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

We Gotta Have Faith!

Pastor Sherry’s message for August 10, 2025

Scriptures: Isa 1:1, 19-31; Ps 50:1-13, 22-23; Heb 11:1-16; Lk 12:32-40

School starts here in Suwannee County tomorrow.  That means that football season is only weeks away.  You know I love college football, especially the Gators.  I even fly a U.F. Gator flag from my front porch.  I love the game and I also love the human interest stories the commentators share about the athletes, and am often amazed at how many athletes are Christians.  One such story concerns Nick Foles (a pro, and a former college player), the Super Bowl MVP in 2017, 8 years ago, but perhaps some of you remember:

“Nick Foles didn’t set out to be a Super Bowl MVP. In fact, at one point, he almost walked away from football altogether. He’d been traded. Benched.  Injured. Forgotten [a back up only].

“In 2016, he nearly quit the NFL and considered becoming a pastor. But God wasn’t finished with his story.  Foles stayed. And in 2017, he was backup quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles. Then their starting QB, Carson Wentz, went down with a [knee]  injury. Foles stepped in.

“Everyone wrote the Eagles off. But game by game, Foles led them to the Super Bowl—and not just any Super Bowl, but one against Tom Brady and the Patriots.  And then… the unthinkable happened. Foles played the game of his life. He threw for three touchdowns. Caught one himself in a play forever known as the “Philly Special.” The Eagles won their first championship [their second one was this past year].

“In the post-game interview, Foles didn’t boast. He said:  ‘All glory to God.’ He talked about how he had leaned on his faith, how failure and setbacks had shaped him, and how he wanted his story to inspire others to keep trusting God.

His journey wasn’t about football—it was about faith through the ups and downs. Believing that God writes bigger stories than we can imagine.

“Sometimes, mountain-moving faith doesn’t take you to the pulpit. Sometimes, it takes you to the huddle—and reminds you that wherever you are, you can glorify God.”  

(Borrowed from www.NewstartDiscipleship.com, 8/7/2025)

Praise God that Nick Foles hung in there!   He credits his wife with having convinced him not to quit in 2016, but he also truly must have believed in the verse from Hebrews11:1 (NIV)—Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.  The New Living Translation put it this way—Faith shows the reality of what we hope for.  It is the evidence of things we cannot see.

It’s like believing in the words of Isaiah the prophet, when he proclaims God’s warning to Judea (Isaiah 1:19-31).  Isaiah said the Lord was calling the world to come to court to hear Him testify against His Chosen people.  They were disobedient and rebellious and He was on His last nerve with them.  They even had the sad example of the Northern Kingdom’s  capitulation to the Assyrians for the same offenses, but they had not changed their ways.  Nevertheless. God was giving them yet another chance to repent and return to Him.

It’s like believing Asaph, the psalmist (Psalm 50), who claims that God does not need our offerings.  Verses 9-12 state—But I do not need the bulls from your barns or the goats from your pens.  For all the animals of the forest are Mine, and I own the cattle on a thousand hills.  I know every bird on the mountains, and all the animals of the field are Mine.  If I were hungry, I would not tell you for all the world is Mine and everything in it.  We don’t give the Lord offerings because He needs them.  And we don’t give Him tithes to sweeten Him up towards us—that would be manipulative and we cannot manipulate God.  We give to Him as a way of expressing our gratitude to Him for His goodness, grace and mercy.

It’s like believing Jesus when He tells us that the Kingdom of God is “a kingdom of servants; people whose purpose in life is serving each other and the world.”  God’s Kingdom is not a place or a location; it’s a heart attitude we carry within us.

(Fairless and Chilton, The Lectionary Lab Commentary, Year C, 2015, p.263.)

It’s like believing that God created the entire universe…(Hebrews 1:2)—…at [His] command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen.  When we create something, we use raw materials, wood, yarn, veggies, meat.  When God creates, He creates from nothing, or what is called ex nihilo, speaking things into existence

This morning, I want to focus our attention on “the Biblical Greats” who serve as examples to us of people who not only believed in God but also demonstrated great faith in Him by their actions (Hebrews 1:1-16):

A.  Abel, the younger of Adam and Eve’s first two sons, was a faithful believer in the Lord.  We can only assume that Adam—who had disobeyed God–must have intentionally taught his sons how to please God. God forgave him and Eve by shedding the blood of two sheep and using the fleeces to cover them as they were exiled from the Garden.  He would have told them that it takes a blood sacrifice—an animal must give up its life—to cleanse a person from their sin.

Abel, a shepherd, brought the Lord a spotless lamb from his flock. While Cain, the elder son, brought the Lord veggies and fruits he had grown.

Fruit, vegetables, grain are all gifts that represent thanksgiving to God; but such an offering would not cleanse Cain from his sin.  He should have taken some of his produce to his brother to buy from him a lamb suitable for a sin sacrifice.  But, he was too arrogant, too prideful to submit to his father’s teaching and to the Lord’s will.

We are told in verse 4 (NLT)—It was by faith that Abel brought a more acceptable offering to God than Cain did.  Abel’s offering gave evidence that he was a righteous man, and God showed His approval of his gifts.  Faith is demonstrated by our obedience to God.  Faith is humble—it says, I will do what God wants, even if I might think I know a better way.

B.  We don’t know much about Enoch…except that he pleased God. Apparently he was a descendant of Seth, Adam and Eve’s 3rd son.  Enoch’s clan consisted of loyal followers of God.  Enoch lived for 365 years and walked with God.  This means he was a man of faith.  This means he was obedient to the Lord.  God was so pleased with Enoch’s faith that he took him up into heaven directly (like Elijah), so that he never experienced death.

C.  The next hero of the faith listed was Noah.  He was a 10th generation descendant from Adam, and was 500YO+ when his sons were born.  He lived a righteous, blameless life and was obedient to God, despite the widespread sin and degradation in the culture surrounding him.  Verse 5  tells us (NLT)—It was by faith that Noah built a large boat to save his family from the flood.  He obeyed God, who warned him about things that had never happened before.   He was told to save his family and 1 pair of every known animal.  It took him and his 3 sons 100 years to build the ark.  It measured 450 feet by 75 feet by 45 feet and was made of gopher wood (perhaps cypress).  By today’s standards, it is estimated that 1300 standard shipping containers could have been fit within it.

