Sermon Video: "we are those who have died to sin" - Romans 5:20-6:7

Having explained that we have died with Christ, and been raised together with him to new life, the Apostle Paul explores how we then should live now.  The first question is: Should we go on sinning?  To which he answers, "By no means!"  Why not?  Because we have "died to sin", it no longer has the mastery over us.  With the Holy Spirit's power, we can have victory over sin.  It won't be totally removed in this life, but that 'old self' is gone and buried.

Listen to the Word of God: 62 Scripture passages that refute 'Christian' Nationalism - #22: Luke 4:5-8

Luke 4:5-8     New International Version

5 The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6 And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. 7 If you worship me, it will all be yours.”

8 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’”

How many Lord of the Rings references have I made over the years?  Too many to count, and with that in mind, here's one more:

Toward the end of The Fellowship of the Ring, Frodo offers the Ring of Power to Galadriel, and elven Lord who has taken a leading part in the war against evil (first Morgoth, now Sauron) for thousands of years.  What will she do if given the chance to end the fight, to take in her own hand sufficient power to put aside all doubt and fear that Evil might triumph over Good?

 “And now at last it comes. You will give me the Ring freely! In place of the Dark Lord you will set up a Queen. And I shall not be dark, but beautiful and terrible as the Morning and the Night! Fair as the Sea and the Sun and the Snow upon the Mountain! Dreadful as the Storm and the Lightning! Stronger than the foundations of the earth. All shall love me and despair!”

She lifted up her hand and from the ring that she wore there issued a great light that illuminated her alone and left all else dark. She stood before Frodo seeming now tall beyond measurement, and beautiful beyond enduring, terrible and worshipful. Then she let her hand fall, and the light faded, and suddenly she laughed again, and lo! she was shrunken: a slender elf-woman, clad in simple white, whose gentle voice was soft and sad.

“I pass the test”, she said. “I will diminish, and go into the West and remain Galadriel.”

Galadriel passed the test.  She chose to reject the power of domination and subjugation in favor of trusting in the hope that Frodo can somehow destroy the Ring, "a fool's hope" as Gandalf describes it, but better than the folly of embracing evil to fight evil.

Jesus, of course, does the same thing.  He resists the easy path, the one without sacrifice, the one that has a deal-breaker of a caveat (worshiping the Devil), choosing instead to continue on the pre-ordained path of the Suffering Servant until the brutal end. 

How then does this apply to 'Christian' Nationalism?  A straightforward application, indeed.  'Christian' Nationalism's premise is that it can serve the purpose of God by dominating the kingdoms of this world, to do so it chooses to utilize the tools and methods of this world, crushing and subjugating all opposition, and somehow in the end hoping to create a nation that honors God.  It would be laughable if it were not so deadly dangerous.  It won't work, it cannot work.  Galadriel was wise enough to see the folly of trying to overcome evil with evil, Jesus wasn't about to entertain it, let alone try it, so why have so many self-professed Christians today decided that they can get the better out of a deal with the Devil?

Sermon Video: Death and Life, from the one to the many: Adam and Jesus, Romans 5:12-19

Paul compares how death spread from Adam to all of humanity, with all of humanity joining Adam in sin, to how life can spread from Jesus to all who put their trust in him, sharing in his righteousness.

Listen to the Word of God: 62 Scripture passages that refute 'Christian' Nationalism - #21: Mark 8:36

 

Mark 8:36     New International Version

What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?

Hard to go wrong with quoting C.S. Lewis, so here goes:

“Let him begin by treating patriotism…as a part of his religion.  Then let him, under the influence of partisan spirit, come to regard it as the most important part.  Then quietly and gradually nurse him on to the stage at which the religion becomes merely a part of the ‘cause’, in which Christianity is valued chiefly because of the excellent arguments it can produce…once you have made the world an end, and faith a means, you have almost won your man, and it makes very little difference what kind of worldly end he is pursuing.” (C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, 1942, letter 7)

The whole world isn't worth a soul, how can America be?

Are you willing to walk away from living like Jesus in order to 'save' America?  Willing to lie, cheat, steal, bully, use violence, accept gross immorality when it comes from 'our team', embrace what-about-isms and hypocrisy, and on and on?

If you are, you're a fool.  

Satan is more than happy to trade your usefulness for the Kingdom of God {which any Christian gives up when they embrace immoral behavior, for whatever reason} for such a comparatively worthless prize.

