Author: The Christian Campus

Sunday 30 August 2020

Ps Ben Hooman

What a privilege and honor to stand here this morning with the people I love so much! What must the apostle Paul had to endure by being away for very long periods from the brothers and sisters in Christ that he loved so much. I can never put myself in his shoes, but one thing I know, I missed you all.

Never we had to be separated from one another for such a long period. Most of us have not seen one another since our last meeting in the middle of March. That is a long time ago, and still we cannot hug and greet one another as God asks us to do.

Due to the corona virus still infecting people, let us adhere to the regulations by not hugging or shaking hands, by keeping a distance of at least one and half meter, keeping on our masks, and wash or sanitize our hands regularly.

As I walk through my garden this week, I see the signs of a changing season. I see the grapevine having new leaves, the fruit trees blooming, the birds chirping with a new song of excitement and joy. I see the doves flirting in their fruitfulness.

As I see the grapevine shooting out beautiful green leaves, God reminded me of the fig tree that was cursed by Jesus. Matthew chapter twenty-one tells us what happened. In the morning as Jesus was returning to the city, He became hungry and saw a fig tree by the wayside with leaves on it but with no fruit. Jesus said, ‘may no fruit ever come from you again’. And the tree withered at once. The disciples saw it and wondered how the tree withered at once. Jesus then said to them,

“Truly I say to you , if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even when you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea’, it will happen. And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.’ (Matthew 21:21-22)

As I pondered on these words, looking at the green leaves, and knowing the grape vine bearing grapes every year, it struck me that I have to fertilise it to bring forth good fruit. It went through a cold and dry winter. I immediately aligned with the winter season that not only had very cold days and also days with severe frost, but also a famine of an ever-present virus unknown to all. An enemy we cannot see and only experiencing its devastating effects. A virus that have stolen our freedom, and a political system using it for alternate selfish gains.

I looked at the beautiful new leaves, and I saw newness! As if the Lord is saying, ‘See, I am doing a new thing’. In the natural because of growing up on a farm, I saw a newness as the winter passes and spring bringing new life all round.

I want you this morning to imagine with me the story of an African farmer. He bought a bag of seed at the local store. This bag is a symbol of hope, a hope for the future. It contains seed that will produce a harvest, and then food. He is sitting in front of his hut, waiting for the famine of drought to pass. Looking up to the skies and waiting for the rain to come. Like many Christians relying on other gods for the rain to come. In the past his forefathers even sacrificed their first born to a rain or water god for the rain to come. The face of a farmer, clinging on strings of hope to bring forth food.

How many Christians today are in a spiritual famine, in a spiritual drought. Many looking at the bag of seed without having any seed in the soil. Giving up on the hope and faith, and not even saving up seed for when the rain comes. The Word of God, a seed planted, so that when the rain come, they can prosper.

Many know the promises, even claim the promises, and looking at past successes. But now there is not much hope. During this famine, this desert period, things are not happening. Looking at our circumstances and saying, Will this ever pass? Is there a future and a hope? Will the rain come and when will it come?

Christians going through a desert, a dryness, a wilderness. You acknowledge God as Almighty God; you know the Word of God; its past history that God look after His people, that He is our Provider, our Healer, our future, but nothing happens. How long still in this winter O’ Lord? How much longer, how much more to endure?

The Lord says to you this morning,

“Thus says the LORD, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters, who brings forth chariot and horse, army and warrior; they lie down, they cannot rise, they are extinguished, quenched like a wick; Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The wild beasts will honor Me, the jackals and the ostriches, for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to My chosen people, the people whom I formed for Myself that they might declare My praise.” (Isaiah 43:15-21)

Do you hear what the Lord is saying to you right now?

“Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth. Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.” (Isaiah 43:19)

I see the heavens open and the glory of God ascended down on you right now, bringing a new season, a new season where you will experience God like never before!

It is your time, it is your season, it is about to rain! Yes, it is about to rain on us! Do you also hear the thunder of the Lord? Incline your spiritual ear and hear Him!

A spirit of creativity, a spirit of entrepreneurship, a spirit of God’s power in your life and in your house. You will be a blessing to people, to your community, this city and to this nation! An abundant harvest spring forth, fruitfulness in abundance!

Our people will set new spiritual trends, new songs will come from our midst! We will carry the seed of hope, carriers of hope and faith, faith that will move the mountain in front of you. Hallelujah!

Although you born a failure, you will die a great success, and to Jesus Christ all the glory! Like a Moses you will rise up. As a redeemed son or daughter of Almighty God, you are born into Christ. Like a Moses you will rise up!

Moses, his Father was Amram, his mother Joshabed, out of the tribe of Levi. His mother had to hide him for three months, born a failure and suppose to die, But God had a plan for his life! And the faith of a mother reversed the curse on his life. Mothers, your faith reverses the curse of death on your child’s life. It will be reversed by your faith!

Another example is Jabez. Jabez, born out of the family of Judah, out of the tribe of Judah, that brought forth Jesus to this natural world. Jabez, a man tagged as ‘mister pain’,

“Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, ‘Because I bore him in pain’. Jabez called upon the God of Israel, saying, ‘O that you will bless me and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from harm so that it might not bring me pain’. And God granted what he asked.” (1 Chronicles 4:9-10)

Do not let your past direct your future. Jabez name meant pain. They believed that where he goes, he will cause pain. People will believe and tell you what you will become, but God has another plan.

Jabez, the fourth son of Judah, Judah the son of Jacob, Jacob the son of Isaac, Isaac the son of Abraham. Jabez was born in the bloodline of Abraham, and God said to Abraham, “Through your offspring all nations will be blessed”. God made a covenant with Abram, even changed his name to Abraham, meaning ‘father of many nations’. God also changed his wife’s name from Sarai which means ‘barren’ to Sarah and blessed her with a son. God gave them a new season.