Imagine the ridicule he endured, as scholars tell us it had never rained prior to the flood.  Irrigation rose up from beneath the ground.  Water also existed in rivers and streams.  But Noah believed God when told it would rain.  His neighbors probably brought tours by at all hours to view “Noah’s folly” (but they weren’t laughing when the flood waters appeared).

D. Abraham was so faithful to God that he underwent 7 separations to please Him:  (1) He left his home country, Ur of the Chaldees; (2) He left his father in Haran; (3) He left his extended family, all except his nephew Lot, when he departed for Canaan; (4) He allowed Lot to leave him and take the best land for grazing sheep and goats; (5) He banished Ishmael and Hagar in order to protect his younger Son of Promise, Isaac; (6) Believing God could raise Isaac from the dead, He obeyed God by preparing an altar on which to sacrifice him; and (7) Finally, he was separated from his beloved Sarah at her death.

(Shared with me by Dustin Bell, a Pentecostal pastor, student of the Bible, and friend)

How many of us would have submitted to God through all of those losses?  No wonder God (Genesis 15:6)—…credited it to him as righteousness.

E. Sarah, too, is included as a person of faith.  Even though she despaired of waiting on God and talked Abraham into impregnating her Egyptian slave, Hagar, to produce Ishmael, (By the way, this was a common practice for the barren wives of wealthy men in that time, but not something approved of by God.)  Even despite this, she saw God open her womb at 90YO to give birth to Isaac.  I think it took marvelous faith to believe she could raise him up, as well!

God credits them with being the patriarch and matriarch of Israel (v.12, NLT)—…a nation with so many people that, like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore, there is no way to count them.  

These are our heroes of the faith.  They were not perfect, but they believed in God and were obedient to him.  They persevered through tough times and held on to their faith.  They were obedient to God and He rewarded them.

I want to conclude this morning with a story about a special type of Chinese bamboo tree:

“When you plant the seed, nothing happens. No sprout. No shoot. No sign of life. One year goes by—still nothing. Two years—still nothing. Three. Four. Five years—nothing.

“Then, in the fifth year, something miraculous happens. The bamboo tree suddenly shoots up—up to 90 feet in just six weeks. But here’s the truth: it wasn’t doing nothing all those years. Beneath the soil, it was growing an incredible root system—a foundation strong enough to support its sudden, towering growth. 

“That’s how faith works. You pray. You serve. You obey. And for a long time… it seems like nothing’s happening.  But deep below the surface, God is preparing something far bigger than you can see. He’s growing roots. Strengthening character. Building the foundation for what’s coming. And when the time is right—breakthrough comes fast. Faith is showing up, watering the soil, and believing the harvest is coming—even when the ground looks empty.” (www.NewstartDiscipleship.com, 8/7/2025)

May this be true of each of us.  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

Bought at a Price

Pastor Sherry’s message for August 3, 2025

Scriptures: Hosea 11:1-11; Ps 107:1-9. 43; Col 3:1-11; Lk 12:13-21

Last week, we saw how in Hosea 1:1-11, the prophet was told he was to live out a metaphor of God’s faithful love for His faithless people.  God tells Hosea to marry a whore, a woman who would be repeatedly unfaithful to him. How painful for poor Hosea! The Lord meant for the Northern Kingdom to view Hosea’s tragic marital life as a portrayal of how He (the Lord) felt about the entire nation’s “spiritual adultery.”  Hosea’s wife, Gomer, humiliated him time and again by running around with other men. By Jewish law, Hosea would have been justified in stoning her to death.  

But God told him to break the law God Himself had created in order to make his life an object lesson for the people.  So, Hosea remained faithful, as does our God, to a spouse who was a serial or repeated adulterer.  

Worse yet, Gomer bore him 3 children, but he could not be sure they were his. The Lord had him name his 2 boys and 1 girl names that reflected the Lord’s increasing disappointment with and distress over Israel: (1) A son, Jezreel, whose name meant, variously, God scatters, not pitied, or bastard; (2) A daughter, Lo-Ruhamah, whose name meant not loved; and (3) A second son, Lo-Ammi, whose name meant not My people.

Through these children, God was saying to the people of the Northern Kingdom, I have faithfully loved you, but you have been consistently and blatantly unfaithful to Me.  I am withdrawing from you.  I will scatter you.

Interestingly our Lectionary skips Chapter 3, in which Gomer finds herself trapped in sexual slavery, and on the auction block—for sale to the highest bidder.  The Lord tells Hosea to go bid on her and buy her freedom.

Imagine how this woman has humiliated him, yet he has to demonstrate God’s unfailing love by using perhaps all the money he has to set her free.

Scripture tells us he offers 15 pieces of silver—a slave in those days cost 30. This would amount to about $230 in today’s money.  Remember Who was betrayed for 30 pieces of silver?  Jesus, the King of the Universe, was handed over to His enemies for the price of a slave.  Hosea paid half that in cash–perhaps because it was all he had—so he also added a bag and ½ of horse feed.  The man gave everything he had to buy her back!   Hold on to this metaphor:  Hosea redeemed Gomer at great price to himself!

Now, in chapter 11 (today’s reading), God changes the metaphor from a marital relationship to a parent-child relationship. He poignantly recalls (vv.3-4): It was I who taught Ephraim [Israel] to walk, taking them by the arms; but they did not realize it was I who healed them.  I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love; I lifted the yoke from their neck and bent down to feed them.  God had rescued them from slavery in Egypt.  He freed them, loved them, healed them, led them, and fed them.  And how did they respond to His continuous, long-suffering, fatherly love for them?  They turned away from Him, like Gomer, to take up with pagan gods.  So, the Lord names the nation He will use as His method of discipline: Assyria (who defeated and ravaged the Northern Kingdom in 722BC (Hosea prophesied this message in approximately  750BC). 