Listen to the Word of God: 62 Scripture passages that refute 'Christian' Nationalism - #20: Mark 2:15-16

Mark 2:15-16     New International Version

15 While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. 16 When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

Any day at the office that starts with me thinking of a way to use a Star Wars analogy to make a theological point is a good day...

In Star Wars Episode IV, A New Hope, the young naïve farm boy Luke follows the world weary Obi-Wan Kenobi into a bar in the town of Mos Eisley, as Kenobi called it, "a wretched hive of scum and villainy."  One would think that just about anyone would be welcome in a dive bar in such a town, but when they enter the bartender angrily yells, "We don't serve their kind here!" while pointing at Luke's droids, R2-D2 and C-3PO.  They evidently have a problem with droids, the reasoning for which the movie makes no attempt to explain.

It isn't a mystery, however, why the Pharisees of Jesus' day didn't like 'tax collectors and sinners' (in other passages prostitutes are thrown into the same list of 'off-limits' people).  The Pharisees saw such people as a stain upon society, a visible manifestation of the ways in which the Jewish people were not sufficiently committed to the Mosaic Law.  One one level they were right, those who break the Law of Moses are indeed sinners and that Law takes such things very seriously.  A response is necessary.

And what was their response to those who didn't live up to God's standard?  Treat them as outcasts, revile and denigrate them, make sure everyone knows you are better than they are.

And how does Jesus respond to these lost souls?  He ate with them.  He treated them like real human beings, like people who, although they had made poor choices in life thus far, still mattered to God, still had worth.  Jesus responded to the sinfulness of others with a kindness and compassion designed not to push them into a corner, but to offer them the hope of repentance.

Which brings us to 'Christian' Nationalism.  Recall the rhetoric of leading 'Christian' Nationalist voices.  How do they describe those they view as a threat to a 'Christian America'?  Certainly as an enemy, often with pejoratives, insults, and venom.  The anger is real, the hostility is palpable, and so is the fear.

Where is the outreach to the Lost?  Where is the compassion for those living in darkness?  Where is the confidence that God can save even the vilest offender?  These have been tossed aside as a weakness we can't afford to indulge {See: The folly of the "Sin of Empathy" - A self-inflicted wound to Christian Fundamentalism}.  The goal of 'Christian' Nationalism is to crush the enemies of God's people, not to convert them, not to love them, not to treat them like Jesus did.

Let me end with one more Star Wars quote, this time from Empire Strikes Back: "That is why you fail."

Sermon Video: The Advantage of the Living Savior - Romans 5:9-11

Having established that our sins have been forgiven, and the wrath of God averted, by the shed blood of Jesus Christ, Paul now looks toward what our life in Christ should look like now and where we are ultimately heading.  He begins that process by reminding us that it is not simply the death of Jesus that saves us, for Jesus did not remain in the grave but rose to new life.  Given that Jesus now sits in glory at the Father's right hand, how much more has God planned for those he has redeemed?

What Every Christian Should Know About: Church History - Part 1 of 3, The Early Church to St. Augustine

In this 3 part series, Pastor Powell seeks to highlight some of the most important ideas, people, and movements within the universal Church during its two-thousand year history.

In part 1, the Early Church, the Early heresies regarding the person of Jesus, the Ecumenical Councils, and St. Augustine are the focus.

Sermon Video: "While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." - Romans 5:6-8

What is the value of one human life?  What would you be willing to risk, or lose, to save it?  God answers this question definitively from his point of view in that Jesus Christ was willing to die on behalf of the ungodly.  That is, Jesus came to die, not for family or friends, not for the good or the righteous, but for those who were powerless to change their own hopelessly sinful state, a group that happens to include all of humanity.

What did God prove by putting forth and accomplishing this plan of redemption?  How powerful, how effective, and just how amazing his love is, no wonder John would later write that "God is love".  Stand in awe of God's love for lost sinners.

Sermon Video: "hope does not put us to shame" - Romans 5:3-5

Suffering is an oft misunderstood topic.  Many religions and philosophies, including people within Christianity, get it wrong.  Suffering isn't necessary, for evil will ultimately be vanquished, and it can be opposed and lessened, nor does God cause it in the hopes of bending it to his will.  Suffering is, however, a reality in this present life, but so is hope.  Hope is not only possible but guaranteed if we trust in God, live righteously no matter what, and persevere by faith.