Isaac was born and his name meant ‘laughter’, Jacob born as he grabbed the heal of his brother, deceived. But God had a different plan. Jacob had a son, Judah, which means ‘praise’, glory to God. And then Jabez. He knew something in him is much greater than anything outside of him, greater than his circumstances.

When we accept the Lord Jesus Christ; the Lion of the tribe of Judah, we enter into the royal priesthood of Christ. “Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world”.

Jabez, born a curse, called pain, but with royal blood in his inner being, refused to accept the curse, refuse to accept his circumstances and called on the Lord. “When people see me, they see pain, but when God see me, He see His son. There is royal blood pumping through me! I will ask God to: bless me; to enlarge my territory; God’s hand to be with me; to keep me from evil, so I can cause no pain”.

Yes, the Lord wants to do a new thing in your life too! Let us embrace it. We need to stay focussed. We need to stop looking what is behind and focus on what lies ahead. Forget the former things and do not dwell in the past. Like the children of Israel, we need to leave Egypt and conquer the land of Canaan.

The question today is not what God has done in your life, but what God is doing right now! Do not allow the past failures to possess you, nor your past circumstances. We cannot live of yesterday’s faith. God has done great things in the past but we need to focus on what God wants to do right now.

‘See I am doing a new thing”. We need to perceive it, acknowledge it, pursue it, and understand it. What do you see when you see your life? Do you see possibilities, or do you see problems?

The Lord is saying to you, “I am making a way in the desert, and streams in the wasteland”.

Like the children of Israel, we have a choice: we can ponder in the past or we can embrace the future. To be able to do that, you need to see yourself as God sees you. Your past might have made your life a wasteland but in God it becomes streams of living water, a river in the desert!

See the possibilities as God see them, even under the circumstances we find ourselves in. God is greater than this economy, greater than the pandemic, and greater than your challenges. It is God that transforms the desert areas into fields of blessing and abundance. See God is doing a new thing!

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.” (Romans 8:1-2)

“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 3:17-18)

See God is doing a new thing, therefore commit yourself anew completely to Christ. See what the Lord is doing right now. Allow Him to show you His glory!

“See I am doing a new thing”. Do you hear His call this morning? Is it only green leaves the Lord sees or is there also fruit? Did you prepare the soil of your heart during this lockdown? Do you have the seed in the ground? How much time are you spending with God in prayer and in His Word? It is never too late to start. He wants to bring forth good fruit in and through you. Are you ready for it? With how much can the Lord trust you?

Make a decision today to follow God wholeheartedly with all that you are. Surrender to Him all the weight that you carry, all the concerns and burdens of this world.

Have faith and do not doubt, and see how God is doing a new thing. Not only in your heart, but also in your finances, in your family, in your circumstances. There is hope and there is a future and all of that are only in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Hear the thunder, see the clouds gather, it is going to rain for God is bringing forth a new thing!

Let us pray:

Father, we now surrender all to You. Come and have Your way in our lives. Come and do a new thing. We submit to Your rule and reign in our lives. Lead us by Your Spirit to live our lives for Your honor and for Your glory. This all made possible in and through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and in His Name we pray. Amen.

May the seeds that burst forth from you, be taken up by the wind of the Holy Spirit, and be carried to the lost, in Jesus mighty Name, Hallelujah. Go in God’s favor and have a blessed week. See, He is doing a new thing!

Sunday 23 August 2020

Ps Ben Hooman

Please open your Bible at the book of Proverbs. This is the last week in our series ‘Wisdom for Life.’ We have looked at what God says about fear, friends and family, about words and work, and today we are looking at what God says about wealth.

Proverbs 11:17-20, 24-30

I want to make four observations from the book of Proverbs about money, and the first, very simply, is that the book of Proverbs celebrates the blessing of money as a good gift from the Lord.

The blessing

“The blessing of the LORD makes rich, and he adds no sorrow with it” (Proverbs 10:22)

Now, Proverbs has something else to say alongside this:

“A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich.” (Proverbs 10:4)

Solomon affirms the reward of hard work. The blessing of the Lord makes rich, and the hand of the diligent makes rich. This reminds us of a very important principle in the Bible, which is, that God works through means, and the normal means by which God prospers us is through the diligent work of our hands. But while our hands may be the means by which blessing comes, God is the source of blessing. It is the blessing of the Lord that makes rich, and you find exactly this principle throughout the Bible.

“Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain,” (Psalm 127:1)

The blessing of the Lord makes rich, and He adds no sorrow to it! That is a wonderful statement. Sometimes people who have money are just not able to enjoy it. There may be various reasons for that; sorrow came with it. Sorrow may have come from guilt over how they got it, or they fear about how they might lose it.

Proverbs makes very clear, that when you know what you have receive through the blessing of God, you have freedom and peace to enjoy it. No sorrow is added. Thus, Proverbs celebrates the blessing of money as a good gift from the Lord, and we should do the same.

The danger

If money is a blessing, how can it also be a danger? Well, the answer is, that money is a power. It lures us as a rival to God Himself, and then makes increasing demands. Remember, Jesus said,

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” (Matthew 6:24)

Money is a master, and it will seek to take control of your life. It will lure you by offering great benefits, but then it will hide from you its increasing demands. Money is a wonderful servant, but it is a terrible master.

Never envy those who are wealthier than you are. The reasons we say this is that they have more temptations than you do, and they have more responsibilities in this regard than you, and they have more to account for one day before God than you do. Jesus said, “Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required.” (Luke 12:48)

“Better is a little with the fear of the LORD than great treasure and trouble with it.” (Proverbs 15:16)

We must all give an account for what we did with the money God has entrusted to us. We saw earlier in this series that we will give account for our words. We will also give an account for the money entrusted to us, and the more that we have, the greater our responsibility; so, we need to know the dangers.

What are the dangers that money can bring? Let me identify three from the book of Proverbs.

