Sermon Video: "circumcision of the heart"? - Romans 2:25-29

Surface level participation in religion isn't good enough.  Paul demonstrates this by discussion the circumcision of Judaism, but it equally applies to the baptism of Christianity.  Religious ceremony can be negated by immoral behavior (or lack of moral behavior), it is important but limited.  In the end, hearts and minds need to be changed, obedience to God's commands needs to occur, anything less is insufficient.

Sermon Video: Hezekiah's Revival, Part 1 (of 4) - 2 Chronicles 29

When Hezekiah became king of Judah, he inherited a kingdom in grave crisis.  His father Ahaz had suffered multiple military defeats and left Hezekiah with enemies on all sides, including the aggressive Assyrian Empire to the north which had recently destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel.  How was Hezekiah to respond, where should he even begin?  Hezekiah chose, in the first month of his reign, to focus his energies and attention upon the temple of the LORD in Jerusalem.  Enemies without were not his first concern, for Hezekiah knew that the spiritual corruption and root within Judah would surely destroy his kingdom by bringing down upon them the wrath of God's justice.
With the temple defiled and in disrepair, Hezekiah brought together the priests and Levites, putting them to work on the task of getting the temple ready once more for worship of the LORD.  16 days later, the temple was ready.  The very next day, Hezekiah brought with him the leaders of Jerusalem for a ceremony of re-dedication that contained a significant focus: atonement.  Until the sins of the nation had been atoned for, the wrath of God still hung over the kingdom, Hezekiah knew how serious this situation was, he not only fulfilled what the Law of Moses required to atone for sin, but went beyond it as well.  The resulting ceremony not only featured sacrifices for sin, but vocal and instrumental worship as well, followed by an opportunity for the people to demonstrate their thankfullness to God.
Hezekiah knew his nation desperately needed revival, he began in the only place that will work, with repentance and re-dedication to the worship of the LORD.  If we, as a Church, or as a nation, truly desire revival in our day, we will heed Hezekiah's example and begin with purifying our own hearts and committing ourselves to truly being disciples of Jesus Christ.

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Sermon Video: The Half-hearted obedience of Amaziah - 2 Chronicles 25

It is often a dangerous thing to enter into a commitment half-heartedly, whether that be a commitment in business, relationships, politics, or most importantly with God.  Amaziah, one of the kings of Judah, did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, but not as it turned out, wholeheartedly.  Over time, his outward obedience and inward indifference (and/or rebelliousness against God) began to be evident in a series of moral failings which culminated in a barbarous act of cruelty toward the POW's his army had captured while warring against the Edomites, and in the idolatry that he engaged in afterwards as he began to worship the gods he had captured from them.  In the end, despite its hopeful beginning of obedience, Amaziah's reign was a failure and he died at the hands of his own men, the same end that had befallen his father.  Trying to sit on the fence with God is a losing proposition, there is no such thing as a part-time disciple of Jesus Christ, if we are to be the people of God, we need to be such with all of our hearts.

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Sermon Video: The cost of discipleship - Luke 14:25-35

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote an essay entitled, "the Cost of Discipleship" in which he decried the prevalence of "cheap grace" in the Church that he knew.  Cheap grace was not something that Jesus advocated, quite the opposite, for Jesus spoke on many occasions of the high cost of being his disciple.  Here in Luke 14, Jesus tells a crowd of volunteer disciples that had been following him on his travels that they must "hate" their family and their own lives if they hope to be his disciple.  The "hate" that Jesus is speaking of is a comparative hyperbole, much like the sentiment, "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated", which speaks to the necessity of having our love for and dedication to God far and above that of anything else.  In the end, when we "hate" our family and ourselves by loving God so totally we actually can finally love our family, our neighbors, and ourselves properly.  When we put any of these in God's place, we're not actually elevating them, we're lowering them because the love that we have in that case is not the pure and holy love of one who already loves God with all of their heart, soul, mind, and strength.
After the tough talk about hate, Jesus continues the reality check of discipleship by declaring that anyone wanting to be his disciple must also pick up a cross, in other words, be willing to pay whatever the cost to life, liberty, and property may be required of those proclaiming the name of Jesus.  We know of the cost in righteous living that is necessary for any and all followers of Jesus, what we do not know is how much more will be asked of us, but each who would be his disciple must be willing to pay that cost if asked.
Finally, Jesus concludes by telling the crowd that they need to calculate their own level of commitment to see if, in light of the high cost, they are still willing to pursue being a disciple.  The same question lies before us, we must be aware of the cost of discipleship, it will not be cheap, and we must be willing to pay it.  What if we are not, what of those who wish to follow Jesus without such a commitment, Jesus calls them salt without saltiness.  They may look the part, but lack the benefit of the real thing.  The Church doesn't need bland Christians, it needs ones dedicated to the Cross, for only they will through the power of the Holy Spirit be God's instruments to change the world.

