance, as we hold on to our faith and hang in.  Patience/endurance, in turn, toughens our character.  And strong character fortifies our ability to hope, even against hope. 

Think about it, we live in a world that wants everything instantly: TV reception, microwaved dinners, and immediate answers to texts!  But God the Father, Jesus Christ His Son, and God the Holy Spirit call to us to swim against this cultural current. Patience is both a virtue and a fruit of the Holy Spirit. Our God wants us to develop patience, to strengthen our character, and to always have hope.

(5) And lastly (verse 5), our salvation proves how much God the Father loves us.  He sacrificed His only Son to save us.  We suffer when one of our children or other loved ones have to endure painful medical procedures—imagine how the Father suffered as He watched His only Son endure excruciating pain through His beatings and his crucifixion.  And now, while the Father and His Son dwell in Heaven, He has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with His love.

Thanks be to God for the creative love of our Heavenly Father, the redeeming love of His Son Jesus, and the sanctifying love of the Holy Spirit.  Amen!

©️2025 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams 

Posted on by Cheryl Norman

The Good Shepherd

Pastor Sherry’s message for May 11, 2025

Scriptures: Acts 9:37-43; Ps 23; Rev 7:9-17; John 10:22-30

Back in 2007, I thought the Lord was calling me to plant a new church. I was living in Tallahassee then and did not believe I was in any way gifted to do this. But, intending to be obedient to the Lord, I decided to check out some successful church plants there to see how they did it.

One Sunday, I attended a large Pentecostal Church called “Genesis”—I liked the name—in their 4th year.  At the time, they were meeting in a high school auditorium, and claimed they had 800 adults (+ numerous kids) attending.

The Pastor that Sunday preached about the trials and tribulations their congregation had experienced during their 4 years of existence:

1.) They had 1200 show up for their Easter Service, but were plunged into darkness when a squirrel ate through a power line.

2.) The school board had reneged on and amended their contractual agreement several times, requiring them to spend more than they had budgeted or expected.

3.) The stage lights didn’t work well and had to be jerry-rigged each week.

4.) The heat and AC controls were locked up in another office so they could not adjust them as needed.

5) The weekly set up and take down had wearied their volunteers and robbed them of energy and focus.

In sum, he said, “Being in this high school has been a nightmare!”

At this point, I was sure he was going to launch into a plea to raise more money so they could buy or build their own sanctuary.  But, surprisingly, the pastor reminded them that the Lord had led them there in the first place!  He had prayed and fasted, and believed the Lord had told him to rent the school auditorium. His wife had prayed and got the same response. His staff had prayed about it and came to the same decision.  Perhaps even more convincing was the fact that the principal of the high school had actually approached them to ask if they wanted to rent his space!

They believed they had received a clear direction from the Lord, jumped on the deal, and assumed it would be, “Easy, all would go well, because the Lord had set this up for us!” 

Now I was there to discover, from someone who was experienced, what is required to start up a new church. I was thinking this was all pretty discouraging until I heard the rest of his sermon.  He admitted they had learned that (a.) Sometimes the right place will feel like the wrong place; (b.) Sometimes the right time will feel like the wrong time;

and (c.) Sometimes, when things don’t go well, we will doubt that we heard God correctly.  Yes, they had had their share of troubles in that school auditorium, but they had also brought 600 people to Christ in their 4 years there. I agree with that Pastor that at times like that, the Lord wants us to remember to remain obedient—to persevere—no matter the set-backs and aggravations. Sometimes, what Jesus is looking for from us is that we trust in Him to use even our hard experiences to train us up in the way He wants us to go.  If we can continue to lean into our Good Shepherd, He will not lead us astray.

In our Gospel lesson today, (John 10:22-30), Jesus has a brief but testy interchange with the Scribes and the Pharisees, in which He makes some important statements:

He is in Jerusalem for Hanukkah (Winter-time, perhaps 4 months prior to His death). Jesus is teaching in the Gentile area of the Temple, Solomon’s Colonnade. He is focused on training up His disciples—the 12 and many others—in the few short months He has remaining. Apparently by this time, He has left off trying to convince the religious authorities of His divine identity. The Scribes and Pharisees are trying to get Him to directly state that He is the Messiah, so they can bring Him up on charges of blasphemy (claiming He is God when He is not).  He responds to them (vv.25-27) I have already told you, and you don’t believe Me.  The proof is the work I do in My Father’s name.  [In other words, My actions speak louder than any words].  But you don’t believe Me [In other words, you don’t get it]… because you are not My sheep.  My sheep listen to My voice.  I know them, and they follow Me.

This is brief but very important lesson, so let’s unpack it now:

First, we are His sheep if we believe in Him. FAITH is what it takes to become a Christ-follower. We have read Scripture and we have taken in what Jesus did and said; or we have seen the huge difference He has made in our own life, or in the life of someone else. (For example, I heard yesterday that a man with stage 4 prostate cancer had been healed in his church last Sunday.)  And so we have come to believe in Him.

Second, when we believe in Him, we can begin to talk to Him and hear from Him. Do you talk to Him?  How do you know when God is speaking to you?  How do know you have heard from Him?

There are actually a number of ways God is speaking to us:

1.) Scripture (God’s Word written) A passage may leap off the page when you ask for God’s direction. I was ready to abandon the ordination process when I checked it out with the Lord and was directed by Him to Psalm 110:4 The sovereign Lord has decided and will not change His mind. That did it for me. I stopped trying to back out.