Dangers of money

• Money can ruin you

“An inheritance gained hastily in the beginning will not be blessed in the end.” (Proverbs 20:21)

“Wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it.” (Proverbs 13:11)

These proverbs focus on the special dangers of money that comes quickly. Through the years in ministry, I have seen some people that God has blessed after they joined this congregation. But in a short period after joining the church, their businesses were doing extremely well. They were overjoyed, and we rejoiced with them. But then they don’t attend the gatherings on Sunday, having other interests or just being just too busy. Some then gave up on their marriages, some gave up integrity, and had abandoned the faith which for a period they had professed. The money went to their head, and it ruined them.

Parents with money should weigh these proverbs. What would be the effect in the lives of your children if suddenly they inherited a large amount of money? Money is a blessing, but those who are wise will think about the capacity of a person to handle the responsibility that comes with it.

Wealth can be gained hastily. How else can that happen? The lotteries thrive on the promise of instant wealth. You drive down the highways, and you see flashing billboards, inciting you to dream about multiple millions. You put your faith in a lottery and then give what was suppose to be a blessing, to the lottery.

The same of course applies to lawsuits, which in our culture have become another way to gain large amounts of money hastily.

What about all the get rich quickly schemes? I have counselled people not to get involved in such schemes but the temptation of a false promise of getting rich quickly engulfed them and accordingly my council was ignored. Afterwards just to find themselves conned out of their blessing.

Now, notice what Proverbs commends instead: money that is saved “little by little will increase” and “Wealth gained hastily will dwindle”. Remember Proverbs are describing what often happens in the world; not always, but normally. Wealth that is usually hastily gained is not always wisely used, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it.

You see what we’re being encouraged to do here; very practically, begin to save, and as your money grows, your wisdom to handle it can grow alongside.

• Money cannot save you

“Riches do not profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death.” (Proverbs 11:4)

Very simply, money makes us more comfortable in this world, and so it distracts us from the plain reality that none of us will be here for very long. The Bible says “it is appointed for man once to die, and after that comes the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). And Jesus asks,

“For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul?” (Mark 8:36-37)

Jesus told a parable about a man with a bumper crop, who was already rich,

“And He told them a parable, saying, ‘The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.’ And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” (Luke 12:16-20)

This man had money to enjoy for many years, but he did not have many years to enjoy it. Money seems so solid and so real, while eternity seems so vague and so distant, but actually it is the other way around.

“Do not toil to acquire wealth; be discerning enough to desist. When your eyes light on it, it is gone, for suddenly it sprouts wings, flying like an eagle toward heaven.” (Proverbs 23:4-5)

Money is fleeting. Don’t make the acquisition of money your life goal, for inevitably, either you will be taken from your money, or your money will be taken from you.

Setting your heart on money is the wrong goal. The only things in life that are solid and lasting are the things that are unseen, not what are seen! Set your heart on things above where Christ is seated.

Remember riches do not profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death. Here is what you must pursue! Righteousness is wiser than going after riches, so make this the goal of your life.

• Money will tempt you

Money is a great blessing from God, but it carries great dangers of which we must be aware of. The more we have, the more important it is that we have a clear and working knowledge of the dangers that come with it.

Proverbs identifies at least four ways in which money will tempt you, and the first is that you will be tempted to use money as a means of exerting control.

• To Control

“The people curse him who holds back grain, but a blessing is on the head of him who sells it.” (Proverbs 11:26)

Here are people who need food, and there is a merchant who has grain. God has blessed a farmer with a good crop, but he holds it back from the market to drive up the price. The people can’t make him sell it. No law can compel a man to sell what he owns. So, the people are helpless, and they curse him, because his only interest is his own bottom line.

But a blessing is on the head of him who sells it. Here is another farmer who says, ‘I could probably get more for my grain if I held it back from the market. But there are people who need it, and I have to think about them too.’ So, he sells it.

“To him that subordinates his own interest to the public good, blessings will be upon his head.” (Charles Bridges)

The curse came from the people, but here, the blessing comes from God Himself. To only consider the bottom line, and not to weigh the common good is to be cursed. But, to subordinate your own interest to the good of others is to be blessed. As our Lord Jesus said; “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, …” (Matthew 7:12)

• To Cheat

“Unequal weights are an abomination to the LORD, and false scales are not good.” (Proverbs 20:23)

Now here we’re in a market, and a customer wants to buy ten kilograms of grain. The merchant pours the grain into a bucket on one side of the scales, and on the other side he places a weight. The weight says on it, “ten kilograms,” but it’s not; it is actually eight kilograms. So, when the scales balance, the customer gets short changed. That’s what is being described here, and notice the strong language: “unequal weights are an abomination to the Lord”!

Now there are so many ways in which this can happen in business today; what’s hidden in the small print, the added costs that are not mentioned, etc. We could easily discuss how these things are pressed upon us. Money will tempt you to cheat, but money may also tempt you to credit yourself.

• To Credit Yourself

“A rich man is wise in his own eyes, but a poor man who has understanding will find him out.” (Proverbs 28:11)

Proverbs suggests that being ‘wise in your own eyes’ is a temptation that comes particularly in the wake of great success. A rich man is wise in his own eyes. A distinctive temptation that comes in the wake of any great success is to credit it to ourselves.

God warned His people about this when they came into the land where they would prosper, saying:

“Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth…” (Deuteronomy 8:17-18)

Fourth, money will tempt you in the most serious way of all:

• To Deny the Lord

“Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, “Who is the LORD?” or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.” (Proverbs 30:8-9)

This is the only prayer in the book of Proverbs, and it is a prayer of wisdom. ‘Lord, I don’t want to be poor, and I don’t want to be rich. All I want is to have what I need.’ Notice why: If I am too poor, I may be tempted to steal, but if I prosper what will I be tempted to do? I may be tempted to say, ‘I really don’t need God. Who is He anyway?’ That is the temptation that success will bring.

The book of Proverbs is full of wisdom about this most important and practical area of our lives. It begins by celebrating that money is a gift and blessing from the Lord, of which we should be profoundly thankful, but with it comes great danger. Money can ruin you, it cannot save you and money will tempt you to control, to cheat, to credit yourself, or to deny the Lord.

