trust – Page 2 – Wellborn Methodist Church

Posted on July 6, 2025 by Cheryl Norman w/a Mary Jo Delaney

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 June 26, 2025June 26, 2025 by Cheryl Norman w/a Mary Jo Delaney

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 March 31, 2025March 31, 2025 by Cheryl Norman w/a Mary Jo Delaney

God Never Gives Up On Us

Pastor Sherry’s message for March 30, 2025

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

©️ Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams

Posted on February 18, 2025 by Cheryl Norman w/a Mary Jo Delaney

Live Like a Tree beside Water

Pastor Sherry’s message for February 16, 2025

Scriptures: Jer 17:5-10; Ps 1; 1 Cor 15:12-20; Lk 6:17-26

For several weeks, I have been preaching about what God wants from us, behavior-wise: He wants us to love others abundantly and to remain humble. Today I want to focus on trusting in Him.

Consider this true story:

“There is no situation I can get into that God cannot get me out. Some years ago when I was learning to fly, my instructor told me to put the plane into a steep and extended dive. I was totally unprepared for what was about to happen. After a brief time the engine stalled, and the plane began to plunge out-of-control. It soon became evident that the instructor was not going to help me at all. After a few seconds, which seemed like eternity, my mind began to function again. I quickly corrected the situation.

“Immediately I turned to the instructor and began to vent my fearful frustrations on him. He very calmly said to me, “There is no position you can get this airplane into that I cannot get you out of. If you want to learn to fly, go up there and do it again.” At that moment God seemed to be saying to me, “Remember this. As you serve Me, there is no situation you can get yourself into that I cannot get you out of. If you trust me, you will be all right.” That lesson has been proven true in my ministry many times over the years.”

(Pastor James Brown, Evangeline Baptist Church, Wildsville, LA, in Discoveries, Fall, 1991, Vol. 2, No. 4.)

Many of us have learned this over the years, but we need to be reminded of the fact occasionally, don’t we? We say we trust God with our finances until we discover we owe IRS a bundle with no foreseeable way to pay it. We say we trust God with our health, until we get the cancer or heart disease diagnosis. We say we trust God with our relationships until a spouse cheats on us or dies. We seem to trust God as long as He is arranging our lives the way we want them. It’s when life throws us a curved ball that our faith is stretched and strained. But the wise person trusts in God no matter what comes!

Our Scripture passages today all encourage us to keep trusting in God, no matter the scares we face in life:

A. The portion of Jeremiah we read today is from chapter 17,verses 5-10. Remember that Jeremiah is the “weeping prophet”, called to pronounce God’s judgment on His disobedient people. God had warned him ahead of time that no one would listen to him and that no one would heed his words. He was called to a mission of failure–by worldly standards–yet he persevered.

Perhaps he did so because he knew these verses. God sets out curses and blessings in verses 5-8: Curses if you put your trust in what human beings say is right; but blessings if you trust in what God says is right.

Jeremiah says those who trust in the Lord are like (v.8, NLT)…trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit. What an amazing promise! Like Jeremiah, we might not experience our blessings this side of heaven, but we can trust in God’s word that if we have been faithful, these blessings are coming. We want to trust in God, not in news casters, weathermen, climate consultants, economic prognosticators, political analysts, pollsters, etc. They are only human and can get things wrong. But God (vv.9-10): search[es] all hearts and examine[s] secret motives. He knows that the human heart (the Hebrews thought the heart was where we made our decisions, rather than our brains) can be the most deceitful of all things. We humans can justify to ourselves whatever dishonest or immoral thing we decide to do. The Lord sees when humans are tripped up by their own dishonorable motives or flawed thinking. Rev. Dr. J. Vernon McGee puts it this way: “Unfortunately we all have heart trouble …”(Through the Bible Commentary on Jeremiah, Thomas Nelson, 1991, p.81). In other words, only God sees and knows the Truth all the time. We need look no further for an example of this than the corruption, fraud, and waste of taxes, recently uncovered by DOGE, and perpetrated by unelected bureaucrats. These unknown persons dishonorably diverted our tax payer dollars into favorite causes of their own—some even contrary to US interests! Cheating the government is not new. The Israelites at the time of Jeremiah were doing the same or similar things

This passage reminds me of Proverbs 3:5 (NLT): Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.

B. Given the remarkable coherency of Scripture, Psalm 1 says essentially the same thing: Joy comes to those who (v.1): do not follow the advice of the wicked or stand around with sinners, or join in with mockers. These are all folks who proudly assert they are correct.

They don’t trust in God or God’s judgment. Righteous people, on the other hand—those who love the Lord and try to follow His ways–(v.2): are like trees planted along a river bank bearing fruit each season. Their leaves never wither and they prosper in all they do.

Again, we are reminded in Proverbs 1:7: Fear [awe, reverence] of the Lord is the foundation of true knowledge; but fools despise wisdom and discipline. And in Proverbs 3:6: Seek His [God’s] will in all you do, and He will show you which path to take. Human wisdom is limited but God’s wisdom is eternal and infinite. We would all do well to consult with the Lord prior to making an important decision.

C. St. Paul is still arguing for the truth of the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15:12-20. He is asserting that because over 512 eye witnesses saw and interacted with the Risen Jesus, we can trust that Jesus was raised from the dead. Reports of this event are trustworthy and true.

Jesus’ resurrection did happen. If that were not so—and Paul utilizes the word if six times—then none of what we believe as Christians would be worth much. Since it is true and has been verified, however, it is a truth worth dying for! Over the centuries since Jesus ascended to Heaven, hundreds upon thousands, even millions of Christians have died for this truth. In 2025, we can stake our lives on its truth as well.

D. Finally, we have Jesus’ words of truth in His Sermon on the Plain, Luke 6:17-26 (Luke’s version of Matthew’s “The Sermon on the Mount”). Because there were no electronic nor any social media at the time, Jesus had to repeat His primary teachings over and over again to different audiences. He wanted to be sure folks heard His Words/His Truths. Though many probably came to be healed or to witness healings, many also wanted to learn from this increasingly famous, itinerant rabbi. And since there were Gentiles from Tyre and Sidon in this crowd, Jesus focused on sharing His expectations of all of His followers for ethical or righteous living.

He pronounces blessings on those who currently suffer. He has special compassion on the poor, the hungry, and those who grieve. They will—at some future time and because they believe in Him—experience total provision, satisfaction, and joy. And if they experience persecution for Jesus’ sake, they can be (1) greatly reassured, for the prophets were treated the same way; and (2) they can rejoice because they are promised a wonderful reward in heaven. His message is one of hope: Hold on, because the righteous will be blessed.

But He also pronounces curses or “woes” on those who neither care for God nor for other people. If they were not generous to others with their wealth, their riches while they were alive will have been their total reward—not to be carried over into the afterlife. If they are solely focused on the good life now, they will not enjoy their life on the other side. If they are carried away with mirth, pleasure, and entertainment now, they only will grieve later. If they enjoy accolades now and do not realize they are accountable to God, they will find themselves on the outside of heaven later on.