Or you may read a passage that seems to be written exactly for you in your current situation.  Back in 1984, my husband had left me for another woman.  My heart was broken and I was grieving when someone from my church advised me to read Isaiah 54. I did and was amazed!  Verse 4 reads, Do not be afraid; you will not suffer shame. Do not fear disgrace; you will not be humiliated. I was teaching high school at the time and all my students knew about my situation. I felt emotionally naked, vulnerable, and ashamed. In verses 5-6, the Lord says, “For your Maker is your husband—the Lord Almighty is His name—the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; He is called the God of all the earth.  The Lord will call you back as if you were a wife deserted and distressed in spirit—a wife who married young, only to be rejected.”  That passage had my initials on it. I knew it was meant for me. I took God at His word that He was my husband, and He has faithfully loved me, provided for me, and protected me ever since!

2.) Through others (especially 2-3 unsolicited comments.)  In the case of the Genesis Church, they had agreement among several folks who were praying separately but came to the same conclusion.

3.) Circumstances (closed vs. open doors). Watch for how things work out. God will guide you through the way in which He sets up events. Consider how you met your spouse or how you came to land a good job. Often the circumstances are pretty curious and unlikely, unless superintended by our God.

4.) A nudge in your spirit.  You will feel led to do or say something that’s unusual for you. Years ago, I was walking early in the morning when I had such a nudge:  Pick up a stick! It was insistent and repeated, so I located a large stick I would consider a cudgel. Seconds later, two huge dogs came snarling out of the woods, intending to attack me. But I had my big stick, shook it at them, and they retreated.

5.) Billboards, bumper stickers, and song lyrics.  My son will be thinking about a concern while in his car, then see a bumper sticker on a car just ahead that perfectly addresses his issue.

6.) Dreams/visions.  Jesus still speaks to us in dreams and visions. I encountered an Iranian man, a new Christian, who had fled to Turkey. Through an interpreter I asked how he had come to know Jesus Christ. His name was Navid and he said Jesus appeared to him and spoke to him in a dream. Jesus said something very consistent with what he had said during the day. As a result, the young man accepted Him. 

7.) Angelic visitation.  The writer to the Hebrews says wethen may not know we have entertained angels. I met an older man in New Orleans while at lunch one day. I had never seen him before and did not see him ever again.  He told me I needed to leave New Orleans, as a category 4 hurricane was coming which would flood the city. This happened 4 months before Hurricane Katrina hit. The church I was pastoring took on 10 feet of water during the storm, but the Lord had moved me back home to Tallahassee 2 months earlier.

8.) A strong Knowing.  Some call this a “a word of Knowledge.”  You know something that you can’t explain how you know it.  It seems to just drop into your head and you just know. This happens to me often when I am counseling people. It’s a gift and a blessing, it is always right, and I thank God for it.

9.) An audible word.  These are rare. I have had one. I was awakened by a deep male voice at about 3-4:00 a.m. back in 1988. I awoke to the echo of the word “reconciliation,” not a word I used much at that time. I then wondered who I was to be reconciled with, but later determined that in my counseling work, I was reconciling clients to God, to others, and to their best version of themselves. In seminary, I spent time studying 2 Corinthians 5:17-21, in which St. Paul says we are all called to a ministry of reconciliation.

We have to practice recognizing God’s voice to get better at it. 

The story is told of a young, rather inexperienced pastor who was trying to teach some little kids about Jesus as the Good Shepherd: 

“He told the children about sheep, that they weren’t smart and needed lots of guidance, and that a shepherd’s job was to stay close to the sheep, protect them from wild animals and keep them from wandering off and doing dumb things that would get them hurt or killed.

He pointed to the little children in the room and said that they were the sheep and needed lots of guidance.

Then the minister put his hands out to the side, palms up in a dramatic gesture, and with raised eyebrows said to the children, “If you are the sheep then who is the shepherd?” He was pretty obviously indicating himself.

A silence of a few seconds followed.  Then a youngster said, “Jesus, Jesus is the shepherd.”

The young minister, obviously caught by surprise, said to the boy, “Well, then, who am I?”

The little boy frowned thoughtfully and then said with a shrug, “I guess you must be a sheep dog.”

(Borrowed from www.bestcleanfunnyjokes.com, 5/6/25.)

Now bear with me a few more minutes as I attempt to be your sheep dog, leading you consider a few more truths about Jesus, our Good Shepherd:

In Psalm 23, an aged King David essentially summarizes for us what he has experienced the Good Shepherd do for him (and what He will do for us). This time, he sees himself not as a shepherd, himself, but as one of God’s sheep. Like a shepherd would do for his flock of sheep, David says God has…

1.) Protected him from harm.  

“Several years ago, in eastern Turkey in the Van province near Iran, there were shepherds who were caring for a flock of 1,500 sheep. They took a break and neglected the sheep while eating breakfast. During those few minutes the sheep wandered away towards a cliff that dropped off into a ravine 15 meters below. The first sheep fell to his death. The next 399 also followed and fell to their deaths. The remaining 1,100 sheep also followed and fell, but because the ravine was already littered with sheep their fall was cushioned and they survived.”

(Pastor Tim Melton, www,SermonSearch.com, May 6, 2025).

2.) Provided food, water, and rest for him;

3.) He had restored him when he had been discouraged or distressed;

4.) Led him in the right or wise direction;

5.) He had given him physical and emotional comfort;

6.) And blessed him spiritually. 