To watch the video, click on the link below:

Clash of Clans, sub-prime mortgages, and Dave Ramsey

Stay with me for a minute as I explain why a game that I play on my iphone is connected in my mind to the financial meltdown that happened in America nearly a decade ago and the financial guy from the radio.  For most of the free apps that people play on phones or tablets, the way in which they make money is to get you to purchase the ability to speed things up.  Clash of Clans is much the same, in it you build castle walls to defend your settlement and raise armies to attack the castles of other players.  Each task has a countdown timer ranging from a few seconds for small tasks to several days for the large ones.  If you have the patience to wait for the timer to run its course, the game is entirely free, but if you can't wait that long and want to speed it up, the game makers are more than happy to sell you that ability.
I was re-reading Niall Ferguson's The Ascent of Money this week, it is a brilliant primer on the history of finance, much like all of his books, and it contains a chapter on home ownership that among other things, explains the debacle of the sub-prime mortgage crisis that engulfed the American housing market during the mid 2000's.  That crisis was, in part, the result of people not being willing to wait until they were financially sound enough to afford a traditional long-term fixed mortgage, or not being willing to wait to save up money for other purposes but instead choosing to utilize the equity in their home by re-financing to give themselves money but at the cost of taking on a mortgage whose terms were certainly not sound in the long-term.
Both of these situations revolve around patience, a virtue that I'm sure has been in short supply throughout history, but also one that seems to be more difficult to uphold in a society that offers so many ways to try to get around having to develop patience.  All of this reminds me of the mantra repeated over and over by Dave Ramsey on his radio program that debt is the enemy and to be avoided at all cost.  Ramsey often tells people, for example, not to take out a loan for a car but instead to save up the cash needed to pay for it outright.  This sort of delayed gratification is of course hard to do, ensuring that short-term gain will always look good to those unwilling to invest in their own future.
This same discussion about patience could be applied to how we take care of ourselves, how we eat and whether or not we regularly exercise, and certainly it applies to our political choices because politicians are consistently going to tell the public what they want to hear now in order to get elected instead of what they need to hear about the future.
As we begin Holy Week, the virtue of patience and long-term investment is necessary for all those who plan on attending church on Easter to fulfill their Christmas-Easter twice a year obligation.  Being a Christian is hard work, it takes dedication and commitment, it takes regular participation, it takes more than being in the house of God twice a year.
If you want to spend $5 to speed up that game on your tablet, go ahead, but when it comes to the important things in life, there's a reason why patience is a virtue.

Sermon Video: A House Divided - Luke 11:14-26

As Jesus resume his journey toward Jerusalem for the final confrontation, he heals a man tormented by an evil spirit which had made him mute.  The miracle itself was no different than dozens of other miracles that Jesus had performed, and the healing no different than many, many others that Jesus had healed, but some in the crowd saw this not as the act of grace that it was, but as an insidious attempt by the devil to deceive the people of God.  The doubters in the audience accused Jesus of casting out demons under the authority of Beelzebub the prince of demons, in other words, they were calling Jesus a double-agent, saying that his acts of righteousness were in reality acts of deception.  That such an accusation, against Jesus of all people, is ludicrous doesn’t stop it from happening, just as the lack of evidence doesn’t stop some people from withholding vaccines from their kids.  This crazy situation is troubling, but it does provide Jesus with a chance to illustrate a principle that is applicable in nearly every human interaction and even within the life of every person: A house divided against itself will fall.

The universal principle given by Jesus has wide application, it applies to nations, too many of which are torn by civil strife, it applies to businesses, institutions, churches, families, and marriages.  We cannot long endure when were are fundamentally divided as a group of people.  This is a danger in secular situations just as it can be deadly to a church.  Because division is so dangerous, we ought always to be supporting reconciliation and healing, trying to hold together those who are in danger, and helping to pick up the pieces when splits do occur.  That this is a fundamental problem in the church and society as a whole is beyond doubt.  The divorce rate in America confirms our weakness on the issue of unity, as does the poor record of church splits.

Beyond the groupings of people in danger because of division, we must also be aware that individual people can be torn internally by conflicting goals, an unclear sense of purpose, or even simply a lack of commitment.  We cannot serve two masters, both will be disappointed in us, and we cannot avoid choosing which side we are on because we have already begun by being on the side at war with God, our only chance is to make peace with God through Jesus Christ.

Jesus ends his comments with two important additions to this principle: Those who aren’t with me are against me, and it will be worse for those who see the light but don’t change.  These two thoughts remind us that this is no game, God takes very seriously our choice to either continue as we are or repent and follow him, the good news is that when we do choose to join his side and help out in the work of the kingdom, we’ve chosen the side that has already been victorious in the battle, a battle won by Jesus on Easter morning.

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Sermon Video: Don't look back, follow Jesus - Luke 9:51-62

What does it mean to be a “follower” of Jesus Christ?  That’s a phrase we often use, and something that we’ve been commanded to be, so understanding it becomes rather important.  One way to be a follower of Jesus would be to observe how he chose his own path and utilize the same approach.  In Luke 9:51, we’re told that Jesus “resolutely” set out for Jerusalem.  The choice of going to Jerusalem, to finish the mission of the Father, was a deliberate one.  It was also a choice made with the ultimate goal of being reunited with the Father in glory at the forefront.  How was Jesus able to endure the hardship of his passion and death?  He knew that one the other side of it lay victory and glory.  It is this sort of focus and determination that is required of those who would follow in the footsteps of Jesus.

                If any of us was trying to recruit new volunteers for an important project, we’d stress the potential benefits of being a part of the endeavor, when Jesus recruits disciples, he makes sure to focus upon the high cost to anyone who chooses to follow him.  In this passage, three people who are potential followers are all given difficult answers, even enigmatic ones, from Jesus, such that the only conclusion we can draw from this interaction is that Jesus only wants those who are willing to pay the price to begin this journey.  To the first potential follower, Jesus stresses that following him will not lead to ease and comfort, to the second, he speaks of the need to begin following now because life will always give us important reasons to wait, and to the third, he warms that only a consistent and focused devotion will allow someone who follows him to be useful in the Kingdom of God. 

                Jesus set out resolutely for Jerusalem, knowing what awaited him there.  What does it mean to be a follower of Jesus?  It means we too must know our purpose in serving God, and we too must begin to fulfill it with complete devotion no matter what it costs us in the end.

To watch the video, click on the link below:

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