Chapter 11 also movingly portrays God’s love and His emotional agony as He considers disciplining His people.  Verse 8 (NLT): Oh, how can I give you up, Israel?  How can I let you go?  How can I destroy you like Admah or demolish you like Zeboiim [2 cities neighboring Sodom and Gomorrah, probably just as evil and destroyed as collateral damage].  My heart is torn within Me, and My compassion overflows.   The Lord is heart-broken!  Nevertheless, His love endures.  The chapter closes as He expresses His intention to re-gather His scattered people and to bring them back to the Land (at Jesus’ 2nd Coming). 

Now perhaps you are asking yourself, why is this Hosea-Gomer saga paired with today’s Gospel, Luke 12:13-21?  They don’t seem very connected, but I believe they are.  Let’s examine how that may be:  A man from the crowd listening to Jesus’ teaching asks Him to make his brother share an inheritance.  We all know how these situations can be, don’t we?  One sibling gets more than the others, and resentments grow as jealousy and envy reign.  Or one sibling hires a slick lawyer to get a fair settlement overturned in their favor.  I personally know of a situation where the younger two siblings sued their older brother for a larger share of the inheritance.  They wrestled over this in court for five years, such that much of the remaining money went to attorneys.  The guy’s beef may be legitimate, but Jesus won’t go there!  His focus during His 1st trip to earth was to save us.  It will only be at His second coming that He will arrive to judge us. 

So instead of addressing the inheritance issue directly, He replies with a proverb (v.15; NLT): Beware.  Guard against every kind of greed.  Life is not measured by how much you own.  Then He teaches what’s now known to us as “The Parable of the Rich Fool.”   Peace, happiness, health, true friends do not come as a result of how many possessions or things we have.  Desires for abundant material goods are insatiable:  John D. Rockefeller, the richest man in America in the 1950’s was once asked how much money was enough.  He answered, “One dollar more than I have.”  No matter how much we have, we always want more because money or material things don’t truly satisfy. Furthermore, there are no U-hauls going to heaven.  The parable calls this kind of greed folly:  It violates the 1st and 10th Commandments and it puts having stuff ahead of loving God, which is idolatry.

The man in the parable is wealthy.   Even if people don’t realize it,                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   wealth (and the ability to accrue it) is a gift from God.  James 1:17 says: Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of heavenly lights.  Our Psalm 107 reminds us: For He satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.

Jesus focuses in on the man’s surplus, which is a problem for him.

He is already living well.  The man does not need the extra.  But he is greedy and self-centered.  Notice how often he uses the words, me, my, I, and myself: 11 times in 3 verses.  What letter is at the center of the word sin?  It’s I, isn’t it?  Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes 5:10: Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loses wealth is never satisfied with his income. This too is meaningless.  Paul states emphatically in Ephesians 5:5: For of this you can be sure:  No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a man/woman is an idolater—has any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God.  He reinforces this in Colossians 3:5, Our New Testament reading: Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature:  sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.  Selfishly, the man has no plans of providing for others out of his surplus; but, instead, he plans to horde his excess profits.  The Greek word used for the rich man is actually aphron: without mind, spirit, or emotions.  He thinks he is smart; but spiritually, he’s a zombie, a dead man walking.

Jesus is saying the man’s plan for the good life is foolish!  His life, like all that he has, is transitory, on loan and God is calling the loan in.  Jesus knows the man in the crowd is invested in gathering more money.  He also knows, and so should we, that our money, our worldly wealth cannot save us.

So, Who or What does save us?  Just as God the Father used Hosea to redeem Gomer from sexual slavery, He sent Jesus Christ to redeem us from slavery to sin and death.  In 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NIV) Paul asserts: You are not your own; you were bought at a price!  As I have said many times, the Old Testament always points to the New (finds its completion in the New Testament).  The price for our redemption wasn’t 30 or even 15 pieces of silver and a bag and ½ of horse feed.  It was the precious blood of Jesus Christ!  Scholars believe Hosea bid all the cash resources he had to free Gomer.  We know that Jesus gave all He had to gain our freedom!   Hosea and Gomer present a picture of what was to come about 780 years later through Jesus’ great sacrifice on the Cross.

Do you suppose Gomer was grateful that Hosea had rescued her?  As she stood on the auction block and heard the demeaning things carnal men said about her—perhaps she was even groped!—she must have been so relieved to see her long-suffering husband come to her rescue.   This side of Heaven, we can’t know for sure, but we can hope.  Similarly, I believe we need to live every day grateful that Jesus bought us with His own blood.  Years after Jesus’ ascension into heaven, Peter wrote (1 Peter 1:18-19 NIV): For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. His saving act removed us from the auction block of sin.

Let us pray: Thank you, Father God, for loving us so much as to send us a Redeemer.  Thank you, Lord Jesus, for your selfless love foreshadowed by Hosea, and for volunteering to be that Redeemer. We could not save ourselves, but You were and are our Savior.  Please keep us ever mindful of this fact. We thank you, we love you, and we worship you in gratitude, now and always. Amen!

©️2025 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams

Posted on by Cheryl Norman

The Trouble with Judging

Pastor Sherry’s message for July 27, 2025

Scriptures: Hosea 1:1-10; Ps 85; Col 2:6-19; Lk 131:1-17

I have a good friend in ministry, a Pentecostal pastor, who preaches whatever the Lord lays on his heart.  In our tradition, however, we tend to preach the readings already chosen for us and listed in what is known as “the Revised Common Lectionary.”  Back in 1983, representatives of 19 Christian denominations in the US met and agreed upon 4 Scripture passages—one from each of the Old Testament, Psalms, New Testament, and Gospels–to be read each Sunday in each of their churches.  Typically, Methodist (United and Global), Lutheran, Presbyterian, Anglican, Episcopalian, and Roman Catholic pastors preach from these selections.  They allow us to touch on much of Scripture over the course of 3 year cycles.

