God's Core Values
Notes
Transcript
Thank you
Thank you
Hi, it’s a pleasure to finally be with you. Thank you for your patience. It was a blessing to have the time to prepare one house for sale and another for moving in, and to allow our children to finish their school year.
Speaking of preparing a house, I want to publicly thank Phil, Eliseo, Mike, Patrick and all the others who helped paint, build a fence, and the ladies who gave me yummy food. And all of those who helped us unload our stuff. It was really nice of the ladies to help Joelle pull out kitchen stuff and for the guys to put all the beds together. Thank you!
We’re not quite out of boxes yet, but we’re feeling quite at home in our new place.
[next slide]
Introduction
Introduction
Why do we do what we do? What motivates our actions?
If you go to most any clothing store you’ll find what many call “fast fashion” clothing items. They’re made and sold inexpensively. Unfortunately fast fashion clothes and shoes are made in intolerable conditions. Workers struggle through 14 or 16 hour days, and get paid wages that barely keep them from starving. Whole families have to work in these conditions, even the children, in order for the family to have food. But look at the executives of the clothing brands and stores that sell these inexpensive clothes and you’ll find people with salaries in the millions a year living luxurious lives.
As a contrast, one company’s CEO looked around and realized that his employees were struggling to make it financially in the Seattle area at the $45,000 salary many of them were being paid. So, he dropped his 1.1M salary to $70,000 and raised their minimum salary to $70,000. He just decided one day that everyone deserved to make a living wage.
What makes the difference between an organization that is content to pay their CEO incredible amounts of money while squeezing out every last drop of profit from its manufacturing process and a company who’s CEO makes the same amount as its employees so that everyone can earn a living wage? CORE VALUES.
Core values are the fundamental beliefs and highest priorities that drive the behavior of a person or organization.
I’m not talking about the ideals that an organization writes on their website, I’m talking about the motivating beliefs that are hard baked into their culture. It’s not what you wish you were, but who you actually are as a person or an organization that what will drive your behaviors.
Over the next the next three messages we’re going to be exploring the motivating values in God’s kingdom. We’ll first consider God’s Core Values. Then we’ll look at the core values that should motivate the life of every Christian, and then we’ll explore the core values that God wants for His Church.
Who God Is
Who God Is
God’s core values have been the subject of universal consideration every since Satan accused God of selfish motives. He suggested that God’s created universe only existed so that God could receive praise. That if God really loved His creations He would have set them free to do as they pleased rather than binding them to a so-called law of love. It was this core belief about God that led 1/3 of the angels in heaven to rebel and start a war.
That war continued on earth as Eve stood under a tree and openly doubted who God said He is. God said, “I love you and have created everything for your pleasure, just don’t eat from that one tree.” But standing under that one tree she thought, “what is God withholding from me? He must only have is own selfish interests in mind. I’ll be better off if I eat this fruit and become like God, knowing good and evil.” And we all know the result of that experiment.
You and I have the same conundrum as Satan and Eve—what do we believe about who God is and what motivates Him?
If we were looking at a company’s values we might start by reading their list of values on their website. What about God? Does He have written core values? And how do His actions match up to what He says?
Before we look at what God says about his core values, I just want to recognize that this subject is holy ground. If Satan messed this up, an angel who stood in the presence of God, then we should approach this subject with the utmost sincerity and humility.
Now, lets turn to Exodus 33 where God and Moses were having a conversation on Mount Sinai:
One day Moses said to the Lord, “You have been telling me, ‘Take these people up to the Promised Land.’ But you haven’t told me whom you will send with me. You have told me, ‘I know you by name, and I look favorably on you.’ If it is true that you look favorably on me, let me know your ways so I may understand you more fully and continue to enjoy your favor. And remember that this nation is your very own people.”
It seems to me that Moses’ prayer here is one that we should all be praying, “let me know your ways so I may understand… And enjoy your favor.” That’s what I’m hoping for today—to understand God just a little better.
The Lord replied to Moses, “I will indeed do what you have asked, for I look favorably on you, and I know you by name.”
Moses responded, “Then show me your glorious presence.”