Jesus’ message is clear: Live your life in such a way now that you clearly demonstrate that you love God as well as your fellow human beings.

So how can we live like a tree planted by water? Remember our three hurricanes of the past year? We lost many trees in Suwannee County, Florida, blown over by hurricane-force winds and even some tornadoes spawned by the storms. Many Water Oaks, whose root systems are shallow, running just undergrown and spreading wide, were felled. Live Oaks, however, which have roots that grow deep into the ground, remained upright. Trees planted by water tend to send their roots deep. Our trust in God is like that—it keeps us anchored, no matter what storms blow around us.

The Bible says over and over again that Fools reject God, but those of us who love Him, trust in Him and His Word. Consider the following poem:

Trust Him when dark doubts assail thee,

Trust Him when thy strength is small,

Trust Him when to simply trust Him

Seems the hardest thing of all.

Trust Him, He is ever faithful,

Trust Him, for his will is best,

Trust Him, for the heart of Jesus

Is the only place of rest.

We believe in God. We remember there is more evidence for the truth of Christ’s Resurrection than there is for the existence of Julius Caesar.

(Josh McDowell, More than a Carpenter, Tyndale House, 1977, pp.96-97)

Jesus expects us to demonstrate our love for God and our love for others in the way we live. Let us live a life that shows us firmly planted and well watered. Let us live a life that reflects well on God and on other Christians. Amen!

©️2025 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams

Posted on February 10, 2025 by Cheryl Norman w/a Mary Jo Delaney

Profiles of Humility

Pastor Sherry’s message for February 9, 2025

Scriptures: Isa 6:1-13; Ps 138; 1 Cor 15:1-11; Lk 5:1-13

Remember Muhammed Ali? The famous boxer who used to humbly claim, “I am the greatest!”? Well, the story is told that he was seated on a plane getting ready to take off, and the flight attendant noted he wasn’t using his seatbelt. She politely asked him to fasten it. He replied, ”I’m Superman and Superman don’t need no seatbelt.” To which she responded, ”Superman don’t need no airplane either, so please fasten your seatbelt.”

(Steve Jones, “God’s Spiritual Stimulus Plan—Humility, www.sermomcentral.com, 2/6/25.)

By the way, a parishioner of mine told me (following this sermon) that her father was a city bus driver in Louisville, Kentucky, for years, and that Muhammed Ali (aka, Cassius Clay) rode his bus daily as a child going to school. Her father said the great boxer had always had a tendency to brag about himself.

A second story regarding humility involves Benjamin Franklin: Apparently he once… “made a list of character qualities that he wanted to develop in his own life. When he mastered one virtue, he went on to the next. He did pretty well, he said, until he got to humility. Every time he thought he was making significant progress, he would be so pleased with himself that he became proud.”

(“Illustrations on Humility,” the Disciplers Blog, 2/7/2025.)

It’s hard to be humble, isn’t it? But our Scripture passages today provide us with some pretty strong reminders that the virtue of humility pleases God.

A. Let’s look first at the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 6:1-13). This story recaps his call, by the Lord, to become a prophet. The context for Isaiah is the death of the good king, Uzziah. Uzziah had ruled the Southern Kingdom (Judea and Jerusalem) for 52 years, from 791-740 BC. He subdued Israel’s traditional enemies, the Philistines (ancestors of today’s Palestinians), the Arabs, and the Ammonites. And, as long as Uzziah sought God and did not get too proud, he led the country into a period of peace and prosperity. When Uzziah died, however, Isaiah was grieved and worried for the future of Judea. Fortunately, Isaiah took his worry to the Temple, where he placed it on God’s altar through prayer. No doubt he was lamenting. “Lord, what shall we do? What will happen to us all now?”

The Lord responds to him with a vision and a calling. The vision is of God on His throne. The Lord is so immense that the train of His garment fills the Temple. God wants to reassure Isaiah that all is well: Isaiah’s earthly King is dead, but his heavenly King is alive and well and sovereign over all things.

Isaiah also sees 6 seraphim—in the Hebrew, the name means to burn—flying about the Throne. While the job of the cherubim is to protect the holiness of God, the job of the seraphim is to seek out sin and destroy it.

(J. Vernon McGee, Through the Bible Commentary on Isaiah, Thomas Nelson, 1991, p.68.)

This is important because Isaiah immediately becomes aware that he is a sinful man who has seen God himself. He knows from Moses’ dialogue with God in Exodus 33:20, that—No one may see Me and live. No sinful being may exist in the physical presence of the Living God. So he cries out (verse 5, NLT)—It’s all over! I am doomed, for I am a sinful man. I have filthy lips and I live among a people with filthy lips. Yet I have seen the King, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. Isaiah is honest—he admits and takes responsibility for his sinfulness. He doesn’t blame his environment, his parents, or any sinful associates. He humbles himself before God.

God then directs a seraph to cleanse Isaiah’s lips with a burning coal from the altar where sacrifices for sins are carried out. Prior to Jesus’ once- and-for-all-perfect sacrifice of Himself, an animal was chosen to be offered in one’s place. The sinner consigned his/her sins to the animal’s head, the priest slit the animal’s throat, drained its blood, and placed its body on the sacrificial altar to be burned. The life blood of the animal paid for the sin of the human. The burning or live coal the seraph brought to Isaiah came from the altar at which such atonement for sin was made. McGee goes on to assert that this act foreshadowed the coming cleansing we would all experience through the shedding of Jesus’ blood (Ibid., p.71). Remember the words of the old hymn, “What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.” Instead of hurting Isaiah, Christ’s future (to him) finished work on the Cross cleansed and healed him.

Then the Lord calls Isaiah to a frustrating work in which he will convey God’s words to a people group who will neither listen to nor receive what the Prophet has to say. Again, Isaiah humbly agrees to answer the call–Here I am; send me–even though it is to a mission that will feel very frustrating.

B. In Psalm 138, King David offers thanksgiving to the Lord for His love and protection. He says in v. 1—I will sing your praises before the gods. By gods, David was referring to the false gods of Israel’s neighbors, Egyptian, Philistine, and Canaanite gods. For us, today, the meaning is anything we put ahead of God in our lives (McGee, p.156 of his commentary on the Psalms). This could be money, power, status, influence, certain relationships with people, and addictions.

In verse 2, he goes on to praise God for His love and His trustworthiness. In verse 6, he insists—Though the Lord is great, He cares for the humble, but He keeps His distance from the proud.

There it is, the theme of humility and how it pleases God. Later, James, the half-brother of Christ, will write (James 4:6)—God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Similarly Peter will state (1 Peter 5:6)—So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time He will lift you up in honor.