In my 24-25 years of ministry, I’ve been pleasantly surprised to discover the appointed readings often meet a congregation right where they are that very moment.  We could say that they are Holy Spirit inspired, and they are!  But so too is the method of asking the Lord what to preach.  Back before I went to seminary, in the 1990’s, I was doing nursing home mental health work in Tallahassee, Florida.  There was a very well run nursing home, called Miracle Hill, in the African American section of town that my team and I visited once a week.  All the patients and all of the staff were African American.  We learned they had a preacher come in on the day we visited to hold a service for the residents.  We heard him a time or two and discovered he did an excellent job.  So, we planned our time to complete our paperwork around his sermon time.  He would tell the patients that he and his wife had “gone before the Lord” to get the message he was to present to them.  I had never heard of this before, but I was very impressed with the wonderful messages he brought them weekly. 

This week, I have used both traditions: I have drawn the first 3 readings from the Lectionary.  But the Lord directed me to exchange the 4th reading, the Gospel, for an alternative.  That’s why it’s not what was printed in your bulletin (I know I drive a number of people crazy when I do this).

But when the Lord directs me to focus on a specific passage, I must comply.

He apparently wanted me to preach this morning on the problems with making judgments about others.  Consider the following true story:

“GUILTY AS SIN the headline read just a few years ago. The banks in New Jersey had been robbed systematically, one after the other. What made the robber stand out was his politeness. He just gave the tellers a note which said, “Please place your money in this bag. Thank you.” The newspapers called him the Gentleman Bandit!

“The widespread publicity led to a very unlikely arrest – the suspect was a Catholic priest. His church was appalled but stood beside him, saying they knew he could not be the bandit. They signed petitions, held protest marches and came up with his bail. But the police were certain they had their man. All of the eyewitnesses positively identified him. And the news media dug into his past, to find that in a previous church he had left under a cloud because of financial irregularities in the parish. For a priest he had a pretty expensive lifestyle – his own apartment and a fast car. People whispered his church was probably standing up for him because otherwise they looked like dupes.

“As people across the country watched the story unfold on the news, they were positive this priest had pulled a fast one. He probably had a sociopath personality so he could rob banks during the week and preach the next Sunday without feeling any guilt. No one outside his congregation was standing up for this guy. But then a funny thing happened. The real Gentleman Bandit was caught red-handed. As it turned out, he was the spitting image of the priest. It’s just that he wasn’t the priest. The priest was released, his church threw him a big party, and the news media and those who had prematurely judged him moved on to the next story.”   (Contributed by Pastor Sheila Crowe, http://www.sermon central.com, 7/2017.)

Obviously, one problem with judging others is that we often lack all the facts necessary to make an accurate assessment.  We may think we have correctly discerned the truth—at least from our point of view; but we can do damage to peoples’ relationships and to their reputations by passing along falsehoods we mistakenly think are true.  We especially need to be careful when sharing our views within the hearing of non-Christians.  Unbelievers tend to have heard of Jesus’ words from His Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 7:1-2): Judge not lest you be judged, or as the New Living Translation rephrases it: Do not judge others and you will not be judged.  For you will be treated as you treat others.  The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged.  The Bible comments on judging over 180 different times, so we can correctly infer from this that the topic is important to God.

In fact, in the Gospel the Lord told me to address today (Luke 13:1-17), Jesus teaches about our tendency to make judgments about others.  The context is two horrendous events that had recently occurred in Jerusalem:  Pilate had some men from Galilee killed as they offered sacrifices (i.e., were worshipping in the Temple).  The crowd was understandably upset and wanted to know how God could have allowed that to happen.  Many assumed the dead men must have been terrible sinners.

Additionally, 18 men constructing a tower near the Pool of Siloam were killed when the tower collapsed (they must not have had a qualified structural engineer overseeing the build).  Again, the people were wondering if the 18 dead men had been terrible sinners to deserve their fate.  Notice, Jesus does not answer their questions about the victims’ spiritual states.  Instead, He redirects them to consider their own spiritual condition (Matthew 7:3, NLT: Why worry about the speck in your friend’s eye when you have a beam in your own?)

Jesus then tells the crowd the parable of the Fig Tree:  It appears to be barren, yielding no fruit, at the very time the owner should be able to expect a harvest. The owner makes a judgment:  Cut it down.

The gardener (Jesus) offers another perspective:  Let’s be patient, tend it another year, and then decide.  Our Lord recommends grace instead of judgment, continued care instead of condemnation.

There are actually several morals to this story:

1.) Trouble doesn’t always come to a person due to their sins.

My first year of seminary, I saw my savings of $30,000 go up in smoke due to having no health insurance and a house that was a money pit (despite a home inspection stating it was fine prior to purchase).  I would not be so arrogant as to say I was sinless during that time, but looking back, I believe the Lord wanted me to learn He would provide for me when my resources were exhausted.  It was one of a number of similar lessons He provided until I decided I really could trust in Him regarding money-matters.  Additionally, I learned He can only fill us when we are empty (of ourselves and our own resources)!

2.) Another important lesson is that becoming a follower of Jesus does not inoculate us from trouble.  Instead, the evil one paints a target on us.  We need to persist in our faith that the Lord protects us and sees us through whatever trouble the devil sends.

3.) Finally, when trouble comes to someone else, it doesn’t necessarily indicate that we are morally superior to them.  Consider the Central Texas floods.  Did you at any time wonder what they had done to experience such widespread death (135 by the latest count), with over 60 still missing?  Do you think they thought the same thing last year when our area experienced 3 hurricanes?  We are not to judge others.  Instead, the Lord expects us—as with the barren fig tree–to extend prayer and  compassionate care as we are able.

Finally, Jesus demonstrates His compassion for the bent over woman.  She doesn’t even approach Him.  She has been bent over, almost in half, for 18 years.  How uncomfortable and inconvenient this must have been for her.  He sees her in the synagogue, and has mercy on her (on the Sabbath).  He tells her (v.12), Dear woman, you are healed of your sickness [such wonderful words!].  And she stands straight up (no weeks of physical rehabilitation for her!).

The guy in charge of the synagogue gets mad.  Notice he doesn’t directly address Jesus but instead tells the crowd to come any other day to be healed.  He has judged that the Sabbath is for worship alone, so Jesus and this woman are in the wrong.  Jesus correctly calls him—and those who value rules over a person’s well-being–a hypocrite.  He has missed the point of God’s mercy (remember the parable of the barren Fig Tree.)

