Old Greenbrier Baptist Church

Devotional for Weeks of May 20 and May 27, 2012

Word Imitated and Modeled

1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

How have things changed over the last fifty years from 1958 to 2008? Changes in Sports? The Baseball World Series has transitioned from broadcast on radio to High Definition TV, and players salaries have gone from thousands to millions of dollars. Changes in Technology? Heart transplants are now fairly common. We have gone to the moon, and the I-phone and I-pad have made the Star Trek communicator a reality. Changes in Church? The number one area of change is attendance. Not only are things changing but the rate of change is accelerating exponentially. Church change statistics from Rev. Glynis LaBarre (American Baptist Home Missions Society Transformation Strategist, Oct. 2011) provides some startling statistics. Regular church attendance in America has dropped from 80% (142 million people) to 17.6% (55 million people). Today  70% of Americans live secular lives, meaning that God has no real influence on their day-to-day living or decisions. This figure is predicted to rise to 90% by the end of this decade. Less than 10% of children under age 12 have had a significant encounter with a Christian. The WW-II generation, with an average age of 93, and the Builder generation, with an average age of 76, are last two generations with the habits of regular attendance and tithing. 60% of Baby Boomers, average age of 60, left church and never came back. Only 2% of Boomers give and do so only to causes they are passionate about. Less than 2% of Boomers’ children and grandchildren attend church. 60% of churches today will be gone by the end of this decade because they will not have people or money to sustain local church ministry.

Are you shocked by these statistics? God is not shocked. This is not the end of faith, but the beginning of a great transition that we won’t live to see completed. In fact, our times may be those in which the church takes its greatest step forward. The early church faced obstacles and opposition from the surrounding culture just like us. Their numbers were small, yet they had a genuine and persistent faith. Paul wrote to encourage the early church in Thessalonica that not only faced cultural opposition faithfully but also became a model of persistent faith in God for others. In 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10 Paul wrote,

To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace and peace to you. We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers. We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake. You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. The Lord’s message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia—your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore we do not need to say anything about it, for they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us. They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.

Thessalonica was not unlike the U.S. today—a secular city; politically driven; with economic interests always a top priority. Paul gave thanks to God for the faithful Thessalonians because of their faith in response to the gospel. Thessalonian believers expressed genuine faith in the face of persecution. Their “work of faith” was the Christian life they lived out in word and deed based on their new found faith in Christ Jesus. Their works were Holy Spirit directed. Their “labor prompted by love implies especially strenuous work. Here it refers to living the Christian life under persecution from their culture. Their “endurance inspired by hope” means that they persisted in their faith in spite of persecutions. Their endurance resulted from their genuine commitment to and confidence in Christ. Thessalonian believers were “chosen” or “elect” of God as evidenced by the fact that the good news, the gospel, was accompanied with: “power” (This is the NT word for miracles.), “the Holy Spirit” (The gospel was not merely words spoken by Paul. God’s Holy Spirit convicted, enlightened, transformed, assured, comforted, and guaranteed the truth of what was said.), and “deep conviction” (This is a term used by the Greeks to speak of someone who had converted to a particular philosophy or way of life. This deep conviction was evident not just in the words but in the lives of both Paul and the Thessalonians who received the gospel.) In spite of the grim statistics presented earlier, the good news is that the gospel works in every culture in every age—even in ours today! Faith, love, and hope are still what motivates and produces Christian action in our lives. We must allow the Holy Spirit of God to speak the truth of the gospel into our lives; to so deeply convict us of the truth of the gospel that our words and actions become those of Christ.

Paul said the Thessalonian believers became “imitators of us and of the Lord.” Whom are we imitating?  William Whiting Borden was born into the lap of luxury and privilege. He was a millionaire by the time he graduated from Yale University. Yet from age 16 he felt called to be a missionary to Muslims in NW China—the Uyghur people. After Yale he attended Princeton Seminary; was ordained; and travelled to Cairo to perfect his Arabic before beginning his mission to the Uyghurs. Tragically in 1913 he died of spinal meningitis while still in Cairo. He was also heir to the Borden Milk Company fortune. Was his life wasted? No!  His example and passion inspired others to follow him and to see his vision of ministry to the Uyghur people fulfilled. William Borden imitated Christ in his faith, love, and hope for reaching the Uyghur people with the gospel. Like his Master, Christ Jesus, Borden’s life is worthy of imitation. (From Glimpses of Christian History, issue 263.) 