The priority

The question we must ask ourselves is, ‘How can I master my money rather than have my money master me?’ How can I enjoy the wonderful blessings of this gift from the Lord, and break the powers that are inherent with it, and in it?

“Honor the LORD with your wealth and with the first fruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine.” (Proverbs 3:9-10)

‘Honour’ means ‘give weight to.’ Give weight to the Lord with your wealth. You do this by laying aside a portion of all that God has given you and giving it back to Him.

Now, what should we put aside? Answer: the firstfruits of all your produce are a portion of all that you have. Firstfruits are the first part of whatever comes to you. God is honoured and shown to be of first importance in our lives when what we set aside for Him is our first commitment, not our last. What we give is not to be taken out of what’s left when the other costs of life are met. What we give comes first. It is to be taken off the top.

If God is first in your life, you give first to God. The way many are doing this, is putting the government before God, they take their cut and God gets a portion of what’s left. I have decided to put the Lord before the government, also in my finances. Many of you have been doing that and you can testify to the blessing of it.

You wonder, “How are we going to manage?” And by God’s grace, some careful planning and wise stewardship, we do. On Wednesday during the application of this wisdom, we will look at planning and wise stewardship in the area of your finances. ‘Honour the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your projects.’

One more question: How much should you give? In the Old Testament God’s people gave a tithe, ten percent of all that God had given to them, but there is no place in the New Testament where God tells us how much we should give.

“The law dealt with us as children and prescribed the exact amount. The gospel treats us as men, and leaves it to circumstance, principle and conscience.” (Charles Bridges)

You have to tell children exactly what you want them to do, because they’re not yet at a stage of maturity to be able to work it out for themselves. The gospel treats us as grown mean, as mature adults, and so this is why, with great freedom, we read what the apostle Paul says:

“The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.” (2 Corinthians 9:6-8)

God does not command you with regard to how much you should pray. The Old Testament gives us clear indications of the importance to have a life of continuous prayer that reflects a relationship with God. You have to pray, but nowhere the New Testament tells you how much time you should spend in prayer, or when it should be done. Why? Because the whole point of prayer is that it should arise from a heart that desires communion with God.

The same is true when it comes to giving. The Old Testament clearly requested the tithe; firstfruits of ten percent. God does not want us to view your giving like paying taxes. He wants our giving to be an expression of our love and gratitude for Him. So, the amount that we give is a matter of Christian liberty, a liberty that is more than ten percent. It is a subject on which all of us will make choices, just as we make choices about how much we pray. But here’s the deal; the choices you make will reflect your heart, are you giving first to God by giving to your church where you get fed the Word of God, and as you grow in Christ, your desire for giving will increase.

We don’t live under law. Thank God we live under grace, and grace is so much better than law! Grace is God’s free gift in Jesus Christ. So, if grace is far better, why would we not seek to do more, more than what the law required?

The Opportunity

“One gives freely, yet grows all the richer; another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want.” (Proverbs 11:24)

When you read that, it may seem counter-intuitive. Surely if I give freely, I will have less, yet this proverb says, ‘one gives freely, yet grows all the richer.’ How does that work?

Think about farming. The farmer has a bag of seed, and what does he do? He scatters it. He throws it out freely, then, when harvest comes, the seed he scattered comes back to him in greater abundance. The New Testament takes up this picture;

“Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.” (2 Corinthians 9:6)

So here are two farmers, and they both have a bag of seed. The first farmer says, ‘This grain that I have is very precious, and I need it to make bread. I can’t afford to throw it on the ground!’ So, he holds back most of his seed. He sows sparingly, just off the top, and when harvest comes, there’s not much for him to reap.

The second farmer also has a bag of seed, and he says, ‘This seed is very, very precious. I need it to make bread, but I know that if I sow this seed, it will multiply. I will hold back only what I absolutely need, and everything else I will sow in the field.’ Thus he sows bountifully, and when the harvest comes, he reaps bountifully. This is what we are hearing in Proverbs chapter eleven. One gives freely, yet grows all the richer; another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want.

No one ever gave more freely than Jesus. This Paul explains as he encourages the church in Corinth to give generously:

“I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.” (2 Corinthians 8:8-9)

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20)

What comes from this self-giving of Jesus? The Father is honoured! We are forever blessed, and a day is coming when Jesus Christ Himself will see of the fruit of the travail of His soul and He will be satisfied (Isaiah 53:11).

That hasn’t happened yet, but it surely will. The day is coming when all of the Redeemed will be gathered in the presence of the Lord, and when Christ stands before the Father with all of the Redeemed around Him, He will say: ‘Here I am, and the children You have given Me’ (Hebrews 2:13). The fruit of the travail of Jesus’ soul will be reaped in heaven, and what’s true for Jesus will true for us as well.

Two brief analogies in closing: Suppose a revelation was given to you, that at some point in your life, your home would be destroyed by fire and everything in it would be lost. You don’t know if it will be your starter home, or in your family home or in your retirement home. You don’t know where this will happen. You don’t know when it will happen. All you do know is that for sure at some point in your lifetime, one day you will wake up and it will be the day when your home and everything in it is completely and utterly destroyed by fire.

What would you do? I know what I would do. I would move as much as I could to another place. I’d only keep what I absolutely need. I’d look at all the things I really value and say, ‘Can I risk holding onto these things here?’ If not, I’d rather put it somewhere else where it will be safe.

Secondly, John Calvin has a marvellous picture of this. He says in affect that, “If we truly believe that heaven is our home, we will be like those who emigrate to another country. They send their goods ahead of them so that they may enjoy them for a longer time.”

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:19-20)

Our heavenly Father knows what we need here and now. He asks from you not to be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is life not more than food, and the body more than clothing?

“But first seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33)

Money is a blessing that can easily become a danger if we do not make use of the opportunity to put God first in our lives. Putting God first also with our money and by making use of that opportunity to first seek Him and His kingdom, we are then blessed here and now. God first and you will see Him as your Provider as He sees to your needs.