Just like last week, our Revelation passage (7:9-17) provides a picture of what worship is like in heaven. Believers from all times, places, races, and nations will be present to join with the angels in praising our God. The number will include Old Testament saints, all born again Christians, and Jews who will come through the Great Tribulation to believe in Jesus.

St. John then testifies that (v.17) The Lamb on the throne will be their shepherd.  He will lead them to springs of life giving water and God will wipe every tear from their eyes. Jesus has been our Good Shepherd in the past, He is our Good Shepherd now, and He will continue to shepherd us in heaven

The important question now is do you know the Good  Shepherd? Are you on intimate terms with Him?

A famous actor on the level of James Earl Jones or Charlton Heston was asked to recite the 23rd Psalm.  He did so and the folks who heard his recitation were mightily impressed.  Then the famous actor asked the old preacher/”sheep-dog” seated nearby to do the same.  His version was not as smooth or polished as the actor’s, but, “when he finished there was not a dry eye in the room. When someone asked the actor what made the difference, he replied. ‘I know the psalm, but he knows the Shepherd.”

(Pastor Steve Jones (www.SermonSearch.com, May 6, 2025)

This is a great day to become close friends with the Good Shepherd!

©️2025 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams

Posted on by Cheryl Norman

Worthy is the Lamb

Pastor Sherry’s message for May 4, 2025

Scriptures: Acts 9:1-20; Ps 30; Rev. 5:1-14; Jn 21:1-12

Some years back, I read a book—can’t remember the title—but it was an autobiographical account of an Army doctor in WWI, who died and was taken up into heaven. You may renenber, from our Covid experience, that there was a huge, worldwide influenza epidemic from 1918-1920.  Mostly young people were susceptible, especially those gathered together in army camps, bases, or foxholes. This doctor, whose name I’ve sadly forgotten, was working in an Army hospital at a base in Texas. He was struck down by the disease and appeared to have died. Someone even covered his head with a blanket, the sign to everyone that another soldier had perished. It took several hours before anyone came to remove his body.

But in the meantime, he found himself flying back over his home (planeless) in Virginia, where he saw his mother hanging out clothes to dry, and his father walking over to talk with her. He noted that his parents were safe and well. Then he found himself whisked up into heaven. He reported beautiful, vivid colors, lots of flowers and wonderful smells. Everyone he saw there was happy and healthy. He felt enveloped in love. He even encountered Jesus! He was filled with joy and wanted to stay; but, in short order, Jesus told him his work on earth was not done, so he was going to be sent back. The doctor came back to life just as they were preparing to remove his body for burial. He went on to get well, only to fall into a profound depression that lasted 3 years!  He wrote that he missed heaven so much that he found life as we know it to be profoundly disappointing by comparison. Eventually, he rallied, found meaning and purpose in being a doctor, and went on with his life.

I previously preached here about Jesus’ fish-fry on the beach, and Paul’s dramatic conversion, but today I want to focus our attention on our reading from Revelation.

Revelation chapters 4 and 5 offer us the best report of what Heaven is like in all of Scripture. In Chapter #4, the 90-92 years old Apostle John finds himself “taken up” into the Heavenly throne room. He has a vision of Jesus and receives the Lord’s words for the 7 churches in Asia Minor, but is then directed by Jesus to come up into heaven.

He sees things there that are almost too difficult to for him to put into words. He sees God the Father, seated on His throne, at the very center of a huge gathering. God dwells in dazzling light so overwhelming that John cannot clearly see His face. He tries to describe that light by using the image of light reflected by sunlight on jewels.  Scholars believe the jewel tones he saw were red, white, bright green, and perhaps purple.  Additionally he observes that God is surrounded on His throne by an emerald-hued rainbow. The rainbow is likely reminiscent of the days of Noah.  It seems to indicate the eternality of God’s promises—that is, that God does not break His promises to us, even if we disappoint Him.

Around God’s throne are 24 smaller thrones.  There is considerable conjecture about who the 24 elders are who are seated on the lessor thrones.  Most experts today think they represent “the true Church” or the “Redeemed:” including the 12 patriarchs or leaders of the Old Testament tribes of Israel; and the 12 Apostles from the New Testament.  They are dressed in white, the color of purity and righteousness, and what seems to be the uniform of heaven. They all wear a gold crown on their head, indicating they are a royal priesthood.  

John hears thunder and sees lightening shoot out from God’s throne. In Old Testament times, these signaled God’s presence and often His judgment. John perceives that the One seated on the throne is about to release His judgment on the inhabitants of the earth. Additionally, He notes (1) 7 torches around the throne, symbolic of the full presence of the Holy Spirit.

(2) Then he describes a “glass sea” under the throne, separating God the Father from everyone else there. God is totally holy. He is also, as I often say, large and in charge, so this bit of separation makes sense. 

(3) John is also amazed by God’s Honor Guard–the 4 living creatures (seraphim). They have eyes all over themselves, which looks and sounds very strange but indicates that they are omniscient or all- seeing. They fly about on 6 wings. Their bodies are those of strange, composite beings that may symbolize the apex of created life forms:

(a.) The mightiest wild animal, a lion (known to be ferocious);

(b.) The mightiest domestic animal, an ox (known for its strength);

(c.) The mightiest of all animals, humankind (known for our intelligence)

(d.) And the mightiest bird, the eagle (known for its swiftness).

Obviously these composite beings are capable of protecting God’s space and His person. Who could successfully take them on?