Now, compare this with the adult life of the Prophet Hosea:  God calls him to be a prophet (1 of 7) to the morally corrupt Northern Kingdom.  But He gives him an especially tough assignment. He is to live out for the Israelites how God feels being in covenant relationship with them.  He is told to marry an unfaithful woman—actually a prostitute (YIKES!  This is a pretty strong statement about how the Lord regards Israel at this time.) Hosea’s lived experience is to remain faithful to someone who is not faithful—with all the attendant heartbreak, humiliation, and public shame and ridicule that entails.

Hosea is remarkably obedient.  He marries Gomer and they have one child, a son.  Some scholars believe this child was truly his son, but others are not convinced.  God tells Hosea to name the child, Jezreel, which means the Lord will scatter—clearly a warning of the invasion and captivity to come.  But it also means not pitied, and bastard.  Poor kid!  None of these translations would be easy to live with.  Since Gomer is adulterous, Hosea has no idea if the next two kids are biologically his:  A girl named Lo-Ruhamah, or Not Loved; and a second boy named Lo-Ammi, not My People.  God is making some strong statements to the wayward Israelites.

Are Hosea or his children to blame for Gomer’s infidelity/sin?  No, God is using them as object lessons to His people—they represent His pain due to their spiritual adultery.  Imagine what Hosea’s neighbors probably had to say; imagine their judgments of Him.  He would have been a laughing stock and considered a weak, spineless man, a “cockhold.”  Imagine what they probably said about each of his children.  They were no doubt bullied and ridiculed by the other kids.  This is yet another reason why we want to be cautious of judging others. 

Think of the falsely condemned Catholic priest.  Thank God the true bank robber, his look-alike, was found and arrested!  Let’s remember we will be judged by God according to the measure we used with others: (Matthew 12:37, NLT): The words you say will either acquit you or condemn you.

Let’s pray:  Lord Jesus, we need Your help with this!  Help us to see others with Your eyes.  Help us to speak words of grace and mercy, rather than of judgment and condemnation.  Help us to leave the judgments to You, the One Who sees and knows all, and Who judges with righteousness.  Amen! 

©️2025 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams 

Posted on by Cheryl Norman

Do you have JDD?

Pastor Sherry’s message for July 20, 2025

Scriptures: Amos 8:1-12; Ps 52; Col 1:15-29; Lk 10:38-42

I just saw this the other day:  a new diagnosis…just what we need, right?  It’s called JDD, or Jesus Deficit Disorder. 

In our Gospel lesson today (Luke 10:38-42), Jesus identifies what may be the first recorded case of this mental and spiritual condition. Jesus and His retinue are gathered for dinner at Lazarus’ house in Bethany.  Sister Mary—and we assume Lazarus and the 12—are seated at Jesus’ feet, absorbing His teaching; while Sister Martha is bustling around in the kitchen, trying to pull a meal together.  She is anxious, nervous, worried…she fears she won’t be able to manage it, or that it won’t be good enough—you know, the biscuits will burn before the meat or the veggies are done. She looks around for help from Mary, but finds her hanging out with the Lord. At this point, she is perhaps even angry. Because she knows Jesus loves her, she looks to Him to send Mary back to the kitchen to assist with the work.  But what a surprise when the Lord says (v.41): My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details!  There is only one thing worth being concerned about.  Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.

Jesus correctly diagnoses Martha as being too worried about the details of His visit.  He prescribes the remedy to her anxiety, fear, and irritation: It is to come sit at His feet (to listen and learn).   Seriously, He fed the 5,000 from 5 loaves and two fish—He could have miraculously provided the meal.  We also know that Lazarus was financially well off—no doubt she could have left servants to manage the culinary details.

I’m not going to ask for a show of hands, but how many of us realize we, like Martha, have JDD?  Are we too preoccupied with work, relationships (especially the ones that aren’t going well), what’s on our phones, what’s on Facebook, Instagram, or Snapchat—or any of a number of other activities and behaviors—to spend daily time with Jesus?  Have we developed a habit of taking time out daily to read the Bible or to engage in a conversation with the Lord?  If we don’t want to develop JDD, these two spiritual disciplines are crucial to our spiritual—and even our mental—health. 

In fact, this is the point of all our readings today:

A. Our Old Testament lesson (Amos 8:1-12) is a continuation of what we read last week.  God is telling the Northern Kingdom of Israel that He is done giving them more time!  His judgment is upon them!  Because they worship false gods, like a golden calf; because they don’t love Him and don’t love others; and because they don’t listen to or believe His prophets.

Most people then did not have access to written Scripture.  Local Rabbis and Pharisees may have had Biblical scrolls to study from, but the ordinary person did not have daily access to these.  So, God’s word was mostly spoken, spoken to them through folks He sent to them, like Amos. 

Last week, we focused on how the people then (and now) are out of plumb with God.  The image He uses this time is a bowl of ripe fruit.  Ripe fruit speaks of harvest time; but it’s also indicative of spoilage/rapid deterioration (vv.4-6).  God is saying the Israelites have turned rotten:

1.) The nearly pagan Israelites rob the poor;

2.) They trample the needy;

3.) They can’t wait for the Sabbath to end so they can continue to cheat the helpless in their businesses;

4.) They force the poor into slavery to pay off debt.

So (v.7), God swears on the name of His coming Messiah (the Pride of Jacob), that He is about to punish them severely (Now a promise like that will for sure take place). He will transform their land from lush green to barren, rocky brown.  Worse yet, He will cease talking to them—which He did for the 400 years between the Old and New Testaments.

The Israelites had a case of GDD, God-Deficite-Disorder. We would be wise to see this as a lesson for us too. God’s patience with us can also come to an end. We may gain a stay of execution by demonstrating our love for and faithfulness to Him by frequent prayer and Bible reading. 