Let us pray:

Father God, provision is a wonderful gift and blessing from You. Help us to always embrace the opportunity to give to You first from this blessing. Protect us against the dangers of money, but rather we sow bountifully and not sparingly from a thankful heart. Above lead us by the Holy Spirit to firstly also give ourselves fully to Your purpose and calling. Thank you for the Son of God that makes all this possible. In His wonderful Name, the Name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.

Wednesday 19 August 2020

Ps Ben Hooman

Listening to Sunday’s message on ‘Wisdom in Work’, many correctly say that they are hard-working men and women. They say, “We don’t procrastinate and do what we do to the best we can. We are just tired.” Others might have a lot of time on their hands, idle time for many different reasons. But what is work to you, and how are you spending your days?

Please open your Bible at 2 Thessalonians chapter 3. I previously ministered on this aspect of life but find it necessary to revisit it to connect with wisdom in work.

“As for you, brothers, do not grow weary in doing good.” (2 Thessalonians 3:13)

Another translation says, “As for you brothers and sisters, never tire of doing what is right.” (2 Thessalonians 3:13 NIV)

The writer is speaking to believers. This is what the second book of Thessalonians is all about: the encouragement to persevere. It’s about staying the course when you’re tired of the battle. “Never tire of doing what is right”. This verse is our focus, but it comes in a passage that sets out a Christian doctrine of daily work.

View of work

Let us tonight begin with this question: If you knew that Jesus Christ would return in seven days would you go to work this week? It’s a fascinating question because it gets to the root of what we believe about our daily work.

A secular view of work says, “Work is simply a means of getting money and the sooner I can be done with it the better.” This view of work asks, “How much money do I need to make before I can get out of doing this and go do something better?”

In this view work is a means to an end, and the end is money, “As soon as I have enough money, I’m done with work, and I’m off to the beach or to the golf course. Or better yet, off to the golf course next to the beach.”

If that’s your view of work, your answer to the question is obvious, “If I knew Jesus was coming in seven days, there’s no way I would go to work this week. I have enough money to get by for seven days, so why go to work? Especially under the current circumstances”.

This seems to be what was happening in Thessalonica. Some people were so certain Christ was about to return that they had quit their jobs.  They said “Christ is coming. There’s no reason to work.” They packed in their jobs, and they felt sure that it was God who was calling them to do this.

The people who are addressed in this letter had made a virtue out of not working. It isn’t hard to imagine how a movement would develop, “Do you have the faith to give up your job?”

Here are some Christians with a lot of time on their hands. They don’t have any work to do. You know what happens next. It’s what always happens with people who don’t have enough to do, they end up causing trouble!

Time on hands

“We hear that some of you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies.” (2 Thessalonians 3:11)

They had no business of their own, so they spent their time sticking their noses in everyone else’s business. The devil always has work for idle hands.

The problem here was not that these people didn’t have work; it was that they refused to work, and even made a virtue out of it. There is always work for willing hands that want to work. That’s why Paul says, “If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.” (2 Thessalonians 3:10). He does not say, “If a man cannot find work…” or “If a man is unable to work…”

“Now such people [who refuse to work] we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the bread they eat.” (Thessalonians 3:12)

These people had a completely unbiblical view of work. If you think work is only a means of making enough money to get yourself on the beach or on the golf course, please think again. Many in the world only work for the weekend to come. I see them sitting outside after payday drinking and socializing. That is not a Christian view of work.

Work is a gift and a calling

Your work is a gift and calling from God to be pursued for His glory and for the good of others. When we say “your work” here, we don’t only mean your employment.

The definition of work in the Bible is not tied to compensation. Adam made no money working in the garden, but it was work given by God. Many of you give yourselves to work for which you are not paid. Some of you work as homemakers. Some of you work as volunteers, visiting the sick, caring for children or serving the poor.

For some of you, your work right now is looking for work. If that is what you are doing, then do it with faith. Do it with vigour. Persevere in it. In the very pursuit of work, you can do it to the glory of God.

Sometimes people look at pastors and preachers and say, “God has given them a special work to do.” That’s true, but God has given you a special work to do. Your work is a gift and a calling from God.

The dignity of work

The dignity of work is rooted in the nature of God. At the beginning of the Bible, God introduces Himself as a worker. What is He doing? He’s expressing Himself by creating.

We are made in God’s image. That means we express ourselves by creating as well. That could mean building a car, making art, or making music, doing a garden, teaching children, writing a document or establishing a company. In some sense, all work is a reflection of the nature and character of God.

This is always where the carpenters smile, “I’m in the same trade as my Saviour.” For everyone who is in construction or manual labour you can say, “I do the same work as the Son of God.”

What about the rest of us? If your work is to flip burgers, you are reflecting the work of God in providing food. If you are a homemaker, you are reflecting the work of God who created order out of chaos.

If you are an accountant, your work reflects the integrity of God. If you are a CEO, you are holding things together and moving things forward.  This too is a reflection of God, who holds all things together by the power of His word. (Colossians 1:17)

Here are two questions to discuss as you start with your life groups again: What is your work? In what way does your work reflect the character of God? If you cannot work these out on your own, someone in your group will help you work it out. Once you see it, you will be encouraged.

God gives each of us work that in some way reflects His own character.  If you can’t think of a way in which your work reflects the character of God, it’s probably work that you shouldn’t be doing.

I hope that this will be an encouragement to you in work that sometimes makes you weary. There is great dignity and great joy in seeing how your work reflects the character of God.

Back to our question about a Christian view of work: If you knew Jesus Christ would return in seven days, would you go to work this week? If you have a Christian view of work, your answer would be “Yes, absolutely!”

Remember this when you are at your desk, on the job site or at the shop:  If someone were to ask you, “Would you be doing this if you knew that Jesus Christ would return tonight?” your answer would be, “Absolutely!” Because this is what He has called me to do today.