In Chapter #5, we find God the Father holding a scroll in His right hand, the hand of power.  John notes that it has writing on both sides. Typically in those days, people wrote on the front side of papyrus only, as the fibers on front were oriented horizontally while those on the back ran vertically. To have written on both sides indicates that the scroll is filled to overflowing with the decisions and the direction of God.  A number of Biblical scholars believe it contains both the salvation of humankind and the judgment of the wicked. A noted expert on the interpretation of Revelation, Robert Mounce, writes, “The whole story of human history rests in the hand of God.  What simpler or more sublime way of picturing God’s ultimate sovereignty over all history could be found than this picture of the scroll resting in the hand of God?  However strong evil becomes, however fierce be the satanic evils that assail God’s people on earth, history still rests in God’s hand.”

(Robert H. Mounce, The Book of Revelaton (Revised Ed.), Eerdmans, 1998, pp.82-83.)

Additionally, this scroll is sealed with 7 seals against tampering (again 7, in the Hebrew numbering system, is the number indicating completion). So, we can assume that what’s written therein is perfectly safe against tampering and that what’s written therein is very important!

John hears an angel ask (v.2) Who is worthy to break the seals on this scroll and open it?  Perhaps eager to learn God’s plans, John bursts into tears because (v.4)…no one was found worthy to open the scroll and read it. Then one of the 24 elders directs John to stop weeping. because Someone worthy has been found:  the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the heir to David’s throne, Jesus.

But the Jesus who comes forth is not a warrior king in all His resurrection splendor, nor a majestic lion. Rather, He is portrayed as a little lamb who had been sacrificed—alive now (resurrected) but probably evidencing a slit throat. Obviously it takes Someone totally conformed to God’s will—like Jesus—to break the seals. God Himself doesn’t do it, but He has the Mediator, Jesus, bring human history to its foreordained consummation (Mounce, Ibid, p.143).

At this point, we should pause and say, “Worthy is the Lamb!” The use of the Lamb image is both striking and unusual. When people groups want symbols of power for their country, they tend to choose apex predators: Russia has the bear; Britain, a lion; France, a tiger; and the USA, the bald eagle. But God chooses a slain lamb, a typical temple sacrifice for sin. Christ is victorious precisely because He has surrendered Himself to be sacrificed, like a Passover Lamb.  He has triumphed over sin, death, and evil by His death on the Cross.

This particular lamb, Jesus, is powerful because He is depicted with seven horns, an Old Testament symbol for complete and perfect power.

Similarly, He has 7 eyes, representing His all-seeing omniscience.

So the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world steps forward to open the scroll, and all of heaven bursts into song. The 24 elders fall down before Him, surrendering to worship, singing Jesus a new song. They play harps to accompany worship music (I don’t think we will be the ones playing harps, despite what the culture contends).  The elders also offer up golden bowls of incense, which John is told are the prayer of the saints.  Then a myriad of angels join in a powerful chorus.  Finally, John writes (v.13) Blessing and honor and glory and power belong to the one sitting on the throne and to the Lamb forever and ever. (Talk about a Halleluia Chorus!)

So what can we take away from our glimpse into God’s throne room in Heaven?  I believe the following insights are worth remembering:  

1.) True power in this world does not rest with human dictators or human governments, but rather with our God.

2.)  God controls the course of human history.

3.) Even the most exalted beings in heaven humbly acknowledge God’s superiority in every way—so should we.

4.)  As God, Jesus knows how human history will end…our history is truly His-Story.

5.) How true then is Paul’s assertion from Romans 8:31 If God is for us, who can be against us?

6.) When we each get to heaven we will join millions of believers and angels in worship of our God and our Lord Jesus.

Thanks be to God Who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!  Alleluia!  Alleluia!

©️2025 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams 

Posted on by Cheryl Norman

If You Thought This was Spectacular….

Pastor Sherry’s message for April 6, 2025 

Scriptures: Isa 43:16-21; Ps 126; Phil 3:4b-14; Jn 12:1-8

I love stories of healing:  (1) One of our parishioners told us once that she felt God free her from years of a smoking addiction while sitting here in our sanctuary.  (2) We learned several weeks ago that someone we had been praying for for weeks was suddenly healed of Stage 4 Cancer. (3) John Wimber, who founded the Vineyard Church (a charismatic, nondenominational church that focuses on healing), reported many healings but one in particular seems pretty spectacular to me:

“…he received a phone call from a distraught father.  The man was sobbing and could hardly talk.  ‘My baby is here in the hospital,’ he said, ‘and they have tubes from machines attached all over her body.  The doctors say she will not survive the night.  What can you do?’  John said he would come to the hospital.  After he put the phone down, he prayed, ‘Lord, is this baby supposed to die?’  John sensed the Lord saying, ‘No!”  John walked into the hospital with the knowledge that he was a representative of Christ, a messenger who had a gift for that baby girl. 

“When John entered the baby’s room, he sensed [a spirit of] death, so he said quietly, ‘death, get out of here [in Jesus’ name].”  It left, and the whole atmosphere of the room changed, as though a weight had been lifted. Then he went over and began praying for the girl.  After only a few minutes he knew she was going to be healed, and so did her father.  Hope came into his eyes.  

“She is going to be okay,’ he said; ‘I know it.’. 

“Within 20 minutes she had improved greatly; several days later she was released, completely healed.”

(Graham Twelftree, Your Point Being?,  Monarch Books, 2003, p.132.)