B. Psalm 52 is a teaching psalm (a maschil) by King David, the first of four on the end-times. This one focuses on a prophesy of the antichrist (the spirit of the end times is a spirit of deception/delusion). David was himself betrayed to King Saul by someone named Doeg the Edomite. When David and his men were starving in the wilderness, he approached the priest at Nob (1 Samuel 22), who fed them from the 12 loaves of showbread reserved for God. Doeg ratted David out to Saul, who then avenged himself by murdering the 85 priests there and the entire town of Nob. David makes the point that, like Doeg, (vv.1-4) the antichrist will use deceitful words to destroy people.  People, like King Saul, will be deluded and act immorally.  But God tells the prophet to say He (v.5): …will strike you [the antichrist] down once and for all. He will initiate a reign of terror for 7 years—the Great Tribulation—but when King Jesus arrives in all of His power and majesty (2nd Coming), He will destroy the antichrist.

David concludes this psalm (vv.8-9) by reminding himself and us that righteous persons will renew their commitment to God and feel secure.  We who have a close relationship with Jesus will not fear the end times, but rejoice.  Again, the implication is that we need to habitually nurture our relationship with the Lord through prayer and Bible Study. 

C. Paul, in our Colossians lesson (1:15-29), spells out why we want to stay in frequent touch with Jesus.  It’s not just so we can avoid JDD, but because of how immeasurably important Jesus is:

1.) He is (v.15) the image of God the Father, in the flesh. 

2.) He Who came out of eternity (the prototokis), takes priority over like the firstborn) of every other living creature.

3.) (V.16) Through Him, God created everything!  He is the creator of the visible and the invisible. The Apostle John says in John 1:1-4 (NLT): In the beginning the Word already existed.  The Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He existed in the beginning with God.  God created everything through Him and nothing was created except through Him.  The Word gave life to everything that was created and His life brought light to everyone. 

4.) Everything, including us, was created through Him and for Him. We were created for His pleasure. Mostly we tend to disappoint Him, but hopefully we sometimes bring a smile to His face.

5. (V.17) He existed before anything else and He holds all creation together.  Jesus is…”the superglue of the universe.”  Think of the power that is released when atoms are split in an atomic bomb, yet Jesus has the power to hold those atoms together.

(J, Vernon McGee, Through the Bible Commentary on Colossians, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1991, pp.133-134.)

6.) (V.18) Christ is the head of the Church, His body.

7.) He is supreme over all who rise from the dead.  So He is the first in everything.

8.) He now resides in Heaven, at the right hand of the Father, but the time is coming when His will is going to prevail over all of creation.

9.) He was and is 100% God, both now and when He came to earth.

We need to be like Mary of Bethany, Lazarus and Martha’s sister.  We need to sit at Jesus’ feet so our souls and spirits can be nourished with His spiritual food.  We want to take time to be with Christ, despite our anxiety or frustrations.  We want to take time to be with Jesus, so as to be geared up and fearless during the judgments to come.  We need to make time in our busy schedules to spend with Jesus so we will not be deceived by the antichrist or the spirit of the age, the spirit of deception or delusion. There is no reasoning with deluded persons. They persist in believing what they do, despite logic or common sense to the contrary. To avoid the diagnosis of JDD, we need to sit at Jesus’ feet through our practices of daily prayer and Bible reading. Holy Spirit, in the name of Jesus, help us to do just that.

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

Getting Plumb with God

Pastor Sherry’s message for July 13, 2025

Scriptures: Amos 7:7-17; Ps 82; Col 1:1-14; Lk 10:25-37

The three best professors I ever had—in 12 years of post-high school education–were all from my seminary. My Church History prof, Dr. Les Fairfield, was exceedingly knowledgeable, was a great story teller, and had a wonderful sense of humor. The other two men were Old Testament scholars. I learned to sign up for any class they taught. Dr. Alan Ross, from whom I took  a class on Isaiah, read from the ancient Hebrew, simultaneously translating into English as he taught us. As I listened to him, the tears would slowly run down my face; I knew he was revealing to me the truth of God’s immense and patient love for all of us. Dr. Paul House, wrote the book, Old Testament Theology (InterVarsity Press, 1998), which describes what God conveyed to us from every book of the Old Testament.  As with Dr. Ross, I have found his insights to be spot-on-accurate, and I credit them both with helping me to fall in love with the God of the Old Testament.  I frequently use Dr. House’s book as a preaching/teaching resource.  If I struggle with trying to figure out what a passage means, both of these two men—plus the biblical commentator, Rev. Dr. J. Vernon McGee—always seem to point me in the right direction.

Dr. House says that God sent the prophet Amos to convey to the Northern Kingdom (Israel) that He was done with their idolatry and their blatant disregard for their covenant relationship with Him.

God, as a lion, was about to roar against Israel’s sin (house, p.35-359).

In our passage appointed for today (Amos 7:7-17), God shows Amos a plumbline, an Old Testament symbol of coming judgment. God is measuring His chosen people and tells the prophet they are out of plumb. He has given them 2 centuries to repent and straighten up (930-760). He has sent them prophet after prophet to warn them of the judgment to come.  But as we can conclude from the snarky accusations of the apostate priest, Amaziah, they have not listened to God.

Consider this:  Amaziah is leading them in worshipping a golden calf at Bethel (the name means house of God). He is a false priest, who has rejected the words of the One True God.  Thinking Amos is a false prophet, or perhaps threatened by Amos’ words of truth, he dares to spin-doctor Amos’ God-given, plumbline words.  God had told Amos that He was going to bring King Jeroboam’s dynasty to an end.  Amaziah tells the king Amos has hatched a plot to kill him, and falsely claimed the people will be exiled. God hears these lies, is totally fed up with Amaziah’s misrepresentation of His prophet, and roars His judgment on Amaziah (YIKES!): Amaziah, deported, will die outside the Promised Land.  His sons and daughters will be killed by the invaders (Assyrians, 722 BC). His wife, with no one to support her, will be reduced to prostitution to live.  His estate will be taken over and occupied by others. And what remains of Israel will be exiled—and all of this happened! (The mark of a true prophet.)

It’s not wise to ignore God.  Whether or not a person chooses to believe in the Lord does not nullify His existence or His rule.  Our God is still large and in charge, sovereign over all things. This could very well be a warning to America and to us, individually….We too, like Israel, began as a country in a covenant relationship with God.  Like Old Testament (and modern) Israel, we have broken our agreement and drifted away from Him.