This request from Moses wasn’t presumptuous, it was based on what Moses already knew about God. This is exactly what the New Testament means when it says to pray “in Jesus’ name.” We pray because we know what God is like and we trust Him to do what He says He will do.
The Lord replied, “I will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will call out my name, Yahweh,* before you. For I will show mercy to anyone I choose, and I will show compassion to anyone I choose.
After promising to show Moses His glory God told him to chisel out two stone tablets and then He wrote His ten covenant statements on them. God didn’t leave Moses with just these Ten Sayings about himself, He actually appeared to Moses just like He said He would. Check out Exodus 34:5 and following:
The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”
Let’s put this in a list of core values:
[next slide]
Mercy
Grace
Patience
Steadfast love
Forgiveness
Justice
This is an amazing list of values. Try matching this up to a company or government and you’ll find every one of them fails to measure up. The question is, does God even measure up?
I believe He does.
Jesus—God’s values lived out
Jesus—God’s values lived out
It would be a fabulous Bible study to compare the stories in the Bible where God is interacting with humanity and see how God checks all the boxes of his core values statements. If you were to do this sort of study, you’d find many stories that will challenge you. Sometimes the stories seem to reveal a God who does unspeakable things, making us question if God is just, or just vindictive.
[next slide]
We don’t have time to do that study this morning, but I want to make time for that type of exploration with you. Starting two weeks from today I’m going to be hosting a 30 minute Q&A session after every worship service, except when there’s a fellowship meal. I’ll spend a few minutes shaking hands after the service, and then come back to the front where we can talk about challenging bible subjects, explore questions about the church, or talk about the personal application of faith in relationships or work or prayer... I don’t think I have all the answers to every question, but I’m sure that if we explore these subjects together with honesty, humility, and a healthy sense of curiosity we’ll be able to find biblical answers that will refresh your soul.
For our study today we’re going to skip right into the New Testament where we find the Word made flesh. Those stated core values that God told Moses are now going to be lived out in a context we can understand. And not by any random person, but by the Son of God. Let’s turn to the gospel of John chapter 1.
John 1:1–4 (ESV)
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
Jesus—the Word of God, the only begotten of the Father, the one who has existed by the Father’s side for all eternity past, the one who alone knows God because He is one with God and He is God—Jesus came to show the world what God is like.
John 1:14 (ESV)
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Glory.
That’s what Moses pleaded for God to show him. When God showed Moses His glory He put him into a crack in a rock, covered him with His hand, and passed by him, but all Moses wrote about was the amazing statements about God’s character—his values, not any description of His form.
That’s what Jesus came to show us too, the character of God. Jesus was a humble person, physically, but in his words and actions He lived out the character of God in a way that we had never quite grasped up until that point.
Some would like to suggest that there is a vengeful Father God in the Old Testament, and then there is Jesus, the compassionate God of the New Testament. But that is not what the Bible says. The Bible tells us that Jesus was always with the Father, that He knows the Father, and that He came to show us the Glory of the Father.
So what was Jesus like?
We don’t know much about his life before his ministry began, but let’s take a look at a couple stories from Jesus’ ministry and see how He lines up with God’s stated core values.
Caught
Caught
The first story is found in John chapter 8.
Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?”
[next slide]
What a difficult question case!
In a previous church an unmarried young lady got pregnant and they some members felt that the church should discipline her—disfellowship her from church. Their belief was that if we didn’t punish her, then we would be encouraging other young people to do the same thing.
I don’t the Pharisees really cared about the woman in this situation, or what her influence might have on their culture. She was just a tool to get to Jesus. Some say they knew she was committing adultery because they were the ones who lured her into it. Did one of them commit adultery with her? No man was brought to this mock trial, just a humiliated young woman. The goal wasn’t justice, it was a trap for Jesus. If He said that she should be stoned, then He could be taken before the Romans as a usurper of their authority. If He acquired her, then He would be accused of despising the law of moses. Either way, they would have a way to get rid of Jesus.
Jesus’ response was an incredible example of justice mingled with mercy.
The Bible says that “Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. Impatient with His delay the pharisees drew closer to Jesus. And as they continued to ask him for a response, Jesus stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” (v 6-7) And then he bent down again and wrote on the ground.