Stories like these touch our hearts. They remind us of God’s great love for us.  They deepen our faith.  And they are evidence that our God didn’t just do miracles in Bible-times.  There is in some corners of the Church a believe called dispensationalism. Folks who subscribe to this belief feel convinced that all miracles of healing or deliverance stopped with the death of the last Apostle.  But we know this is simply not true.

All of our Scripture passages today seem to suggest God’s great delight in surprising us with his grace and goodness.  It’s as though He is saying to us, If you thought this was spectacular….

A. In Isaiah 43:16-21, the prophet Isaiah reminds God’s Chosen People of His redeeming work on their behalf.  They had been bound up as slaves in Egypt for 400 years.  God had tucked them out of the way while He waited on the Canaanites to accept Him as their Lord.  They didn’t.  So God sent Moses as His choice of a leader to free the Israelites.  Miraculously, then, Moses led 2 million people, plus their animals and belongings, through a supernaturally dried up Red Sea (1446BC). They walked through on dry land, while the Egyptian army and the chariots that pursued them were drowned.

Isaiah speaks for God saying essentially, “If you think that was spectacular, wait til you see this new thing I am going to do. In verses 18-19 (MLV), the Lord says—But forget all that—It is nothing compared to what I am going to do.  For I am about to do something new.  See, I have already begun!  Do you not see it?  He is referring to how He, the Lord, will lead His people with a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.  He will provide them with supernatural food (manna) from heaven and supernatural water from rocks.  He will protect them from enemy attacks. physical diseases, and even from wear and tear on their clothes and sandals.

But, most spectacular of all, He is predicting—through His prophet—the redemption of all humankind He has planned through the efforts of Jesus Christ. In the entire history of the world, there has never been a religion in which the deity comes to earth to save human beings.  This is clearly “a new thing.”

B.  Psalm 126 offers a similar refrain.  This time the Jewish people have been released from their 70 year exile in the Babylonian-Persian Empire.  God had allowed the forces of King Nebuchadnezzar to defeat Judea, destroy Jerusalem, and cart the people off (586BC).  He was chastising them—after many warnings of judgment to come—for their idolatry and stubborn disobedience.  The news that they were free to return to Jerusalem stunned the Jewish captives!  The psalmist writes in vv.1-3—When the LORD brought back His exiles to Jerusalem, it was like a dream!  We were filled with laughter, and we sang for joy.  And the other nations said, “What amazing things the LORD has done for them.” Yes, the LORD has done amazing things for us! What Joy!

This probably felt to them like a spectacular new thing.  God’s miracles for His people were clearly not at an end.  And, just as the Isaiah passage predicted Jesus’ 1st Coming, this psalm looks forward to the Jesus’ 2nd Coming. 

C. The Isaiah reading dealt with the Exodus, and our psalm, with the return of the Babylonian exiles.  Paul takes us in a different but related direction in Philippians 3:4b-14.  Paul had, prior to coming to Christ, thought he could manage his own salvation by his own efforts.  He lists 7 credentials he had accumulated that made him a religious superstar:

1.) He had godly parents, who saw to it that he was circumcised on the 8th day—by Jewish Law. 

2.) He was purely a Jew—no nonbelieving Gentiles in his gene pool. 

3.) He was a member of the tribe of Benjamin, Jacob’s favorite son after his loss of Joseph.

4.) He was an elite leader.

5.) He was a Pharisee by training, dedicated to teaching and enforcing Jewish Law.

6.) He was so zealous that he persecuted the infant Christian Church.

7.) And he kept short sin accounts with God, making the requisite sacrifices when he sinned.

But, since becoming a follower of Jesus Christ, he considers all his worldly accomplishments worthless. And so should we.  It’s not about impressing others with what we have done or not done. Paul knows he could not make himself right with God through his own efforts.  He wants us to realize that (v.9)—…God’s way of making us right with Himself depends on faith.  It’s about having faith in Jesus Christ.  He is now dedicated to getting to know Jesus better and better, and to helping others do so too.  And so he presses on (vv.13-14)—Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus is calling us. 

This is definitely a spectacular new thing: Salvation does not come from our efforts, but has been won for us by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  We don’t have to try to be perfect. Our sins are covered by the sacrificial blood of the sinless Son of God. Our striving can cease, replaced by our faith.

D. Finally, in our Gospel lesson (John 12:1-8), we see a young woman do something extraordinarily new to honor Jesus.  The scene is a dinner party in Jesus’ honor at the home of Lazarus.  Rev. Dr. J. Vernon McGee says the Lazarus family represents 3 essentials in every Church:

(1) The resurrected Lazarus has new life in Christ.

(2) Martha no doubt prepared and served the meal, so she represents service.

(3) Mary kneels at Jesus’ feet, worshiping and adoring Him.

(McGee, Through the Bible Commentary on John, Thomas Nelson, 1991, p.38.)

Notice how extravagant are Mary’s efforts.  Jesus will wash His disciples’ feet with water at the Last Supper, but she anoints His feet with a very expensive perfume from India, and dries them with her lovely long hair.

Mary of Bethany realizes how very special Jesus is and she honors Him with a pound of spikenard worth a year’s wages.  She, like Paul who comes after her, has made worshipping Jesus the most important thing. Jesus accepts her worship as if she is anointing Him for His death some 6 days ahead. We could say she is fully committed and has the utmost faith in Jesus. 

I don’t know about you, but I find that Jesus often surprises me by answering prayers I haven’t even put into words.  There’s a certain busy intersection, with no light in my town, into which it is very difficult to turn left. For several days, as I have approached this intersection, there has been—amazingly—no traffic in either direction. As I have easily executed my left-hand turn, I have laughed and thanked the Lord. This is not as spectacular as opening the Red Sea, returning exiles to Jerusalem, or healing a dying baby.  But it serves as a reminder to me that Jesus sees me, loves me, and wants to have me cross the intersection safely.