Since your work is a gift and calling from God to be pursued for His glory and the good of others, it follows that your example matters more than your rights.

Example matters more than rights

“For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone’s food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you.” (2 Thessalonians 3:7-8)

The apostle Paul worked incredibly hard. He was a brilliant scholar, a Pharisee from the school of Gamaliel, but he also had a trade that he used at times to earn money while he was serving the church.

Sometimes there was money to support Paul, sometimes not. When there was no money, here’s what Paul did; he made tents and sold them and then gave himself to the work of ministry. Especially when he was in Thessalonica, Paul was bi-vocational. He gave himself to two jobs, which is why he says that he “worked night and day”. That is extraordinarily difficult to do, but Paul was ready to do whatever it would take to make the Gospel run.

Here is the great irony: In order to not be a burden on other believers, Paul is working two jobs. At the same time, there are Christians who refuse to do any work, and they’ve become a burden to other believers!

The Bible says, “Those who preach the Gospel should receive their living from the Gospel” (1 Corinthians 9:14). Paul says that this is a command of the Lord. So, as an apostle, Paul had the right to financial support from the church. But look at what he says,

“We did this [work night and day] not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to make ourselves a model for you to follow.” (2 Thessalonians 3:9)

Do you see what Paul is saying? Being an example to others is more important than having what is mine by right. This is so important, especially in the workplace. As a Christian employee, my example matters more than my rights. 

When you find yourself in conflict and you say, “What are my rights?” make sure you also ask, “What is my example?”  Never ask, “What are my rights?” without asking, “What is my example?”

What would happen if everyone did what I’m doing? What is my example to my children? What is my example to unbelieving colleagues who see my life? What is my example to the church and to angels and to demons, who scorn the work of God? How does what I am saying and doing look in the eyes of God, who gave His Son to die on the cross for me?

Notice, we not saying, “Your rights don’t matter.” but “You should never claim them.” Your example matters more than your rights.

Never tire of doing what is right

“As for you brothers, never tire of doing what is right.” (2 Thessalonians 3:13)

Paul shifts gears here, from rebuking those who insist on being idle, to encouraging those who have persisted in being faithful. Here are people who are “doing what is right.” They’re on the right track. The issue they are up against is that they’re getting tired.

This experience comes to all of us at one time or another. Some of us tire more easily than others, but all of us struggle at some point. There are times when we easily become discouraged and tire of doing what is right, especially in the times we find ourselves in.

• When doing good brings trouble in return

Some of these believers had shown great kindness to the ones who were idle, and these ones had caused trouble in return.

It’s very discouraging when you reach out to help someone and then that person turns on you and starts bringing you trouble. It feels like a slap in the face. If this has happened to you, you know how discouraging it is – once bitten twice shy. You tire of doing what is right.

• When doing good brings little thanks

You extend yourself for your children, for your company or even in the church and nobody seems to notice or care. You feel undervalued, taken for granted and it drains your energy, “If nobody else cares, I won’t care either.” You tire of doing what is right.

• When doing good brings slow progress

Is there any parent who has not felt this at some point? Pastor James Philip says, “[This is] the common ground that parents and teachers share, namely, the sometimes, desolating sense that they are getting absolutely nowhere with their young charges, and that they are complete failures, so far as getting anything over to the children is concerned.”

Writing about the battle with weariness and discouragement that many faces in the middle years of their work life, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones says, “I am… convinced that the most difficult period of all in life is the middle period. There are compensations in youth and there are compensations in old age which seem to be entirely lacking in the middle period… They have got beyond that stage of developing and building up and have attained to a certain level. For many reasons it is impossible to develop further. There they are on the level, and the difficulty is to keep going on that level while lacking the stimulus that took them there.”

You were climbing this ladder, with all the stimulus of getting there, and now you’ve hit a ceiling. How will you keep going? When this happens at work, in marriage or even in the church, we’re tempted to respond in one of three ways:

We give up

You throw up your hands in frustration and say, “I quit. I’m out of here.  I’m done with this marriage. I’m done with this job. I’m done with this church. I’m done with this Christian life.”

We abandon hope

You say, “Well, this is all my life is ever going to be. I have to make the best of it, then grin and bear it.” The light goes out in your life. You become a joyless person.

We find an escape

You turn to artificial stimulants; drink, drugs, an affair or gambling. All of these are responses to discouragement. But God says, “Never tire of doing what is right.” How?

How to persevere through discouragement

• Look back to what Christ has accomplished

“Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinful men so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” (Hebrews 12:3)

Think about the trouble that came to Jesus as He went about doing good. They called Him “Beelzebub” and hung Him on a cross. Think about how little He was thanked. Ten lepers healed – a miracle! Only one came back to say thank you. Did healing from leprosy mean nothing to them? Think about the slow progress of the disciples under His teaching, “Do you still have no faith? Do you still not understand?”

When I look at my own sins, the way I take God’s many gifts for granted and my slow progress in the Christian life, it’s amazing to me that Christ would not throw up His hands and say, “I’m done with him. He’s not worth it.” Don’t you feel that? Our Saviour never tires of doing us good!

Consider all that Christ has endured and it will put strength into you and help you to press forward.

• Look around at what Christ’s people endure

“Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.” (1 Peter 5:9)

We all have times when we feel sorry for ourselves. When I feel sorry for myself and I start thinking that I’m carrying a heavy burden, I find it really helpful to look at the burdens of others. It helps me. It strengthens me.

The apostle Peter says that the suffering of other Christians will help you to resist Satan and carry your own burdens. When I feel sorry for myself, the best thing I can do is go visit someone else in need. When I see the burdens they are carrying, I ask myself, “Why did I ever complain?”

Ted Olsen has a wonderful phrase that I have found so helpful, “Irrigate your soul in the joys and sorrows of other people.”