As their eyes, following Jesus’s finger, fell upon the pavement at His feet, their voices were silenced. There, traced on the ground in front of them, were the guilty secrets of their own lives. One by one they melted away until it was just Jesus and the woman who remained.
Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”
[next slide]
No one remained who could condemn the woman without condemning themselves also.
There are two kinds of people that Jesus gives both justice and mercy in this story. The first are the accusers—the Pharisees. This was a group of men who were outwardly pious, but inwardly full of pride, jealousy, greed, envy, lust, and all sorts of other evil motives. We love to hate on the Pharisees, but put yourself in their shoes. How would you want God to relate to you if you were a Pharisee? Would you want Him to write you off as a hypocrite and condemn you to judgment? Or would you want every possible chance to take off your spiritual blinders and see the beauty of God’s love?
Jesus didn’t call them out for all to hear—exposing their sins and deriding their hypocrisy. Instead, He traced their lives in dust that only they could see, and that the wind would quickly erase. He exposed them to themselves.
This is one of the ways that God brings justice—through conviction. Jesus said that He would send the Holy spirit to do this work in our hearts:
And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment:
The Holy Spirit exposes our true hearts so that we can see our need for God’s forgiving, mercy and love. If we didn’t have conviction we would carry on with no consideration that we need to change course. The fact that God brings us that quiet conviction is a merciful justice. It’s just because God faces us with our sins. He doesn’t ignore them or excuse them. He exposes them. But he doesn’t expose them to our shame so that everyone can see or so that we will feel utterly hopeless. He exposes them to our hearts and invites us to come to Him in repentance. And that is merciful.
I wonder what Jesus would have done if one of the Pharisees had stayed back, fallen on his knees and pled for forgiveness for His hypocrisy. That would have been a cool story. Unfortunately, they all slipped away, unrepentant.
[next slide]
The other person in this story is the woman who was caught in adultery. She was clearly in the wrong. The law says so. But unlike Jesus, the Pharisees had exposed her sin in front of everyone in the temple. There she stood, head bowed, trembling; wrapping whatever garments she had on a little closer, hoping to hide her very public shame.
To the accusers, Jesus privately exposed their sin. But he related quite differently to the woman who’s sin had been so publicly exposed. Listen to this account from the book Ministry of Healing, page 89:
Ministry of Healing The True Medical Missionary
The woman had stood before Jesus, cowering with fear. His words, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone,” had come to her as a death sentence. She dared not lift her eyes to the Saviour’s face, but silently awaited her doom. In astonishment she saw her accusers depart speechless and confounded; then those words of hope fell upon her ear, “Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.” Her heart was melted, and, casting herself at the feet of Jesus, she sobbed out her grateful love and with bitter tears confessed her sins.
This was to her the beginning of a new life, a life of purity and peace, devoted to God. In the uplifting of this fallen soul, Jesus performed a greater miracle than in healing the most grievous physical disease; He cured the spiritual malady which is unto death everlasting. This penitent woman became one of His most steadfast followers.
Jesus didn’t excuse the woman’s sin, He forgave it!
Do you know what it takes to forgive? Some say forgiving is forgetting the sin ever happened, but it’s actually quite the opposite. You see, in order to forgive, you have to pay the price of the sin. If someone owes you $100 and you forgive their debt, you loose the $100. You pay their debt. If someone has harmed you through abuse, forgiving them means bearing the cost of their abuse instead of getting even. Jesus could forgive this woman because he was soon going to bear the cost of her sin on His own shoulders.
Now, let’s align this story with God’s list of core values and I think we’ll find that Jesus checks all the boxes:
[next slide]
There is mercy, patience, grace, love, forgiveness and justice all mingled together in an expression of God’s glory that is unmistakable.
The Ultimate Sacrifice
The Ultimate Sacrifice
There’s a ton of stories like this that we could examine, but we just don’t have time to look at every one. We could see Jesus’ love for children, his compassionate healing of the blind, lame, deaf, mute, and leprous. We could consider his teachings or spend time with his straight talk to the Pharisees during the weeks before his crucifixion. If we could only look at one more story then I think it needs to be the one where Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice.