Like Paul and like Mary of Bethany let’s during what’s left of Lent, focus on how grateful we are to serve a God who enjoys gifting us with spectacular large and delightful small surprises.

Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Alleluia, alleluia!

©️2025 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams

Posted on by Cheryl Norman

God Never Gives Up On Us

Pastor Sherry’s message for March 30, 2025

Scriptures: Jos 5:9-12; Ps 32; 2 Cor 5:16-21; Lk 15:1-32

I ask your forgiveness if I have used this story before.  After 10 years here at Wellborn Methodist Church, I have lost track of which stories I have told when.  In this story a guy who committed a crime was sentenced to time in prison:

“ On his first day there he was sitting in the dining hall at lunch and suddenly a man stood up and shouted 37!  And everybody laughed.  After a while another man stood up and shouted 52!  And everybody chuckled and smiled.  After a few more minutes somebody else stood and yelled 86!  And again everyone laughed.  The new guy leaned over toward the man across from him and said, “What’s going on?  Why is everyone laughing at those numbers?” 

“The man said, “It’s like this.  There are only a hundred of so jokes in the world, and in here you hear them all.  We decided to save time and give them numbers.”  Wishing to fit in and win friends, the new convict decided to give it a try.  “17!” he yelled out.  Nobody laughed, nobody looked at him; finally, he sat down mystified.  “What happened?”  he asked his new friend.  The man shrugged and said “Oh, some people know how to tell a joke, and some people don’t.”   

(Fairless and Chilton, The Lectionary Lab Commentary: C, 2015, pp.128-129.)

Sometimes those of us who preach end up feeling this way about certain Bible stories.  They are so well known we could call out their names—like numbered jokes–and you would remember them.  Think of Noah and the Flood, Jonah and the Whale, the Good Samaritan, or the Woman at the Well.  You know these stories, you’ve heard them preached or discussed many times, and you could probably tell us all how they apply to our lives.

So what’s a preacher to do to bring new insights to such well-known tales and keep you all awake during the telling?

Our Gospel today (Luke 15:1-31) certainly falls into this category of famous parables. With the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, I will try to bring something fresh to our understanding of these well-beloved Parables.

A. Dr. Luke, the author of our Gospel account, has grouped together three parables of Lost things in Chapter #15.  They all say essentially the same thing, but using 3 different illustrations:

(1) An example directed at men (shepherds), a lost sheep;

(2) An instance directed at women (housewives), a lost coin;

(3) And an image most of us can relate to, a lost child, or son.

These constitute Jesus’ answer to the Pharisees’ criticism that He, a rabbi, hung out with sinners.  He knew they were muttering against Him (v.2) This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.  Jesus’ three examples—especially the final one—contrast the love of God for sinners, against the exclusiveness and snobbiness of the Jewish religious leaders.  Those folks, over time, had established themselves as a “holy club” whose members they considered special while those outside the club were considered losers.  Jesus is saying, among other things, God the Father and He, Jesus, both love the Lost Ones, the losers.. Yes, He also loves those of us who He has already found, and who have accepted Him.  In all three parables, Jesus defines repentance as the acceptance of having been found.  The initiative belongs to God.  He never gives up on trying to reach us.  He really goes out of His way to find us.  And, I could be wrong, but studying Jesus’ model, I think our job, as followers of our God, is to notice those who don’t love Him—or don’t even know about Him–and tell them the Good News of the Gospel:

(1.) Jesus Christ came to save the Lost;

(2.) He died on a Cross, taking upon Himself the penalty for all of our sin, for all time;

(3.) And He rose again, overcoming the penalty for our sins, which is death, and guaranteed to each of us eternal life in Heaven with Him.

Our Lord Jesus hung out with sinners because He hoped to save them.

B. While we’re on the subject, let’s take a look at our Old Testament lesson from Joshua (5:9-12).  The context is that God has safely delivered the Israelites from slavery in Egypt.  During their 40 years of wilderness wanderings, He has protected them from illness and enemies; provided them with water from the rock (Jesus) and has fed them with manna (also Jesus); He has disciplined those who were rebellious and ungrateful; and He has now directed General Joshua, their new leader, to lead them across the Jordan River into the Promised Land.

Instead of immediately attacking and defeating Jericho—which you might think He would do–God has Joshua circumcise all the men and boys born since the exodus.  YIKES!  Besides being very painful, this no doubt laid them out for several days as they recovered.  It also required that the Lord continued to protect them as they were vulnerable to attack. Clearly this was important to our God.  Why?  Circumcision was the undeniable, indelible, permanent sign of their covenant relationship with God—a daily reminder that they belonged to Him.  They had not practiced it in the latter years of slavery and didn’t stop traveling to circumcise in the desert.  God was saying to them, You are not lost; you belong to Me; You must carry the sign of our Covenant relationship.

Next, He directed Joshua to lead them in a Passover service.  The Lord wanted them to remember how He saved them from the angel of death—the 10th plague—in Egypt.  He wanted them to remember they were saved by the blood of the Passover Lamb painted over their doorways—a foreshadowing of Jesus.

Having rededicated themselves to God, the Lord discontinued the daily drop of manna and they ate instead of the grain and fruit of their new territory.  

Again, notice the lengths our Lord goes to help us remember we are His.