• Look forward to what Christ has promised

“Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.” (Isaiah 40:31)

Jimmy Connors wasn’t the most gifted of tennis players. What was admired about him was his sheer determination. One year at Wimbledon he was playing a guy by the name of Mikael Pernfors. Connors lost the first two sets six-one and six-one, and he was down four-one in the third set. He was nursing a leg injury that required the help of the doctor, but incredibly he came back to win the match.

Afterwards, an interviewer said to him, “You are thirty-four years old and you are carrying a leg injury. You are two sets down and four games to one behind, and you’ve already won all this stuff. Don’t you ever think to yourself, ‘Is this really worth it?” To which Connors said, “It is always worth it!”

Never tire of doing what is right. It is always worth it. Jesus said that even a cup of cold water, the smallest act done in His name, will have its reward. One day you will stand in the presence of Jesus, and on that day, every act that honoured Christ, every decision to do what is right, every sacrifice you ever made in the Christian life will be of infinite value.

You will never regret one good deed you have done. You will never regret one sacrifice you have made for Christ. You will never regret one costly decision to do what is right when you are in the presence of Jesus.

So, look at what is ahead of you, look at what He promises and press on!

Let us pray:

Father, work is a gift and calling from you. Help us through the Holy Spirit to pursue it for Your glory and for the good of others, and to persevere by looking what our Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished and also looking forward to what He has promised. In the Name of our loving Lord Jesus Christ we pray, Amen.

Sunday 16 August 2020

Ps Ben Hooman

We are looking today at the theme of work, or more particularly its opposite. Some may find such a message uncomfortable due to the challenging times we are in due to the pandemic we are in. the different stages of lockdown might have a sluggish and negative effect in our own levels of willingness and energy to work ‘as if’ for the Lord.

Please open your Bible at Proverbs 19 and let us read together from Proverbs 19:23-24, and 20:4-13.

Proverbs introduces us to a tragic character whose life ends in ruin. The name of this character is the sluggard. He is referred to fourteen times in Proverbs, twice in the verses read in this portion of Scripture. This tragic character is frequently presented in comic terms.

“The sluggard buries his hand in the dish and will not even bring it back to his mouth.” (Proverbs 19:24)

Take in this picture: The sluggard sits down at the table, food being put in front of him, and he loads the food onto his fork, but that’s as far as he gets. Lifting the fork to his mouth is just too much of an effort for this man. Proverbs says,

“As a door turns on its hinges, so does a sluggard on his bed.” (Proverbs 26:14)

The problem with the sluggard is not just that he likes to lie in bed, he is hinged to it! He turns one way and then the other, but never gets up! He is like a caricature of a politician or a celebrity; some aspect of their face is exaggerated, but you immediately know who it is.

The sluggard is full of excuses. He is risk adverse, and he always has a reason for not doing the work that needs to get done.

“The sluggard says, ‘There is a lion outside! I shall be killed in the streets!” (Proverbs 22:13)

When we read proverbs like these, we are meant to smile and laugh, but proverbs like these are also meant to make us think. In the caricature we recognize the great dangers of laziness.

I have no doubt that the vast majority of us work very hard indeed. If that is true of you, your natural reaction will be to think this is a message for other people but not for me. Well, not so fast! There is something here for all of us today no matter how hard working we are.

The profile of an unproductive person

• He is slow to start

“The sluggard does not plow in the autumn; he will seek at harvest and have nothing.” (Proverbs 20:4)

This proverb draws attention to the long-term effects of putting off the things we need to do now. There is a season for ploughing, there is a season for sowing and there is a season for reaping.

Ploughing is hard work and the sluggard does not want to do it.

Now, the context is very important: When God’s people came into Canaan, every family was given a plot of land. God gave them homes they did not build, wells they did not dig, and vineyards they did not plant (Deuteronomy 6:11). God gave them the means of sustaining themselves. Everything they needed for life was theirs, and it was all given freely by the grace and abundance of Almighty God. Their part was to work the fields that God had given to them.

Working the fields that God had given was the work God had called His people to do. But the sluggard is slow to start. He does not plough in the autumn. So, when the harvest comes, and all of his neighbours are bringing in the grain and produce of the land that will sustain them, the sluggard has nothing.

Perhaps most famously, the book of Proverbs draws a contrast between the person who does not prepare for the future and the insects who do.

“Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise. Without having any chief, officer, or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest.” (Proverbs 6:6-8)

These tiny insects are wise enough to know that what you do now, relates to what you will have in the future. Little ants know that you need to prepare for the future, so they work without supervision, and thus serve as an example for us.

The unproductive person needs to be supervised all the time, but ants see what needs to be done, and they get on with doing it. But compared to these industrious ants, the sluggard delays. He postpones and procrastinates. He says, ‘It is not good weather today. I’ll get round to my ploughing tomorrow,’ and of course he never does.

• He is easily distracted

“Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless pursuits will have plenty of poverty.” (Proverbs 28:19)

What keeps the sluggard from doing the work that God has called him to do and stewarding that which God has trusted him. What keeps the sluggard from this, is that he is easily distracted. He lacks focus. He follows worthless pursuits, and of course, the person who is fascinated with everything, invariably, achieves nothing.

We live in a world of constant distraction, from the beginning of our morning till the end of the day. The reason this sluggard has nothing at harvest is not that he refused to work; it simply that he just never quite got round to doing it.

“How long will you lie there, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of hands to rest.” (Proverbs 6:9-10)

Notice it’s just a little sleep. He says, “I’ll get round to the ploughing when I’m ready, but right now I just feel like a little sleep. Well, not even sleep: I just want to have a little rest first. Well not even a little rest. Just let me have a few minutes in my chair with my hands folded. Then I’ll get it done.” But after that, there is another distraction. He says, “I’ll just do this first, and then I will get round to the ploughing.”

This person makes too many concessions, too many postponements, too many delays. It all happens “little by little,” and his life slips away. So, the sluggard has no harvest; not because he made some grand decision not to plough, but because, through a thousand small concessions to his own flesh, and as a result, he never got round to doing what God had called him to do.