For us the word “imitation,” is often used to refer to something inferior, artificial, or second-best. The words “imitation leather, gold, or designer dress” are not appealing—unless you’re buying. But this word in Greek carries no sense of inferiority or lack of genuiness. The old saying is that “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery” (C. C. Colton, 1820). May the Lord be flattered by our genuine imitation of him! We imitate those whom we most respect, most admire, esteem most highly. Paul notes the Thessalonians became imitators of him but ultimately of the Lord. We all imitate someone in the living of our lives. We all have a pattern, a guide, a model. Whom are you imitating in the living of your life? a parent, a teacher, a boss, a friend? Who or what does our church imitate in our expression of community? a club, another church, the past? We must imitate Christ both individually and as a church body. Jesus did not sit in the synagogue and wait for the people to come to him. He went out to them. I believe one of the key transformations of the church must be that we move away from a ministry of “y’all come here and do what we want” to “let’s go out there and do what you need.” I believe that instead of setting our plans and agenda, we must listen to what people in the world tell us they need. Then we must respond to those needs in accord with the gospel and love of Christ.

So what are we modeling? The Thessalonians became a “model” to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. The Thessalonians responded to the gospel and imitated Paul and ultimately Christ. In turn they became a model of life in Christ for other believers. The Thessalonians modeled Christ through their words and actions to churches near and far. They received the Apostles even though their message was controversial and counter-cultural. They “turned to God from idols. They no longer pursued the things their culture thought most important and even pressured them to return to. Instead they served God and others with their lives while awaiting Christ’s return with persistent anticipation. So how are we doing both individually and as a church? At the end of this message, here are the questions with which I still struggle: 

• Have we received the gospel with power and conviction from the Holy Spirit of God?
• Do our words and actions give evidence daily of our faith, love, and hope in Christ Jesus?
• Whom or what are we imitating? Is it really Jesus Christ?
• Whom or what are we modeling to those who watch us in our church and in our community?
• How can we imitate Christ and become a model of Him to those who will never sit in our pews?

Devotional for Weeks of May 6 and May 13, 2012

And What Do You Do?

Exodus 34:4-7

Whenever we meet someone new, we typically want to know at least two things: 1) What is your name? 2) And what do you do? Moses and Israel had just been introduced to Yahweh. Yahweh had revealed his name to Moses at the burning bush and sent him to declare it to Israel. “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob” (Ex 3:6). Israel and Moses had experienced the mighty acts of Yahweh in Egypt, the Wilderness, and Mt. Sinai. Through their interaction with Yahweh they were discerning what God did; how He acted. Their observations of his work/action ultimately led them to important insights into his character. In Exodus 32 Israel had grown impatient and sinned by making an idol to worship while Moses was on the mountain with God. Through Moses’ intercession, God spared Israel but with consequences—more than 3,000 dead by sword and plague and the stone tablets containing God’s law were broken—symbolic of the covenant broken by Israel’s disobedience to God’s commands. Moses went back up on the mountain to receive new tablets of the law—symbolic of renewed covenant between God and the people. While there, he had an important encounter with God. Ex 34:6-7 gives witness to the character of Yahweh through seven positive and two negative adjectives.

And (the Lord) passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.”

In Ex 34:6-7 there are seven positive adjectives: 1) “compassionate” (rahûm) – This word is related to the Hebrew word for womb (rehem). Yahweh shows compassion like a mother for her child. 2) “gracious” (hannûn) – God shows unmerited favor that is given without cause or warrant. He acts freely and generously without need or hope for compensation. 3) “slow to anger” (‘erek ‘apayim) – Literally God “has long nostrils” which cool his rage before it threatens Israel. This same word is used in Exodus 32:10, 12 - “heat of my nostrils.” 4) “abounding in love” (rab-hesed) – God is tenaciously faithful and loyal to those with whom he is bound in covenant relationship. God will “put up with a lot” because of his own powerful resolve to keep covenant even when the partner reneges. 5) “faithfulness” (‘emet) – He is completely true, trustworthy, and reliable. He is the “A-men.” 6) “love” (hesed) – This is an important term because it is used more than once in Exodus 34:6-7. The adjectives “faithfulness” and “love” are often paired together in scripture. 7) “forgiving” (nāśā’) –  God forgives the full gamut of human sins: “wickedness, rebellion and sin.” This word literally means “lift.” It refers to Yahweh lifting off the burden of covenant violations.

In Ex 34:7 there are also two negative adjectives: 1) “he does not leave the guilty unpunished” (naqah) – not acquitting sinners; doesn’t let them off the hook. There are consequences to our sins. While we may be forgiven, there may be scars. 2) “he punishes” (pāqad)  – God will not be mocked. Grace is not cheap or to be taken for granted. God takes sin very seriously and punishes it. There is a generational effect to sinfulness. We tend to repeat the mistakes of our parents. We must not pass on sins to the next generation.

The description of what God does in Exodus 34 is primarily one of a merciful and gracious God. But these verses emphasize both sides of God’s nature. He punishes as well as forgives sinners. This statement confirms the wonder of God’s grace in forgiving sinful Israel at Mt. Sinai but also confirms his punishment of their sinful actions. There is a divine tension here not easy to resolve. These verses are an astonishing disclosure of what God does and who he is. They tell us as much about the God of the Bible as any two verses can.

Ex 34:6-7 is one of the richest sources for adjectives used to describe how God acts; what he does. These words became a recurring statement that Israel used to describe the character of Yahweh. It was not just a one-time experience of God’s action and character. In Numbers 13-14 ten spies brought a negative report about the Promised Land. The people were ready to stone Moses and Aaron and return to Egypt. God again stated he would strike them down and raise up a greater people from the line of Moses. But Moses used God’s own words from Ex 34:6-7 in his intercession.

Now may the Lord’s strength be displayed, just as you have declared: “The Lord is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the father to the third and fourth generation.” In accordance with your great love, forgive the sin of these people, just as you have pardoned them from the time they left Egypt until now (Num 14:17-19).

In Psalm 145 the people praised God for his forgiveness.

The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made (Ps 145:8-9).

The prophets remind us of God’s vengeance against the wicked but also of his willingness to be gracious and forgive. Nahum spoke an oracle of God’s judgment against Nineveh, the Assyrian capital.

The Lord is slow to anger and great in power; the Lord will not leave the guilty unpunished . . . .

Jonah knew God’s character and did not want God to be gracious to the Ninevites, the enemies of his people.

“[Jonah] prayed to the Lord, “O Lord is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity” (Jon 4:2).

Hosea looked forward to the promised expression of God’s forgiveness of his sinful people. Through Hosea God promised,

I will betroth you [Israel] to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion. I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the Lord (Ho. 2:19-20).

The words of Ex 34:6-7 disclosure both God’s grace toward sinners and His punishment of them. We know God’s ultimate expression of compassion, grace, love, long-suffering, faithfulness, and forgiveness comes to us in Christ Jesus, the Son of God. But we must not think that God’s grace is cheap. It cost him the life of His one and only son. We must not test God by continuing in our sins, by living on the edge of His patience. God calls us to turn from cheap grace and the easy path to follow Him by taking up our crosses and following Him by daily living out our love and faithfulness to Him and to others.

So what is the message from these verses for us today? We must realize that God’s character has not changed and will not change even in our world today. We must, like Moses, include this revelation of God’s character as part of our intercessory prayers for ourselves, our families, our church, and our sinful world. We must, like Israel, praise God for his graciousness. We must, like the prophets, remember that God punishes sin. But we must not be greedy in seeking his forgiveness just for ourselves and not for others. In fact we must join with Him in reaching out with his grace and love to redeem a sinful world. This revelation of who God is and what He does is relevant and powerful for living of our lives today.

The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation (Ex 34:6-7).