C. David’s psalm (Psalm 32) is what is called in the Hebrew a maschil, a psalm of instruction.  In Psalm 51:12-13, King David’s great penitential psalm, He promised that if God forgave him for his adultery with Bathsheba and his murder of Uriah her husband, he would teach others to love and obey God.  Scholars believe Psalm 32 is David’s fulfillment of that promise.  (Obviously, the psalms are not listed in chronological order.)

In verse 1, David writes (NLY, p.671)—Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sin is put out of sight.  David is clearly speaking as someone who has experienced God’s forgiveness. He is rejoicing in the fact that God did not give up on him, despite his egregious sins.

He recounts how the Holy Spirit afflicted his conscience (v.3) until he came to a point of repentance.  He celebrates the fact that (v.5)—I said to myself, “I will confess my rebellion to the Lord.”  And You forgave me.  All my guilt is gone.

He uses the remainder of the psalm to praise God as his hiding place (v.7), and to instruct us that (v.10)—many sorrows come to the wicked, but unfailing love surrounds those who trust in the Lord.

D. Paul picks up a similar refrain in 2 Corinthians 5:16-21.

1st he states that we have no basis for judging others, as we are all sinners, and Christ died for every one of us.  Because of this, we are all new creatures in Christ.  He has pursued all of us. He has redeemed all of us. This fact has resulted in a new relationship between us and our God. Just as the reiteration of the covenant at Gilgal (which means rolled away; at that place God rolled away the shame of their past slavery, through circumcision and Passover) reaffirmed the Israelites as God’s Chosen People, we have—through our belief in Jesus–been reconciled to the Father.

We have also been given a ministry (vv.18-20, NLT)—And all of this is a gift from God who brought us back to Himself through Christ.  And God has given us this task of reconciling people to Him.  For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them.  And He gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation.  So we are Christ’s ambassadors.  We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!”

During Lent, as I said last week, as we do our spiritual housecleaning, we must all come to grips with the fact that we are all sinners.   As Paul says (Romans 5:8)—While we were still sinners, Jesus Christ died for our sins.  Our Lord Jesus is not satisfied until we Lost Ones are found by Him.  Our God is called The Great Hound of Heaven because He pursues us like a bloodhound until He finds us.  He and all of Heaven celebrate when we turn to Him.  He loves us with a steadfast and faithful agape love.  He is willing to forgive us whenever we repent and ask Him.

Interestingly, in the stories of the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin, there is an invitation to us to party, but we don’t know if anyone did.  Similarly, in the story of the Lost Son, we know the party takes place, but we don’t know if the self-righteous older son ever participated.  These parables are left open-ended for a reason.  The ending is up to us.  How will each of us respond?  Let us join in with our reconciling Lord, who never gives up on us.  Please also turn to www.YouTube.com and listen to a song by Jesus Culture called “One Thing Remains.”

©️ Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams

Posted on by Cheryl Norman

Radical Heart Surgery

Pastor Sherry’s message for March 23, 2025

Scriptures: Isa 55:1-9; Ps 63:1-8; 1 Cor 10:1-13; Lk 13:1-9

I believe I’ve mentioned several times in the past that I taught Psychology at Santa Fe College in Gainesville for about 5 years. Most majors at Santa Fe required Psychology—even welding!—so there were many sections offered. Whether you are majoring in Biology, English, or even Art, a basic understanding of human behavior can be very helpful.

I enjoyed how bright and how funny the students were, and often learned as much from them as they hopefully learned from me. Instead of a term paper every semester, I had them embark on a Self-Change project. They were to use principles of psychology to either (1) add a new, good habit like drinking more water, or working out more regularly, or even devoting more time to study; or (2) they could try to overcome a bad habit, like quitting smoking or dipping, or one young lady who decided to stop gossiping at work. She noticed her coworkers always talked badly about whoever was not present. She realized that probably meant they criticized her when she wasn’t there. She admitted that work had become an unsafe place, emotionally. A non-Christian, she decided to do something about it by abstaining from gossip.

Another young woman said she wanted to avoid talking and thinking negatively. She’d noticed that always focusing on the negative put her in a bad mood (This is true for most people).She planned to substitute three good thoughts for every negative one she had—it turns out that recent psychological research has shown that substituting positive for negative thoughts is an excellent way to overcome depression..

These young women had great intentions. I had hoped these self-change projects would make a significant difference for my students, but I sometimes had my doubts. A girl in one of my classes said she was going to control her road rage, and she appeared to have done so. The following semester, however, I was right behind her in traffic when she grew enraged at the driver ahead of her, and then honked, yelled, and made rude hand gestures to this person. She didn’t see me, but I emailed her about witnessing her relapse into road-rage, and encouraged her to remember her intentions to change and try again.

What that proved to me was that to overcome long standing bad habits, we need the help of the Holy Spirit. Simply put, our willpower alone is not enough. We are told by Jesus that (Matthew 12:34) Out of the fullness of the heart, the mouth speaks. To achieve the kinds of behavioral changes we may want to make requires radical heart-surgery—a transformed heart! My students needed Jesus, and so do we! 