C. St. Paul, in his 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians (verses 1-11), refutes the first heresy to arise in the infant Christian Church: That there was no resurrection. He carefully enumerates all the folks who saw and interacted with the risen Jesus. There were more than 512 eye-witnesses. Then he, himself, saw Jesus on the road to Damascus.

Next, he humbly recounts (vv.8-10, NLT)—Last of all, as though I had been born at the wrong time, I also saw Him. For I am the least of all the apostles. In fact, I’m not even worthy to be called an apostle after the way I persecuted the Church. But whatever I am now, it is because God poured out His special favor on me….

Some say Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, was the greatest of all the apostles; but here he humbly reminds us that if he is so, it is only due to the grace and forgiveness of Christ.

D. Finally, we have the example of Peter (also of James, John, and Andrew, Peter’s brother) in Matthew 5:1-11. Jesus uses Peter’s (and Andrew’s) boat to address the crowd of His followers. The fishermen are cleaning their nets, but they are also listening to Jesus. He dismisses the crowd and urges Peter to pull away from the shore and launch his nets again. It’s daylight and they have already fished all night with no results.

They are tired, and Peter seems crabby. He knows from experience that the fish they sought tend to swarm only at night. He must wonder, “What’s the point of going back out now that it’s daylight?”

But Peter does as Jesus says and is amazed to haul in a gigantic haul of fish! They bring in enough to tear their handmade nets. They land enough to nearly sink Peter’s boat and that of the Zebedee brothers, James and John. Peter recognizes both the miracle of the catch and that Jesus has the surprising power to accomplish miracles. Like Isaiah before him, he immediately becomes aware of his sinfulness. He humbles himself. He feels so unworthy, he even asks the Lord to leave him. But Jesus instead invites him—all 4 fishing partners, in fact–to become “fishers of men/people.”

Peter humbles himself and Jesus makes him a disciple—an apostle.

The Prophet Micah (6:8) has asserted that the way we please God is…”to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” Ali lacked humility, Franklin–like us–struggled to attain it, but Isaiah, King David, Paul, and Jesus’ Apostles all demonstrated it. It is a virtue we can develop. It is something we can intentionally cultivate and attain.

How do we do it? King David was right: (1) Put God first in our lives. We decide to try to please Him. (2) Then we recall James 1:17 (NLT)—Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father, Who created all the light in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow [meaning He is not mercurial but is the same yesterday, today, and forever]. Whatever we do that might make us proud is actually something God prompted in us, inspired, or helped us to do. Then, we must willingly give Him the praise for every good thing we accomplish and every good thing we experience. Thanks be to God Who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Alleluia, Alleluia!

©️2025 Rev. Dr. Pastor Sherry Adams

Posted on December 28, 2024 by Cheryl Norman w/a Mary Jo Delaney

Mary, Did You Know?

Pastor Sherry’s Christmas Eve message 12/24/2024

This is the 9th Christmas Eve worship service I have attempted to help us wrap our minds around what it means to realize that Jesus was born. I have asked us in the past to consider what each of the participants might have felt as they responded to Him: (1) The shepherds—remember the little boy who thought the words shepherds were watching their sheep by night, were instead shepherds were washing their socks by night? That misperception led me to images of shepherds, sitting around camp fires, washing their white tube socks and placing them on sticks to dry. (2) The wise men, possibly disciples of the prophet Daniel, who traveled for miles and miles, seeking the Christ Child. (3) The angel, Gabriel, ever obedient to God, but wondering if it was such a good plan to send Jesus to earth as a baby—afterall, they are not all very trustworthy or nice down there. (4) The inn-keeper in Bethlehem, who no doubt wished he had built on even one more room for the young, very pregnant couple. (5) Jesus’ adoptive father, Joseph, tasked with protecting and providing for his special little family. 6. Even God the Father–what must it have cost Him to send His only Son to earth to die? And (7) we have examined the feelings and perceptions of the young Mary, unwed, but chosen by God to be the mother of the Messiah. Tonight I want us to consider again the feelings, the wonder, the awe, the love of Jesus’ mother, Mary.

Perhaps you are aware of the song, “Mary, Did You Know?” It’s my new favorite Christmas song. We bless Mary because she said “Yes” to God. We know she was a devout, humble, faith-filled young woman.

Scholars believe she was somewhere between the ages of 14-16YO, a teenager. She was also unmarried, yet promised to an older fellow named Joseph (30? Young girls in those days tended to marry older men who were established in a career and had the means to support a family). When the angel, Gabriel, appeared to her she was first afraid; then perplexed about how she would have a child though a virgin; and then obedient, willing to bear the long awaited Messiah, no matter the personal cost to her (NIV, Luke 1:38)🡪”I am the Lord’s servant,” said Mary. “May it be to me as you have said.”

Mary was willing to do God’s will, but did she understand what her obedience would mean? Consider the words to the song, “Mary, Did You Know?”

Mary, did you know that your baby boy would one day walk on water?

Mary, did you know that your baby boy would save our sons and daughters?

Did you know that your baby boy would come to make you new?

This child that you delivered will soon deliver you?

Mary, did you know that your baby boy would give sight to a blind man?

Mary, did you know that your baby boy would conquer storms with His hand?

Did you know your baby boy has walked where angels trod?

When you kiss your little baby, you kiss the face of God?

Oh, Mary did you know? (repeated several times)

…the blind will see;

…the deaf will hear;

…the dead will live again;

…the lame will leap;

…the dumb will speak the praises of The Lamb.

Mary, did you know that your baby boy is Lord of all Creation?

Mary, did you know that your baby boy would one day rule the nations?

Did you know that your baby boy is Heaven’s Perfect Lamb?

The sleeping child you’re holding is the Great I AM!

(Lyrics by Mark Lowry, 1985; Music by Buddy Greene, 1991; my favorite version can be located on YouTube, sung by the Pentatonix. It is well worth the listen.)

It’s such a beautiful song! It causes us to wonder what she might have known, as well as what she probably never expected.

I asked a long time Christian mentor of mine. who also has a doctorate in Marriage and Family Therapy, what she thought Mary might have been cognizant of as she raised her Holy Son. We agreed she certainly knew He possessed miraculous powers (Remember she encouraged Him to change water into wine at the wedding at Cana). She would have known He had mastered the Scriptures (Remember she and Joseph found Him at 12 years disputing the meaning of Old Testament passages with Jewish scholars in the Temple). She of course knew that He was the Son of God, Messiah, and that He would save us all.

But did she know how it all would work out? Did she suspect the extent of His miracles, even to raising people from the dead? Did she worry about the tangles He would get into with the Jewish religious leaders? (Remember at one point she and her other children tried to rescue Him, thinking He was crazy.) Did she suspect she would witness the horrendous way He died? Probably not, but thank God she said “yes”! This brave young woman who, as the song says, kissed the face of God. This Christmas Eve, let us all follow her example and say “Yes” to God’s will in our lives. This Christmas Eve, let us welcome Jesus into our hearts and into our homes. Amen! May it be so!

©️2024 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams

Posted on December 23, 2024 by Cheryl Norman w/a Mary Jo Delaney

Touched by God

Pastor Sherry’s message for December 22, 2024

Scriptures: Mic 5:2-5a; Lk 1:46-56; Heb 10:5-10; Lk 1:39-45

The story is told of a man, a nonbeliever, with cancer, who was being treated in the hospital. His prognosis was poor. He had been raised to know Jesus, but had quit going to church when his complaints about church and church goers multiplied. You’ve heard what non-attenders say about us: (1) The church is too small—I can’t hide out. The folks there are too nosy; the folks there are too judgmental. (2) The church is too big—I’m lost in the crowd; no one knows my name, or cares if I am there or not. (3) The people there are hypocrites—acting loving on Sunday, but knifing you in the back Monday-Saturday! I don’t like the hymns–they are too old fashioned–or I can’t stand the multiple repetitions of contemporary Christian music. (4) All those people want is my money! (5) YIKES! They’ve got a woman preacher! I don’t know this guy’s particular criticism but he had given up on church long before he was diagnosed with an incurable cancer.

One day a hospital chaplain entered his room. The fellow hadn’t called for a visit from a clergy-person, so he was surprised. The chaplain addressed him by name and asked if he would like some prayer. The man thought, “Why not? What could it hurt?” The chaplain proceeded to pray for his comfort, freedom from pain, a miraculous healing, and that he might know and trust Jesus as his Lord and Savior. When the visit ended, the man felt moved to write the following:

“Lying on my narrow, hospital bed, feeling the oil of gladness and healing, I knew I had little time. More importantly though, I felt by a wondrous grace that this was the first time in my memory that the Church was paying attention to me, individually, by name, naming me, praying for me to deal with my painful circumstances and my suffering, the suffering that is uniquely mine. All of a sudden I realized, I matter, I really matter. I still can’t get over the power of this feeling of mattering, of being an irreplaceable individual.”

(Mark Trotter, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com, 12/18/2024.)

Praise God the guy experienced being touched by God. Though he referenced being attended to by the church, he learned that he mattered to Jesus. Despite his previously negative judgments against churches and church-goers, he learned our Lord touched him, thorough a clergy-person, in his time of need.

Our Scriptures today all center on folks who were touched by God in very unique and important ways. Let’s see what we can learn from them.

A. Our Old Testament lesson is from the minor prophet, Micah (5:2-5a)—again minor because his book is short, not because his message is unimportant. He served as God’s spokesman to both the Northern and Southern Kingdom capital cities from 750-686BC. He correctly predicted the fall of Samaria (Northern Kingdom) to the Assyrians in 722-721BC; and that of Jerusalem and Judea later in 586. He then went on to correctly predict Jesus’ birthplace, 700 years before His birth (NIV, v.2)—But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah [Bethlehem and suburbs], though you are small, out of you will come for Me [God the Father] One [Jesus] who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from old, from ancient times.

Though Mary and Joseph lived in Nazareth, Jesus was born in Bethlehem–due to Caesar’s census–fulfilling this prophesy. A number of Pharisees rejected Him as Messiah because they did not realize Jesus had actually been born in Bethlehem as predicted. Furthermore, the prophet states that though Jesus arrived on earth as a baby, His origins are from old, from ancient times, meaning He dwelt with the Father from before the creation of the world. Remember, the Apostle John wrote in the very beginning of his Gospel (NLT, 1:1-3)—In the beginning the Word [Jesus, God’s word made flesh] 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. Creation was the Father’s idea, but Jesus spoke everything into existence. This is why He could accurately say to the Jewish religious leaders later, (John 8:58)—I tell you the truth, before Abraham was even born, I AM!

From Jesus’ place of birth, Micah then jumps across the eons to predict the events of Jesus’ 2nd Coming. At that time, God’s Chosen People will be scattered throughout the world, as they are now (It is said that there are more Jews in New York City than there are in Israel). The Jews will have suffered centuries of travail. But the Lord Jesus will return to earth to re-gather them (and us, we who are grafted into Jesus’ line) and to shepherd them (v.4)—He will stand to lead His flock with the Lord’s strength, in the majesty of the name of the Lord His God.

Jesus will care for His people powerfully. They will accept Him as their Messiah, and He will usher in a time of world-wide peace.

Micah was certainly touched by God, inspired by Him to speak these truths to the people of Israel and to us. Through Micah, the Lord tried to touch His people. Through the book of Micah, the Lord touches us today.

B. The writer to the Hebrews is adamant that Jesus was no afterthought, no Plan B because God’s Plan A had failed. In Chapter 10, verses 5-10, the author makes it clear that the Lord always knew the blood of animal sacrifices could only temporarily atone for our sins. They covered the sins that were confessed, but did nothing toward any future sins—or even unacknowledged past sins. So sacrifices would have to be made again and again. Under that system, you would have to once again purchase or raise an unblemished animal, take it to the Temple, pronounce all your sins upon its head, and watch the priest kill it and sprinkle its blood over the horns of the altar. But because Jesus was the only perfect, sinless man, the sacrifice of His shed blood covers our sins for all time. He is the Once and for All Perfect Sacrifice for our Sins! All of us who are “in Christ”—who believe in Him and who love Him—are credited by the Father with Jesus’ righteousness. Praise God we have all been touched by God—redeemed–through Jesus!

C. Our psalm or song this morning is Mary’s Magnificat (Luke 1:46-56). Mary was, of course, very intimately touched by God. She was no doubt awe-struck at the thought of having God’s Son. This was the hope/the dream of every Jewish young woman…Will I be the one to bear the Messiah? The Greek Christians later called her the theotokis—the God-bearer. And so she celebrates this honor in 3 verses: (NLT) Vv.46-49—Oh how my soul praises the Lord! How my spirit rejoices in God my Savior! For He took notice of His lowly servant girl, and from now on all generations will call me blessed! For the Mighty One is holy and He has done great things for me.

But the remainder of her Psalm is focused on what God is doing for His people through the arrival of the long awaited Messiah: She praises God for being merciful to those who respect/revere Him; she reminds us of His past works of power; she celebrates His surprising propensity to reverse worldly expectations: the lowly are raised up, while the lofty are brought low. And she applauds God for fulfilling His promises to Israel: He is bringing forth a Messiah who will bless all the earth. This King comes from King David’s essentially extinct dynasty. Mary’s genealogy in Luke places her in David’s lineage, though as a very poor relation, and Joseph, as per Matthew’s genealogy, also comes out of this diminished promised line.

Mary is such a great model for us, isn’t she? She is humble and obedient. God’s favor upon us is often unexpected, but she immediately complied with God’s plan. She said “Yes” to God; may we say “yes” to Him as well.

D. Our Gospel lesson today is the passage just before Mary’s song of praise (Luke1:39-45). The angel, Gabriel, tells Mary her elderly cousin Elizabeth is expecting a child too. I think he gently gave the unwed Mary a good reason to leave town for a spell. Did he mean to prevent her from being stoned? Fornicators and adulterers were to be stoned in those days, according to the Law of Moses. As far as her neighbors were concerned, Mary had conceived as an unwed person and was liable. Or did God mean to provide her some respite from being judged and condemned by her friends and neighbors, and even her family? Perhaps all of this, as well as to help her feel affirmed by someone who loved her and who also appreciated the miraculous touches of God.

Elizabeth greets her (v.42) Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! Without their even having shared Mary’s condition, Elizabeth—inspired by the Holy Spirit—declares—(NLT) Vv.42-45—God has blessed you above all women, and your child is blessed. Why am I so honored that the mother of my Lord should visit me? When I heard your greeting, the baby in my womb jumped for joy. You are blessed because you believed that the Lord would do what He said. Mary, you believed God, despite the awkward and dangerous position this placed you in at home. Mary, your faith and trust in God to see you through will ever be a model to the rest of us. Elizabeth has clearly been touched by God!

Do we all realize that our God so loves us that He broke into human history, as a helpless baby, to live among us and to die for us? What a fabulous Christmas gift! As we celebrate His birth this week, may we each be fully aware that we matter to Jesus. And may we each come away from Christmas believing we have been touched by God.

Amen! May it be so!

©️2024 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams

Posted on October 8, 2024 by Cheryl Norman w/a Mary Jo Delaney

When God is Hidden, Part 2

Pastor Sherry’s message for October 6, 2024

Scriptures: 10/6/2024, Job 1:1-22, 2:1-10; Ps 8; Heb 1:1-4, 2:5-12; Mk 10:1-16

I recently came across a list of laws on the books in various states that are both funny and even weird. Apparently, it is illegal in…

1. Alabama to wear a false mustache that causes laughter in church.

2. Delaware to whisper in church.

3. Alaska, to push a live moose out of an airborne plane.

4. Arizona to let a donkey sleep in a bathtub.

5. Arkansas to mispronounce Arkansaw as Ar-kansas.

6. Speaking of Illinois, to take a nap in a cheese factory.

7. Georgia to carry an ice cream cone in your back pocket.

8. Louisiana to eat more than 3 sandwiches at a funeral wake, or to let a snake loose at a Mardi Gras parade.

(Jack Browning, www.onelegal.com , 4/7/2024.)

People can enact some pretty strange rules by which they want us to behave, can’t they? We have been looking to the Bible this past month to discover what constitutes true wisdom. Remember, from God’s perspective, wisdom is godly or righteous behavior (just think What Would Jesus Do?) and foolishness is anything but. We’d have to look hard to discover the wisdom behind some of these laws I just mentioned above.

The writers of the Old Testament, the Jews, considered the books of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Job to constitute Wisdom Literature. Someone has said that Proverbs is optimistic and teaches us that we benefit most when we try to live lives pleasing to God (when we utilize wisdom). Ecclesiastes claims that human wisdom has its limits, and a life not centered on God is meaningless. And Job argues that, while God may be hidden as we–even if innocent of wrongdoing–undergo human suffering, we need to remember that (a) Satan is actively making every effort to discourage us from loving God; (b) there is meaning and purpose to our human suffering; and (c) God has not abandoned us but rather is rooting for us as we persevere in faith.

So, this brings us to a second consideration of what we are to do when God appears to be hidden. Our Scripture passages today provide some powerful answers.

A. In Job 1:1-22, 2:1-10, we are introduced to Job—> This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil. In Chapter 1, God (the Father) holds Job up to “the Satan” [in the Hebrew, “Satan” is a title which means he is the embodiment of all evil] as His prime example of a truly good man. Notice we are told that the Satan had been busy (v.6)—> …roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it. What’s that mean? It means that he was sticking his nose in peoples’ business, trying to catch them at their worst so he could accuse them before God. This is why Scripture calls him “the accuser.”

So what’s he say to God about Job? “Well, yeah, Job loves You and does what You want him to, Lord, because You have greatly blessed him.

Let me get ahold of him and make his life miserable, and watch how quickly he blames You and turns his back on You! Wow! Notice the Satan’s pride?

He is saying, in essence, “I know humankind better than You, God. I’m sure this guy can’t really love You minus the good things YOU do for him, that is, without all the perks you bestow on people, You aren’t worthy to be loved.”

YIKES! God is love and God is good. No wonder pride was the reason Satan was kicked out of heaven. He hasn’t learned much over the millennia, has he?

God agrees to let Satan test Job, but He places a limit on what the Satan can do to Job–he cannot kill him. So, poor Job suddenly gets word that Sabeans (raiders) have taken his 500 yoke of oxen (1,000 altogether); his 500 female donkeys who provided milk that was highly prized in those days; and killed all his herdsmen except the lone messenger. In quick succession, Job also learns his 7,000 sheep have been hit and killed by fire from the sky (lightening? a meteor? a volcano?). Additionally, Chaldean raiders have swept in and taken off his 3,000 camels. And worst of all, a tornado hit the house where his 7 sons and 3 daughters were having dinner, and killed them all. Job is hit with a series of tidal waves or tsunamis, one following hard on the heels after the other.

Job’s amazing response is (v.21)—> Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; May the name of the Lord be praised. Strickly speaking, Satan (not the Lord) caused Job’s stock market to crash and all 10 of his children to simultaneously die. Job seems to understand this and so he does not blame God.

Next, we pick up in Chapter #2,with a second test for Job. Satan asserts to God, “Well, I ruined his finances and his family, but he still loves You because he has his health. God allows Satan to take Job’s health and watches to see what he does. Again, do we all notice who is responsible for the dirty work? Again, it’s Satan, not God. Furthermore, God believes in Job…think about that: God trusts in Job’s love and fidelity. Wouldn’t we all love for Him to trust in us to that extent? So, Satan covers Job’s body with painful, itchy boils. Job sits on an ash heap, a sign of mourning. He’s thoroughly grieved and he does not really understand why so many bad things have happened to him, but amazingly he still doesn’t blame God! Instead his wife–who may have only married him for his wealth, etc.—says to him (v.9)—> Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die! She’s really supportive, isn’t she? Instead of comforting and encouraging Job, she very disrespectfully blows him and his grief off. Maybe leaving her around while all their children were killed was another part of Satan’s dastardly plan.

Job actually presents an excellent model for us: We need to remember his story when trouble comes to us. It is the evil one who causes our troubles. God allows them as a test, but meanwhile, God is for us, not against us. Indeed He provides us what we need to meet and even overcome the test. I am reminded of the present response to the victims of Hurricane Helene in the western Carolinas. The federal government has been slow to respond, but churches, neighbors, and many non-profit agencies have marshalled resources to rescue, water, feed, and provide shelter to those who have lost so much.

B. Psalm 8, written by King David, is a hymn of praise to God for creation. It begins and ends with those wonderful words, O LORD, our LORD, how majestic is Your name in all the earth! Then it goes on to celebrate God’s formation of the cosmos, from planets and stars to humans and infants. We could call this a Messianic psalm because it speaks to a time when all persons will revere our Lord Jesus. As we know, the names of God and of Jesus are not everywhere honored today; many even use them as curse words. But with Jesus’ 2nd Coming, all will know that God is real, that He exists, and that He rules in power and might. Those who love Him and believe in Him will discover the truth of what the prophet Jeremiah wrote in Jeremiah 29:11—> ”For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to proper you and to give you a hope and a future.” Again, our God is for us and not against us.

C. The writer to the Hebrews (1:1-4; 2:5-12) wants us to know that Jesus Christ is superior in position and power to all of the prophets who have lived and to all of the angels in heaven and on earth. Previously, God had spoken to humankind through prophets He ordained to communicate His thoughts to us; less often, through angelic beings who came with specific messages to particular persons; and, then through the 40 Holy Spirit inspired authors of the Old Testament written for our edification over 1500 years. But with the birth of Jesus, the Father has spoken to us through His Son, the full revelation of God. Or, as Peterson paraphrases it (v.3)—> By His Son, God created the world in the beginning, and it will all belong to the Son at the end. This son perfectly mirrors God, and is stamped with God’s nature. He holds everything together by what He says—powerful words.

(Eugene Peterson, The Message, NavPress, 2002, p.2181.)

God has put everything into subjection under Jesus’ authority. And He has made us sons and daughters of God. This is our position, no matter what life or the Satan throws at us. For this reason, we can trust in God the Father and we can trust in God the Son, even when we experience trials and tragedies.

So, when God’s purposes escape us, or when His actions—or seeming lack of action—frustrate us, let us remember…

(1) God is good and God is love.

(2) Thus, His plans and purposes for us are always good.

(3) And when He seems to be hidden from us, we can still, like Job, trust in Him and remain faithful to Him. Amen! May it be so!

Posted on September 18, 2024 by Cheryl Norman w/a Mary Jo Delaney

Pick Up Your Cross

Pastor Sherry’s message for 9/15/2024

Scriptures: Pro 1:20-23; Ps 19, James 3:1-12; Mk 8:27-38

What do you think of when you look upon the Cross? We have a cross both inside and outside our church. The one inside is plain, crafted by Leonard Young, commemorating Jesus’ death and resurrection. It’s empty because Jesus has risen from the dead. The one outside is especially resplendent on Easter Sunday when we deck it out with flowers, symbolizing Christ’s victory over sin and death.

Coming home to Live Oak from seminary in Pittsburgh, I had to drive through West Virginia. That state is very hilly! Interestingly, on nearly every hill you will see 3 crosses: The taller, central one for Jesus; the other two—often shorter–for the criminals crucified with Him.

The people of Siauliai, Lithuania, however, demonstrate a special devotion to the cross. Sometime during the mid-19th century, they began to erect crosses in a particular place called “The Hill of Crosses.” (Look it up on the internet and you will be amazed at the number and variety of crosses collected there.) The Cross is the major symbol of the Christian faith. To Lithuanians, it also represents the 3 major Christian virtues: faith, hope, and love.

When Lithuania has been under communist domination, the atheistic communists have totally destroyed the crosses on this hill 3 times (in 1961, 1973, & 1975). Each time, people clandestinely hurried to replace what had been destroyed. Since 1980, and especially since the independence of Lithuania from Russia in 1991, more than 200,000 crosses of many materials and of many sizes, have been erected at this site. So, to them, these crosses also represent persisting in their faith, despite persecution.

The Cross represents Jesus, Christianity, hope, love, persistence in the faith, and also courage➡️the courage to defy evil oppression.

(Billy D. Strayhorn, “At Cross Purposes,” www.sermons.com, 9/15/2024).

Like last week, our Scripture lessons offer us plenty of good advice on how to live life wisely. Today, however, I want to focus on our Gospel lesson, Mark 8:27-38. Jesus covers quite a bit of theological ground in these 11 verses:

A. First, He challenges the 12 about His identity. They have just seen Him minster healing to two Gentiles. On the road to Caesarea Philippi (present day Jordan), He asks them who folks are saying He is. The answers suggest folks outside His inner circle think He is one prophet or another, brought back to life. But since they are His closest followers and the most knowledgeable of His friends, He wants to know what they think.

Have you ever Googled yourself on the Internet? It can be, surprising—even distressing–to see what information on you is circulating out there.

The story is told of a self-absorbed man who arrives at a hospital emergence room. He rapidly grows impatient with the long wait to be seen approaches the nurses’ station, and demands to be taken back to see a doctor, all while shouting, “Don’t you know who I am?” The veteran, no-nonsense nurse at the desk calmly picks up a mike and states over the loud speaker, “I have a gentleman here who doesn’t know who he is. Can someone please assist him in finding out? Thank you.”

(Stephen Sizer, “Who Am I?” www.sermons.com, 9/15/2024.)

Getting back to Jesus, Peter offers an inspired response (v.29)➡️You are the Christ [God’s anointed One; the Messiah]. Bravo, Peter! He’s right! And Jesus immediately asks the 12 to keep this truth to themselves.

B. Then He proceeds to tell the 12 what will happen to their Messiah: In roughly 6 months’ time, He will suffer many things. He will be rejected by the religious authorities of Israel; even worse from their perspective, He must be killed; but after 3 days dead, He will rise again.

Peter, for one, cannot conceive that the Messiah would be killed, so he challenges Jesus. Most Jews held that the Messiah would arrive as a conquering King and free Israel from the Roman’s oppressive regime.

Even though they had the Suffering Servant passages from Isaiah 43, 44, & 53—which so perfectly describe Jesus–they never believed these passages predicted what their Messiah would endure. So Peter essentially tells Jesus He is wrong. YIKES! If we ever think God is wrong, we need to examine our own hearts and heads. God/Jesus personify Truth/Wisdom➡️Our God is never wrong!

Peter had just previously answered so insightfully and brilliantly, but now he is just badly mistaken. Jesus rebukes Peter for reciting thoughts inspired by Satan. Satan excels in rebellion against the plans and the will of God. Just as the evil one can manipulate Peter—a man who spent 3 years with Jesus and witnessed all of His teachings, healings, and miracles—so too can he tempt us to say and do things we later regret. Without truly understanding God’s purposes, Peter is trying to talk Jesus out of obeying His Father. Peter’s agenda, you see, is not the end or goal of God’s plan, but the means of securing Peter’s (and that of Judas). Probably, without realizing it, Peter was using Jesus to get what Peter wanted. None of us can do that!

C. This then leads Jesus into a teaching on what it means to pick up our cross and follow Him. The pathway of true discipleship travels right through suffering (v.34)➡️If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. First, we must deny ourselves and seek God’s will in place of ours. This, in and of itself, may involve suffering. That’s the next requirement…take up your cross. In what ways might you have suffered for Jesus? Have you lost money? I know a missionary who used to planted Walgreens drug stores. He scouted out new locations for the retail store chain, and was headed up the corporate ladder, until God grabbed ahold of him. I met him in Turkey in 2010 while on a short term mission trip. He and his wife had taken a year to learn Turkish, then another 3 years to learn Parsi, the Iranian language. His ultimate assignment was to minister to the more than 700,000 Iranian refugees who had fled their country to live in Turkey. Among these immigrants, he had planted 18 Christian churches! Since then, he now heads up a mission agency that plants churches in Moslem countries. He may have lost money he might have earned from corporate America, but instead, he has brought many middle Easterners to a saving faith in Christ.

Have you lost opportunities to rise professionally? Do your family and friends fail to understand you? I have had friends shake their heads when I say I do not have a “Five Year Plan.” I wouldn’t presume to make one, knowing that the Lord could change it radically tomorrow. My 5 year plan is to follow Jesus.

Have some folks written you off as a religious nut or an intolerant bigot? It’s interesting to me that our culture today considers Christians intolerant. That’s exactly what the Romans used as an excuse to persecute followers of Jesus 2,000 years ago. By refusing to proclaim, “Caesar is Lord,” or to worship the Roman panoply of Gods, the Roman authorities decided those who loved Jesus were narrow- minded and fanatically bigoted.

Jesus is saying to the 12—and to us—“I am a King but not like any king you ever imagined. I am a king who must die.”

(Timothy Keller, King’s Cross, Dutton, 2011, p.102.)

Additionally, if we refuse to travel the road to suffering for Christ—trying to save our lives—we will lose out in the end. The Greek word Jesus uses here for life is psyche, which also means identity, personality, or our sense of self. He is not calling us to allow our identity to be absorbed into some sort of cosmic soup, like most Eastern religions do. Rather, He honors our unique identities—after all, He created them—but insists that we must leave off trying to control our destiny ourselves.

He is also saying Jesus is saying we should not build our identity on the things of this world. Collectivist cultures like those of Jesus’ time, and the Middle East now, base identity on honoring the family and on having children. Individualistic cultures like those of modern Europe and America, claim our identity comes from our status, individual success, a fulfilling career, or the amount of money we make. In both approaches to life, a person’s identity is based on their performance to please family or please self. Jesus is saying this will never work for us, never satisfy or fulfill us.

What will satisfy and fulfill us is basing our identity on our love for and faith in Christ. What will satisfy and fulfill us is basing our identity on Jesus and the Gospel. We could say then that Jesus went to the Cross—He had to die—so that we would not have to strive in life, but rest in His completed work for us.

(Keller, King’s Cross, p.105)

So, if we lose our lives—by letting God lead, guide, and direct us—we will have eternal life.

And, additionally, if we can truly grasp this truth, we will realize how very much we are loved and how incredibly worthwhile we are. I am often frustrated by those who weekly preach “hellfire and damnation.” Yes, we are sinners who need to repent, but the Good News is that our God loved us enough to die in our place. We are precious to Him. Furthermore, if I base my identity on a romantic relationship, who am I if the relationship ends? If I base my identity on a profession, who am I if I lose my job? Instead, basing our identity on the Lord, we can firmly state, “Yes, we’re sinners, but the King of the Universe loved us enough to die for us!”

So what does the Cross mean to you? Yes, it was an instrument of torture. Yes, it is to many a symbol of hope, faith, resistance to oppression, and persistence despite persecution. But it also represents for all time…

Jesus’ submission to the will of the Father (There is no atonement for sin without the shedding of blood); our importance to God; an end to our need to strive; and Jesus’ sacrificial love for each of us.

Commenting on the meaning of this Gospel passage, C.S. Lewis wrote the following in his book, Mere Christianity (McMillan, 1943, p.168): “The terrible thing, the almost impossible thing, is to hand over your whole self—all your wishes and precautions—to Christ. But it is far easier than what we are trying to do instead. For what we are trying to do is to remain what we call “ourselves,” to keep personal happiness as our great aim in life, and yet at the same time be “good.” We are all trying to let our mind and heart go their own way—centered on money or pleasure or ambition—and hoping, in spite of this, to behave honestly and chastely and humbly. And this is exactly what Christ warned us you could not do. As He said, a thistle cannot produce figs. If I am a field that contains nothing but grass-seed, I cannot produce wheat. Cutting the grass may keep it short: but I shall still produce grass and no wheat. If I want to produce wheat, the change must go deeper than the surface. I must be ploughed up and re-sown. “ The challenge to us all, just as Jesus stated it, is to deny ourselves, pick up our Cross, and follow Jesus. Amen! May it be so!

Posted on September 6, 2024 by Cheryl Norman w/a Mary Jo Delaney

Watch Your Mouth!

Pastor Sherry’s message for September 1, 2024

Scriptures: Song of Songs 2:8-13; Ps 45:1-2, 6-9; Ja 1:17-27; Mk 7:1-23

The following is a true story out of Charlotte, NC, that I shared six years ago. I want to share it again because it is such a great example of truth being stranger than fiction. A guy bought a box of very expensive cigars. He also took out insurance on them against “decay, spoilage, theft, and fire.” Then he proceeded to smoke the 24 cigars in the box over the next few weeks. When he finished the box, he filed a claim with his insurance company, stating that the cigars were lost in a series of small fires. The insurance company rejected the claim (You can almost hear them say, “Oh, come on!”). But the guy sued the insurance company in civil court.

In an astonishing turn of justice, the man admitted he smoked the cigars, but still won his claim because of a technicality: the insurance company had failed to specify what sort of fire was excluded, and the jury awarded the fellow $15,000 in damages (Don’t forget, he had also enjoyed smoking the 24 fine cigars). However, when he exited the court, he was arrested and charged with 24 counts of arson. After all, he had admitted to setting “the series of small fires” which had caused his property loss. This time, the North Carolina court convicted and sentenced him to 2 years in jail and fined him $24,000. His spurious lawsuit cost him 2 years of freedom, and a net loss, after legal fees, of $9,000. This guy bet on the letter of the law instead of the spirit of the law, and lost. Don’t we wish that courts would act similarly, all over the country, in such nonsense, nuisance law-suits?

(J. Fairless & D. Chilton, The Lectionary Lab, Year B, 2014, p.286.)

Our Gospel today, Mark 7:1-23—and this story—point to the danger of following the letter of the law while violating its intent.

Just prior to today’s passage, Mark describes Jesus’ multiplication miracle of feeding the 5,000 (maybe more like 15,000, if women and children were included in the count); Jesus’ walking on water miracle; and His healing an unknown number of people on the other side of the Lake (Sea of Galilee).

This event predates by about a year or two the confrontations with the Pharisees I preached about last week.

A committee of Scribes and Pharisees had come out from Jerusalem to observe and to test Him. He is teaching and they challenge Him because His disciples do not wash their hands before eating. They question Him (v.5)➖Haven’t You, Jesus, taught Your disciples the correct customs regarding cleanliness?

Now we know that hand-washing is not a bad practice. Prior to the Covid outbreak, the habit of hand-washing had been abandoned by many. Since then, we have re-learned that washing our hands, especially before eating, helps to eliminate germs and to limit contamination.

Now Jesus was an observant Jew who treasured the Law of God. The Law was a gift from God, not a burden. In the Code of Hammarabi, a contemporary Mesopotamian set of laws, it was stated, for instance, that if you somehow knocked down your neighbor’s wall, he could rebuild it with you and your family plastered into the repair. The provisions for revenge were severe. But God’s Law put a humane limit on revenge. Furthermore, it didn’t just protect the rich and the powerful, but also safeguarded the poor and disadvantaged. Our Lord intended for the Law to cut down on the extent of retribution, but especially to demonstrate the believer’s obedience (set-apartness) to God. The Hebrew Law demonstrated that God values human life, and that slaves, widows, orphans, and the poor—not just the rich and the influential—had rights that were to be respected. At the time, these attitudes/provisions were unheard of in other religions or law codes.

What Jesus confronts in today’s passage is that the Pharisees chose to obey the rules without remembering the relationships underlying the rules.

Don’t we do this too? Should baptism be done by dunking or is sprinkling okay? Our tradition is to sprinkle water on infants. At what age should children be allowed to take communion? Some want to wait until 10-12 years old, considered to be the “age of reason.” This way we can be sure the child understands what the bread and wine represent. I have a friend who was the chaplain at a preschool. They provided communion to the little ones at their chapel services. A mother complained. The chaplain asked her 3 year old son if he knew what was in the bread and the cup. He replied, “Jesus is in there.” That settled the argument.

The story is told of a father of two teenaged sons who proudly bought a “Dodge Touring Car,” in 1918 for $785.00. It’s hard to imagine a new car for that sales price now. By three years later, however, he had grown frustrated over his sons’ increasingly hostile arguments regarding whose turn it was to drive it. The rule was that they shared and each could drive the car on alternate Saturdays. When the boys resorted to fist fights to settle their dispute, the father locked the car in a garage and pocketed the keys. Four decades later, a museum purchased the car—it was covered with dirt and chicken manure, and only had 1800 miles on the odometer. The father had gone to great lengths to teach his sons about the value of relationships over rules.

(J. Fairless & D. Chilton, The Lectionary Lab, Year B, 2014, p.288.)

Consider how many court cases get thrown out because some procedure (rule) was not followed exactly. The guilty are spared at the potential expense of keep citizens safe. You see, the problem isn’t washing before eating, the right way to baptize, how to correctly discipline teens, or even keeping people safe. The real problem is the condition of our hearts!

To the Hebrew mind, the heart was where all moral decisions were made.

The prophet Jeremiah laments in Jeremiah 17:9➖The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? The prophet Ezekiel asserts God’s intentions in Ezekiel 36:24-25➖I [God] will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a.. And I will put My Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.

Our faulty human hearts must be transformed by God. Jesus lets the Pharisees have it because they have forgotten this important fact: It’s not about rules, it’s about relationships; our relationship with God, our relationships with each other. There was no law from God that they must wash their hands before eating. This was a tradition they had adopted. They were criticizing Jesus for not conforming to their traditions. To address that issue, He tells them what goes into us is not the critical issue—like how clean our hands are, or what types of food we eat. The crux of the problem is rather what comes out of our mouths—which has its origins in our hearts.

Put rather crudely, it’s not what we excrete that causes sin problems, but what we vomit.

In the 300’s, St. Augustine said, there is a hole in our hearts that only God can fill, and our hearts are restless until they rest in God. We have a sin problem, and we can’t fix it by living according to a set of religious rules.

Being a celebrity or a fantastic athlete won’t cure it. Even rigid religious systems that require people to accumulate merit badges of good deeds do not address it. Politicians can’t legislate it. Having taught US History and World History for 15 years, I can safely assert that Socialism and Communism don’t work because they operate in ways counter to our built in “heart issues:” our tendencies toward self-justification, self-centeredness, and self-absorption. We have a serious “I” problem.

To correct our sin problem, we need to allow the Holy Spirit to change our hearts! We acknowledge that the shed blood of Jesus Christ makes up for our sin and replaces it with His righteousness. And, as James teaches us in our New Testament lesson, we cooperate with the Holy Spirit by increasingly shunning sinful attitudes and behaviors, and living out attitudes and behaviors pleasing to God. We need to approach God and others with love.

A child’s response to Sesame Street is a great illustration of this point. In a live audience of kids watching Sesame Street, the kids nearly always watched the muppets rather than the grown-ups who manipulated them—even when they could see the puppeteers seated on the floor. One little boy even saw Big Bird take off his top half and watched an actor step out. Rather than focus on the fact that Big Bird was not real, the child told his mother, “Mom, Mom! Do you think Big Bird knows he has a man inside?”

(J. Fairless & D. Chilton, The Lectionary Lab, Year B, 2014, p.289.)

You see, the goal of the law was/is to remind us that we have a sinful human being inside us, in our hearts, in our souls, in the center of our being. This part of us is not focused on our relationship with God or with others. It just wants what it wants, when it wants it. Unfortunately, everyone else has a similar human inside of them as well. Fortunately, however, we also have inside us that part of us that longs for God…that finds its rest in God alone.

Perhaps you have heard of the Native American legend of the black wolf and the white wolf. The wise grandfather tells the grandson that we are a mix of both, but the one that comes to dominate our character depends upon which one we nurture or feed. If we want to please God, we need to watch our mouths to discover or to observe what is in our hearts. We accept that Jesus paid the price for the sinful human inside us; and we allow the wonderful Holy Spirit to remind us not to give our sinful hearts power over us, but rather to honor relationships over rules; and to live out of a loving vs. a self-centered or fault-finding nature.

Amen! May it be so!

Wellborn Methodist Church–Wellborn, Florida

Tag: trust

We don’t have to live in Fear!

It Doesn’t Have to be This Way

God Never Gives Up On Us

Live Like a Tree beside Water

Profiles of Humility

Mary, Did You Know?

Touched by God

When God is Hidden, Part 2

Pick Up Your Cross

Watch Your Mouth!