Devotional for Week of April 30, 2012

American Idols

Exodus 32:1-14

Kelly Clarkson, Ruben Studdard, Fantasia Barrino, Carrie Underwood, Taylor Hicks, Jordin Sparks, David Cook, Kris Allen, Lee DeWyze, and Scotty McCreery. Do any of these names ring a bell? They are the winners from the fist ten seasons of the T.V. show American Idol. An idol is “an image used as an object of worship; one that is adored,” and worship is “The reverent love and allegiance accorded a deity, idol, or sacred object” (American Heritage Dictionary). So an idol is “a person or thing that is the object of our reverent love and allegiance.” What are America idols today? Who or what are the objects of our reverent love and allegiance? Before I answer that one, let’s look at Israel’s idol as they camped at the foot of Mt. Sinai as recorded in Exodus 32:1-14. 

¹When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.” ² Aaron answered them, “Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.” ³ So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. ⁴ He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, “These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.” ⁵ When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, “Tomorrow there will be a festival to the Lord.” ⁶ So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry. ⁷ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt. ⁸ They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, ‘These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’ ⁹ “I have seen these people,” the Lord said to Moses, “and they are a stiff-necked people. ¹⁰ Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.” ¹¹ But Moses sought the favor of the Lord his God. “Lord,” he said, “why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? ¹² Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people. ¹³ Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.’” ¹⁴ Then the Lord relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.

These events occurred shortly after those recorded in Exodus 24. There, Israel had agreed to live in a unique covenant relationship with God and to obey his law, The Ten Commandments. After forty days of waiting for Moses to return from the mountain, the people became impatient. Where was Moses? Was he alive? What do we do now? The thing they did—make an idol to worship—violated the covenant they had just made with God. The Israelites wanted gods they could see; gods like those everyone else had. They didn’t understand the uniqueness of Yahweh and the unique, exclusive relationship that He offered them. They wanted gods of their own invention that they could control and manipulate as they desired. What was Israel’s idol? Something they could see; Something they could control; Something that was like what everyone else had; Something pleasurable to worship that didn’t make demands on them.

What happened next is one of the great turning points in the history of Israel. Israel would have ceased to be as a people, if it hadn’t been for the intercession of Moses. God was about to nullify the covenant since it was conditioned upon the people’s obedience. The future would have been with the sons of Moses rather than the sons of Israel. Moses responded with one of the great intercessory prayers of all scripture in verses 11-13. Moses spoke to God of Israel as “your people.” They belong to God not Moses. Moses appealed to God to vindicate God’s name so the Egyptians wouldn’t mock God. Moses appealed to God to fulfill the patriarchal promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. Moses quoted God’s own promise to Abraham from Gen 15:5: “I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.” God “relented” or “repented” from His plan of total destruction. He did not change His mind; He did not regret his initial course of action; He embarked on a different course of action based on a new factor, the intercession of Moses. With his powerful intercessory prayer Moses did not alter God’s purpose toward Israel but encouraged God to carry it out to completion. Moses was never more like God than in this moment when he shared God’s mind and loving purpose. Of course there were still consequences for the people’s sin as recorded in the subsequent verses—broken law tablets; drinking water sprinkled with the burned and ground remnants of their idol; the death of 3,000 Israelites at the hands of the Levites; and a plague from God that killed even more of the unfaithful.

So what does all this mean to us today? Are we often impatient with God when He doesn’t do things the way we expect? When our prayers seemingly go unanswered? When it seems our will is not done in our timeframe? Do we attempt to take things into our own hands? Put ourselves in control? Make the decisions we think or feel are best for us? Do we attribute our successes to ourselves, our brains, our hard work, our ingenuity instead of to the providence and care of the God who made us. In other words, do we make ourselves our own idols? Do we quickly turn our focus from God and his demands upon our lives onto ourselves and our selfish, pleasurable pursuits and interests? Do we make gods of the pursuits, pleasures, and material things that this world dangles before us? What idols receive our reverent love and allegiance today? Do you believe that making idols of this world comes with consequences like pain, loss, frustration . . .? If you do, then realign your priorities to ensure God is on the throne of your life; enter into the ministry of reconciliation to which God calls you; and like Moses, take up your ministry of intercession/reconciliation for a sinful, idol-making world.

 ¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! ¹⁸ All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: ¹⁹ that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. ²⁰ We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God (2Cor 5:17-20).

Pray now and remind God of His great work of reconciliation on the cross for all humanity. Intercede in prayer for those who have not yet been reconciled that God’s Spirit will call them to faith. Speak about God’s reconciliation in Christ Jesus to those who are caught up in the pursuit of the false idols of this world.