In our Gospel lesson today, Luke 13:1-9, Jesus talks about a what we may term “radical heart surgery.” Just as with real estate, a critical factor in understanding any passage from Scripture is its location, location, location! In the end of Chapter 12, is Jesus’ final appeal to the nation of Israel to repent. He tells them they are responsible for every sin they commit. He also reminds them to keep short accounts with God, asking for forgiveness daily, while they still have time to make things right. In the passage right after this one, Jesus again heals on the Sabbath. He has already duked this one out with the Jewish religious leaders several times. It is lawful to heal on the Sabbath, because the Sabbath was made for humankind, and besides He, Jesus, is Lord of the Sabbath. Therefore He has the authority to determine what is lawful to do during it. So He heals a woman in the Synagogue who has been bent over for 18 years. He then looks to see if the hearts of the religious establishment have been changed since He healed the man with the withered hand. Apparently not! The Synagogue ruler dresses Jesus down for healing during worship! And Jesus calls him a hypocrite for leading his animals to water on the Sabbath, but denying a woman freedom from her crippled condition. 

So our passage is sandwiched between two important notions: (1) Your hearts are not right with God (including Jesus). Do something about this now, as your time for changing is short. And (2) your hearts are not right with your neighbors. In other words, “You’d stress the letter of your interpretation of the Law over this woman’s welfare? Really?”

Then He moves on to two examples from real life: Some listeners (believers? Scribes, Pharisees?) relate to Him the latest of Pilate’s atrocities. We tend to think of Pilate only in the context of Jesus’ crucifixion, but he was a weak leader, “sentenced” to serve Caesar in Judea as a last chance to prove himself. Thus he was highly reactive and overly sensitive to whatever might displease Caesar. Apparently Pilate exacted capital punishment on some Jews from Galilee as they were in the act of worshipping at the Temple. To the Jewish mind, then, this was pretty horrific. Furthermore, whatever happened to the notion of “sanctuary”? Like if terrorists stormed Wellborn Methodist Church and killed us all while we were singing or praying together, we and others would be outraged.

These tale-bearers then ask, Do you think these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered thus?

They want a judgment call. The prevailing thought at that time was that all misfortune—disease, financial struggles, relationship problems, premature death—was due to your being an extreme sinner. They really believed that you could recognize a sinner by the amount of tragedy in his/her life. They perhaps wanted some assurance they are not as bad as the slain worshippers.Note Jesus’ answer: I tell you, No [they were not worse sinners]; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish. Does that answer strike you as a little strange? Jesus responds to their question—NO—then redirects them from the issue of whose sin is worse. Just as back in Chapter 12, He wants them (and us) to remember they (and we) are all sinners.(a) We need to get right with God and others; (b) We are all going to die someday, somehow; (c.) So, right now we need to admit our sin, confess it to God, and ask His forgiveness. And by the way, He probably didn’t miss that they had pointed out that the unfortunate citizens Pilate had executed were—like Jesus—Galileans. Some scholars posit that they were either being dismissive of Jesus —like saying He was a hick from Wellborn or Live Oak! Or, even more subversive, they were trying to set Him up to condemn Pilate so they could then rat Him out to the Romans. By this point in Luke’s Gospel, the gloves are off between the Jewish religious leaders and Christ.

Then Jesus brings up another tragic account: the tower that fell, killing 18 workers.This may have been a portion of an aqueduct that Pilate was having built in Jerusalem—so, back at you with the Pilate provoked deaths of Galilean Jews. This time the persons killed were residents of Jerusalem. Jesus poses their question back to them, Or those eighteen upon whom the tower in Silo’am fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you NO; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.With an economy of words, Jesus deflects from the issue about the degree of sin because it distracts from the weightier, more important issue: Don’t worry about who sinned more than whom; it’s not a contest as every sin separates us from God, so there are no degrees of sin. But right now, you (we) need to look to the evil in our own hearts. Do we love God with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength?Do we love our neighbors as ourselves?

Then He follows up with the Parable of the Barren Fig Tree. In the Old Testament, vineyards and orchards were metaphors for the nation of Israel.Fig trees were often planted in vineyards. They typically took three years to mature (bearing fruit, when mature, 10 months out of 12); Then another 3 years to bear fruit that God would not allow them to use; But, by the 7th year, (4th year with fruit), this fruit belonged to God; This barren fig tree has not produced fruit for 7 years (seven means completion in the Hebrew numbering system)! The tree’s time was complete.

The Vineyard owner is God (representing God’s justice).The Lord is disappointed that the Jewish religious leadership has not been more fruitful. He is ready to cut them down!They’re hogging soil nutrients that could go to the vines, the people.The vinedresser is also God (representing God’s mercy), and asks for patience, grace. Let me dig about it, aerate it, water it; let me pour manure on it, and offer it more time to change. Jesus is making a point the religious leaders would have well understood! “You are helpless to help yourself! Heart-changing help must come from outside yourself —we/you are all sinners in need of a Savior.”And whether they accepted it or not, Jesus was giving them a limited time to repent/to accept He is God.We know they ultimately rejected Christ and so God allowed the Romans to destroy the Temple and Jerusalem in 70 AD.

So what does this mean to us? Jesus is sharing us the truths that (1) We are all sinners! (2) Sin kills. It cuts us off from God, and it warps our relationships with others. Consider the example of pornography—a self-change project that several of my male students embarked upon.

It objectifies the person viewed.It tends to result in the viewer becoming angry with the object of their lust, blaming her for posing for the picture.

And it sends every thought through a sexual filter. (3) We all need to repent.(4) We need to invite the Holy Spirit to do radical surgery on our hearts.

Jesus gave these hardhearted, religious leaders another chance. Let’s remember this week how gracious and patient He is with each of us. Then let’s humbly and sincerely thank Him for His grace, His mercy, and His forgiveness. AMEN!

©️2025 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams