So, This is 2020?
Life Priorities • Sermon • Submitted
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INTRO—
Well… here we are. Another Sunday in this unique time in history… “affectionately” known as 2020…(every time I hear 2020…I can’t help but see Hugh Downs & Barbara Walters—This Is 2020).
Anybody weary?…frustrated?…stressed?…felt like just lying down to cry? ME, TOO.
From the perspective of pastor, brother-in-Christ, & friend, I need to share some concerns I have about things I’ve seen in our world (specifically our nation, state, community) over the recent days…weeks…months; AND, lead us to think and act biblically in relationship to each of these circumstances.
Church Faithfulness...
When it comes to being the church…our calling is such that it is not respective of the events of history. We are still called to be salt and light…to share the Gospel…to worship together. We cannot retreat into a cave or a bubble and ignore our responsibility to the world…or to each other…before our Lord. We need to remember...
Making disciples...
Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Caring for our neighbor...
But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus took up the question and said, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him, beat him up, and fled, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down that road. When he saw him, he passed by on the other side. In the same way, a Levite, when he arrived at the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan on his journey came up to him, and when he saw the man, he had compassion. He went over to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on olive oil and wine. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him. When I come back I’ll reimburse you for whatever extra you spend.’ “Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” “The one who showed mercy to him,” he said. Then Jesus told him, “Go and do the same.”
Worship together faithfulness...
not neglecting to gather together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day approaching.
There is a difference between “neglecting to gather together” and “opting to not gather together” (especially as a church in a pandemic…or being part of a vulnerable group and needing to wait to return…or needing to self-quarantine in relation to a work-related need...
The concern I have is in seeing friends on social media, etc. who have availed themselves of parties, or other group gatherings/meals out/movies, etc. …but have not made regathering with their church family as much of a priority as these things. This attitude is one I am afraid too many Christians may take toward connection with church life in the wake of this pandemic…and, based on God’s word, I have no other option but to say that that kind of thinking qualifies as neglecting to gather together.
I rejoiced with those who said to me, “Let’s go to the house of the Lord.”
Race-Relations Faithfulness...
The foundation and validity of the truth that all people, every ethnicity, are of significant value comes from God’s creation of us all...
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, the whole earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth.” So God created man in his own image; he created him in the image of God; he created them male and female.
Whoever sheds human blood, by humans his blood will be shed, for God made humans in his image.
As we’ve also noted previously, Jesus sets no ethnic parameters for salvation...
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek.
If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. One believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting in salvation. For the Scripture says, Everyone who believes on him will not be put to shame, since there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, because the same Lord of all richly blesses all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
Christians are to be the model of racial harmony...
After this I looked, and there was a vast multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language, which no one could number, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands.
But now in Christ Jesus, you who were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who made both groups one and tore down the dividing wall of hostility. In his flesh, he made of no effect the law consisting of commands and expressed in regulations, so that he might create in himself one new man from the two, resulting in peace. He did this so that he might reconcile both to God in one body through the cross by which he put the hostility to death. He came and proclaimed the good news of peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So, then, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints, and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole building, being put together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you are also being built together for God’s dwelling in the Spirit.
So, here it comes…my concern for us, Christians, in our day and in our nation facing serious challenges to these truths…can be embodied in a controversial context.
Question: What is your first thought—your first reaction—when you hear, “Black lives matter” …? Let me challenge you with the claim that if your first response is anything other than “Yes,” then you are in the wrong biblically.
Now, that I’ve got your attention…let me work through some of the finer points of what I am getting at. My concern is with being able to affirm the truth claim of the statement. The simple question is, “Do black lives matter?” What is your answer to the question. It’s a simple Yes or No question...
BUT!!!....what about? If that is your default/first reaction, I ask you why? When a house is on fire we are moved to appreciate the singular focus of those attempting to rescue the family of that house…because that family matters. The focus of attention in the moment is not a commentary on the rest of the residents on that street…that neighborhood…that city… AND, in our nation we have a whole community, people group, who are experiencing significant anguish…and it didn’t just begin back in May with the death of George Floyd (I know it seems like longer ago…is it any wonder then that feelings of many in the black community are still raw?
I know this issue is complicated. Some ‘solutions’ which have been suggested are simply not helpful. Work on this issue will take time. We must fight the temptation to become fatigued in the pursuit of racial justice in our nation.
I must also answer another “BUT,” and say that affirming the truth of the fact that we must advocate that “black lives matter” must never be construed—insofar as I am concerned—as affirming or advocating the organization known as Black Lives Matter. That organization’s platform advocates things which are definitively contrary to biblical truth and world view…but we cannot refuse to say ‘black lives matter’ simply because a group with whom we disagree also says it.
We must also never lose sight of this important truth: Lasting change regarding this sin issue (racism/injustice) will only ever be found in the life-transforming work Jesus does on lives of people who repent and trust Him as their Savior and Lord. This is a Gospel issue…on so many levels.
But let justice flow like water, and righteousness, like an unfailing stream.
Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, for there will be an escape for those on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, as the Lord promised, among the survivors the Lord calls.
…this is Romans 10.13!
Political Faithfulness...
Stay tuned for more next week!
CONCL—
A psalm of thanksgiving. Let the whole earth shout triumphantly to the Lord! Serve the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Acknowledge that the Lord is God. He made us, and we are his— his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and bless his name. For the Lord is good, and his faithful love endures forever; his faithfulness, through all generations.