[next slide]
You most likely know the story well. In the middle of the night on Thursday, after the passover feast, Jesus was captured in the Garden of Gethsemane. He had spent the night in prayer, agonizing over the final decision, ultimately deciding to give His life so all of humanity could receive the gift of life. By the time a kangaroo trial was organized it was the wee hours of Friday morning. A self-righteous priest angrily questioned Him, but Jesus’ responses were without malice. They brought false witnesses who contradicted each other, but Jesus didn’t defend himself. He offered himself freely. He faced rejection — even hearing his own disciple cursing as he denied he ever knew Him. He was restrained, beaten, flogged, tried in front of three courts, sentenced to death on the cross, and then marched up to calvary. As He hung, nailed to a cross, this is what He said about the soldiers that were administering his punishment:
And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And they cast lots to divide his garments.
Forgive them, Jesus prayed. It was for those very people that were supposedly murdering Him that he was giving His life. He was dying so they could receive forgiveness.
I say supposedly murdering because in John 10:17-18 Jesus said that no one could take His life, but that He would lay it down willingly.
I want you to understand the simplicity and beauty of what Jesus did on the cross.
In John 1 we read that Jesus, the Word of God, created all things. He brought life into the universe. And then there was a rebellion against Him. Rebellion against the Creator is a completely irrational activity. Why would any living creature rebel against the source of their own life?
[next slide]
It would be like the energizer bunny rebelling against the battery that makes it go. The result would be a lifeless bunny. No more energy. The fact is there is no life without the life-giver.
[next slide]
Which is why the Bible tells us the result of sin is death. Death isn’t the result of a vengeful God who likes to smack anyone who crosses him. Death is fundamentally the opposite of life. To live and breathe and move is a gift of the Creator God. To reject that gift and try to do life without the Creator is death because no created being has the ability to make themselves alive.
So, when Jesus came to be a human John said that in him was “life,” and he’s not being metaphoric. Jesus literally brought the gift of life. Jesus is the SOURCE of life. Not just everlasting life—some future, eternal, perfect quality of life—but life itself. Think about it like this: When the rebellion first happened a long time ago, God was able to put a pause on the wages-of-sin-is-death consequence because Jesus promised to one day take the place of mankind. The fact that God extended His life-giving connection to us is an evidence of his love and grace. But He doesn’t have a permissive love—He doesn’t simply ignore or excuse all the evil that is done, letting people live no matter what we do. Nor does He have a forceful love—He doesn’t require that we maintain a connection with Him and continue to live without wanting to be reconciled to Him.
God’s solution would be two-fold: forgiveness paid for by the blood of Jesus and reconciliation through the knowledge of God’s glory. But if reconciliation could not occur then finally, after every possible solution was tried, God would remove His life-giving connection to all His rebellious creations. God’s solution would provide both justice and mercy.
God himself became one of us, paid the price of rebellion, and draws us to Him with His amazing love. What sort of values and beliefs do you think motivate those behaviors? Is it a selfish, dictatorial God who would do something like this?
No, this is a God of patience, mercy, grace, steadfast love, forgiveness, and justice.
God’s unfailing justice and his immeasurable grace were fulfilled when Jesus died in our place. Justice and Mercy kissed on the cross.
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Conclusion
Conclusion
God’s story is not yet finished. We still have a world filled with violence and rebellion against the Creator. But Jesus promised that one day He would put an end to all rebellion and all evil. At some still future moment in time He will say, “let those who are holy be holy still, and let those who are wicked be wicked still.” (Rev 22:11)
[next slide]
The Bible promises that very soon after that Jesus will appear in the sky with all the angels of heaven with Him. His mighty voice will call the dead to life, and all those who have accepted Jesus’ gift of life will rise into the air and return to Heaven with Jesus. Some time after that the great judgment of all the wicked who rejected Jesus’ gift, and especially Satan and all the original rebel angels, will be complete. Jesus will then remove His gift of life for anyone who doesn’t want to be connected to Him.
Perfect patience.
Perfect mercy.
Perfect love.
Perfect Grace.
Perfect Love.
Perfect Justice.
That’s what God said He was like, it’s what He has expressed through His words and actions so far, and it’s what I believe we can trust Him to continue to do.
-----
Will you stand with me and sing “Great is They Faithfulness” (100)