We have become a nation of idolaters, worshipping many things other than the One True God, and His Son, Jesus Christ.  And we have ignored His Words, preserved for us in the Bible.  Our nation is currently out of plumb with God.  Amos wants us to realize that God’s patience with us will eventually wear out.

Our other readings today reinforce this lesson from Amos and point us toward how we can live so as to avoid God’s judgment:

A. Psalm 82, penned by Asaph, is a prophetic reminder that God will judge the judges.  Whether these leaders/judges are human persons or demonic entities influencing the corrupt judges, God views them as oppressors. They lack integrity. They have made decisions based on their desires to please certain people; or they have bowed to political-pressure; or they’ve been bought and paid for. Doesn’t this sound amazingly contemporary? (As Solomon said in Ecclesiastes, There is nothing new under the sun.)  They have not pleased God by rendering righteous judgments, defending the weak and the fatherless, the needy, or those oppressed.  

We know the Law of Sowing and Reaping will eventually see them get what is coming to them.  But this psalm prophesies that Jesus will judge them when He establishes His reign on earth. Verses 7-8 are a judgment from God: I [the Lord] say, ‘You are gods [human leaders and demonic influencers], you are all children of the Most High.  But you will die like mere mortals and fall like every other ruler.’

The Lord means for this psalm to reassure us in the midst of the lying, corruption, and injustice we witness around us. We worship the God of justice. We can take comfort in the fact that (Ps 34:15-16, NIV):  The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and His ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. 

In our Gospel lesson (Luke 10:25-37), Jesus once again demonstrates the principle of love (for God and others) through the Parable of the Good Samaritan.   Another foolish religious leader, a lawyer, tries to test Jesus before a crowd by asking Him, (v. 25): What must I do to inherit eternal life?   Jesus knew the guy knew the answer;

So He uses the Socratic Method (answer a question with a question), and answers the guy with a question of His own (v.26): What is written in the Law?  How do you read it?  The guy does a great job: Love God with everything you have and love your neighbor as yourself.  But the man is trying to make points to the crowd at Jesus’ expense, so he then probably snidely asks (v.29): And who is my neighbor?

This famous parable is Jesus’ answer.  In it, He reveals three classes of people, or three philosophies of life:

(1) The thieves who robbed and beat the man. Their philosophy was, What you have is mine—everything should be shared.  Sounds like Socialism or Communism, doesn’t it?  No one has the right to private property.

(2) The religious leaders who were unwilling to aid the man as doing so would make them ritualistically “unclean.”  Their philosophy was, What I have is mine.  We might say this is godless capitalism—Nothing is to be shared; simply look out for #1.

(3) The Good Samaritan, the despised enemy who had compassion on the injured man.  His philosophy was, What I have is yours if I can help you.  This is an example of Christian love for a neighbor, because a neighbor—according to Jesus—is anyone in need.  (McGee, Through the Bible commentary on Luke, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1991, p.138.)  I wonder when the snarky lawyer realized that Jesus had accurately understood him? And had outsmarted him?

C. Finally, Paul, while praying for the Colossian Church from prison in Rome (Colossians 1:1-14), actually tells us how to live a life that is plumb with God:

(1) He thanks God (v.4) for their faith in Jesus, and their love for Jesus and others: may our faith and love be as strong as theirs.

(2) He asks God to (v.9) fill them with the knowledge of God’s will.  He wants them to have both spiritual wisdom and understanding so that they may live lives that produce the fruit of the Holy Spirit, because this is pleasing to God.  May this be true of us as well.

(3) He bids God that (v.11) they be so strengthened by His power that they might patiently endure any trials, and be filled with joy. Wwho among us does not need patience and more joy?

(4) And he encourages them to thank God (v.12) for rescuing them (and us) from the kingdom of darkness into His kingdom of glorious light.

In a nutshell, here is how we can come to measure up to God’s expectations of us and avoid His punishment: Have faith in Christ—this is key, this is most important! Live out Christian compassion, loving God and our neighbors.  Ask the Lord for spiritual wisdom and then understanding to know His will. Bear spiritual fruit.  Be patient and joy-filled.  Have an attitude of gratitude to God. Amen! May it be so in our lives!

©️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

It Doesn’t Have to be This Way

Pastor Sherry’s message for June 22, 2025,

Scriptures: 1 Kings 19:1-15a; Ps 42, Gal 3:23-29; Lk 8:26-39

I believe I shared this story with you some years back, but I have decided to bring it to your attention once again: 

“It was advertised that the devil was going to put his tools up for sale.  On the date of the sale the tools were placed for public inspection, each being marked with its sale price.  There werh a treacherous lot of implements.  Hatred, Envy, Jealousy, Doubt, Lying, Pride, and so on.  Laid apart from the rest of the pile was a harmless-looking tool, well-worn and priced very high.

“’The name of the tool?’ asked one of the purchasers.

“’Oh,’ said the adversary, “that’s Discouragement.’

“’Why have you priced it so high?’

“’Because it’s more useful to me than the others.  I can pry open and get inside a person’s heart with that one, when I cannot get near him with other tools.  Now once I get inside, I can make him do whatever I choose.  It’s a badly worn tool, because I use it on almost everyone since few people know it belongs to me.’

“The devil’s price for Discouragement was so high, he never sold it.  It’s still his major tool, and he still uses it on God’s people today.”

(Chuck Swindoll, The Tale of the Tardy Oxcart, Word Publishing, 1998, p.164.)

The point, of course, is that Satan uses discouragement to pull us away from trusting in God.  In this, as in so many of life’s crises, we cannot give him the victory.  We want to continue to trust in God despite any and all discouraging circumstances:  Failing physical health; Money or employment problems; Family problems; Struggles with acute anxiety or deep depression; Threats of hurricanes; Threats of wars.  Remember, the Bible says (Hebrews 11:1, NLT)—Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see.  Our faith in Jesus helps us to cling to Him when things in our lives are not going well.

All of our Scripture passages today remind us to hold on to our faith in the face of discouragement.  They show us why it doesn’t have to be this way:

A.  Our Psalm (42), a teaching psalm (maschil), provides wise advice to all of us:  In verses 5 and 11, the author writes—Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad?  I will put my hope in God!  I will praise Him again—my Savior and my God!  Scholars believe this psalm was penned when the Israelites found themselves taken captive by the Babylonians (586BC).  They were of course distraught that God allowed them to be captured and exiled to a pagan land.  The faithful remnant who still believed in the Lord realized the nation was being punished for its spiritual adultery—idolatry. The faithful and faith-filled reminded themselves, “It doesn’t have to be this way,” realizing that God could also rescue and redeem them (which He did 70 years later).

B.  Our Old Testament lesson from 1 Kings 19:1-15a, gives us the example of the great prophet Elijah, so discouraged that he asked God to let him die.  Think of this, through Elijah God had showed His superiority over the Canaanite god of nature, Baal, as well as the pagan fertility goddess, Ashtoreth.  God had used Elijah to call down heavenly fire on the altar he had made.  The 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Ashtoreth had pled for their gods to do the same on their altar, but with no result.  Elijah had just scored a huge and miraculous victory over the false prophets of Baal.  But then word comes to him that Queen Jezebel, a Baal worshiper—an probably the most evil woman in Scripture–has sworn to kill him for showing up her pagan priests.  Realizing she is a nasty, powerful, and vindictive woman, Elijah temporarily “loses his Jesus” (though he predates Christ by many years) and runs for his life.

Without consulting the God he serves—Elijah, where is your faith?–he then spends sometime in the wilderness, so discouraged about his situation, so burned out—that he decides (without talking to the Lord) he has had it with being a prophet.  True, the life of a prophet is a difficult one.  Later on, Jesus will famously say of the religious leaders of Jerusalem (Matthew 23:37)—O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you….If you have ever been the truth speaker into a corrupt system, a badly run enterprise, or a vindictive clique, you know that truth-tellers (we call them “whistle-blowers”) suffer.  So Elijah is burnt out, depressed, and done in, afraid for his life, and at the give up point.

Here it’s important to realize that we often hear two messages after a significant move of God:  (1) The first is usually from the evil one.  Satan has used his tool of discouragement on Elijah.  Elijah surprisingly doesn’t even recognize it.  He just wants to give up, hand in his prophet ID badge, empty out his desk, and die.  (2) But our gracious Lord also always counters Satan’s spin with compassion and truth:  He sends him supernatural bread (manna) and fresh, restorative water; He also blesses him with deep,recuperative sleep.  The divine menu is simple but so nutritious, and the rest so restorative, that he is able to obey God and travel to Mt.Sinai 40 days’ distant.

God meets him there and curiously—since God knows everything—asks him (v.9)—What are you doing here, Elijah?  The Lord appears to want Elijah to figure it out for himself.  Elijah asserts he has been zealous in doing God’s work, but realizes he is afraid because the angry, evil Jezebel has put out a contract on him.  God then reveals Himself to him, not in the great things (ferocious wind, earthquake, and fire, signs of God’s judgment) but in a still, small whisper.  Following this, God asks the same question again, (v.13)—What are you doing here, Elijah?  Notice, the Lord really doesn’t respond to Elijah’s litany of troubles. Instead, He wants Elijah to refocus on his lifetime calling.  God reconfirms this calling, and sends Elijah back to do the work of a prophet:  [1] Anoint two kings, Hazael (over Syria), and Jehu (in Ahab’s place, over Israel); later, Jehu will be told to destroy Ahab’s dynasty (2 Kings 9:1-16), though Elijah will not be there to see it take place.  [2] And anoint his prophet successor, Elisha.  So, the Lord  appears to accept Elijah’s resignation, and reminds the prophet that He has reserved in Israel a remnant of 7,000 who love and worship Him.  Elijah was never really alone.  It was never really as hopeless as he had mistakenly believed.

C.  A truly hopeless case was the Gedarene demoniac in today’s Gospel (Luke 8:26-39).  Remember, the tribe of Gad never crossed the Jordan but liked the land they saw and settled in the Transjordan (east of the Jordan River).  This had the unexpected consequence of separating them, over time, from their Jewish brothers.  With this separation, they also drifted away from their faith to the point that they were now raising pigs—unclean!  Jesus encounters a man of Gad who was tormented by 6,000 demons.  He lived in misery and discouragement among the tombs. The demons within him recognized Jesus’ power and were horrified.  Jesus knew it didn’t have to be this way—He only spoke a word and cast the entire legion out of the man.  The guy was completely restored into who he had been meant to be.  But in what was probably a judgment on the pig industry—or even the descendants of Gad–Jesus allowed the demons to inhabit a nearby herd of hogs, who then rushed off to drown themselves  Meanwhile the previously hopeless man became a Jesus-follower and an evangelist.

D.  Why would Jesus go to this trouble?  Because, as Paul asserts (Galatians 3:23-29), this man’s faith in Christ made him a child of the Father.  All we who believe in Jesus are adopted children of God.  There is no national or racial barrier (Jew nor Greek) to our status; there is no economic barrier to our status (slave nor free); and there is no gender barrier (male nor female) to hinder us from becoming beloved children of God.

We cannot allow Satan the victory in our lives.  When we are discouraged, we need to remind ourselves that “It doesn’t have to be this way.”  We serve an awesome God who is only a prayer away. He holds the antidote to our poor health, financial struggles, family dissension, any struggle with anxiety or depression we are undergoing; also our fears of wars and storms. 

We have the whole counsel of Scripture to… 

1. remind us to put our trust in God, no matter what discourages us (Psalm 42);

2.  remember that even famous prophets like Elijah got discouraged, but God superintended his recovery (1 Kings 19);

3. recall how Jesus rescued and restored the demoniac, a massively discouraged person (Luke 8:26-39);

4. And focus on the fact that we are God’s beloved children, as per Paul in Galatians 3:23-29, due to our faith in His Son, Jesus Christ.

The next time you find yourself struggling, grab onto your faith with both fists, and tell yourself that discouragement is a tool of the devil and that you do not have to fall for it.  In truth, “It Doesn’t have to be this way!” 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

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