• He does not finish

“Whoever is slothful will not roast his game, but the diligent man will get precious wealth.” (Proverbs 12:27)

Clearly the person who is slow to start, and is easily distracted, won’t be able to finish. Here the sluggard does get started, and he finds some food and brings it home. But then he loses interest and moves onto something else. So, he never gets round to roasting the game he brought home.

The pattern of this person’s life is that he is always moving onto something else. Something new catches his eye and off he goes, leaving behind him a trail of incomplete projects and unfinished business. Things that he started but did not continue, and never completed because he did not continue, and as a result, this takes us to a fourth mark of the unproductive person.

• He Never rests

This is surprising because the sluggard is hinged to his bed! But here’s the irony: the person who keeps putting off what needs to be done can never rest. Even when he sleeps, he never really rests, because always in the back of his mind, he knows what he has to do. God rested when He has completed His work, and the price of putting off what God has called you to do is that you never really rest, no matter how long you may sleep.

“The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied.” (Proverbs 13:4)

Notice that this proverb is about the soul. Not only the barns of the sluggard are empty; the soul of the sluggard is empty as well. Laziness will empty your wallet, but it will do something worse also. Laziness will hollow out your soul because constantly avoiding what God has called you to do is destroying the soul.

This is why “the soul of the sluggard craves.” The sluggard wants a harvest, but he won’t do what it takes to get one, so he gets nothing. He would like to be like his neighbours, but he does not have a harvest, and he won’t do what he has to get one.

No one wants to be like the sluggard. But his profile gives us a really helpful grid for understanding what it takes to be a more productive person. Here are four questions:  What do I need to begin? Where do I need to stay focused? What do I need to complete? When do I need to rest?

The motive of a hard-working person

“I passed by the field of a sluggard, by the vineyard of a man lacking sense, and behold, it was all overgrown with thorns; the ground was covered with nettles, and its stone wall   was broken down.” (Proverbs 24:30-31)

Picture a wise man walking in the countryside. The path takes him past the edge of one little farm after another. It’s a beautiful walk. First, he goes past a field of ripening maize, and as he looks across the field, he sees the little house of the one who owns it. “It’s going to be a good harvest and when it comes, these people will be blessed”, he says to himself.

Then he goes past a vineyard, with clusters of grapes hanging from the branches of the vine. Then he goes past a little orchard, and then a vegetable garden and so on.

But then he comes to a property that looks very different. This field is overgrown with thorns, the ground is covered with nettles, and the stone wall round the field is broken down. God has given to the person who lives here a field, but this person has not used what he has been given.

The tragedy of the neglected field is not just that the sluggard has failed to provide for himself, but that he is not able to contribute to the needs of others.

“The desire of the sluggard kills him, for his hands refuse to labour. All day long he craves and craves, but the righteous gives and does not hold back.” (Proverbs 21:25-26)

Notice the contrast in this verse is between the sluggard, and the righteous. Here’s the difference. The righteous has a good harvest, and so he is able to give to others. He is able to give and he does not hold back, but the sluggard who did not plough, has nothing to give. What God has given has been ignored.

God gave the sluggard a field that would produce all that he needed for himself and more that he could have given to others. But the sluggard did not use what God had trusted to him; his God- given gift, and so the field became overgrown, and the wall was broken down.

Right here in Proverbs, particularly between the contrast of the righteous person and the sluggard, is the seed of a principle that is drawn out and made clear in the New Testament: Love is the great biblical motive for work!

“Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labour, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.” (Ephesians 4:28)

The motive for using the gifts that God has given to us is not simply that I will have what I need. It is so that I will be able to contribute to the needs of others! The motive for our work is that I will have something to share: Love is the great motive for all of our work, and it begins with our love for God.

“Whatever you do work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.” (Colossians 3:23)

Put these words from Colossians above the door of your office, your study, at home. We normally go into the office with great joy, but like with everyone else, there are days when one struggles. So, on days when we are struggling, touch the sign on the way in, saying, “I’m doing this for you Lord. I don’t feel like it today, but I want to offer what I do to You as worship.”

Whatever your work is, whatever you do, offer it to God as worship! “I am writing this order for You Lord. I’ll interact with this customer for Your glory, Lord.”

There may be times when your work is hard or dull or boring. There will be times when you would rather be doing something else, but you will be helped and lifted as you say, Lord help me to offer what I do today to You as worship, and let me bring blessing to others as I do it.

Whatever your work, love is the great motive for pursuing all that God has called you to do.

Rebecca DeYoung has written a book on the seven deadly sins in which she describes sloth as “resistance to the demands of love.” I wonder if you have ever thought about that: Laziness is resistance to the demands of love.

She describes what can easily happen in a marriage. A husband and wife get into an argument and then they retreat to different parts of the house. It’s easier to stay at a miserable distance than to do the hard work of saying sorry, forgiving and reconciling.

“Do they want the relationship? Yes, they do! But do they want to do what it takes to be in that relationship? Well maybe tomorrow. For now, at least, each spouse wants the night off to wallow in his or her own selfish loneliness.”

It’s easy to get lazy in love: to take a relationship for granted, and to let it drift because you can’t be bothered to face what’s wrong and make the effort to try and put it right. It is a great sin to let love die because you are too lazy to do the hard work it takes to keep it alive.

Look honestly at your own life: Where are there sins that need to be confessed? Where do the broken walls of trust need to be repaired. Where have you neglected the care that God has called you to give, the work He has called you to do?

Repentance, like ploughing, is hard work, but in due time it will yield a harvest.

Someone may say, “There’s no point. Nothing I do will make any difference.” But take what God says as a word of encouragement:

“And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” (Galatians 6:9)

It is a great sin to let love die because you are too lazy to do what it takes to keep it alive. And it would be a tragic loss to miss eternal life, because you were too lazy to do what it takes to find it.

Let me encourage you with these Scriptures:

“Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called…” (1 Timothy 6:12)

“Strive to enter through the narrow door…” (Luke 13:24)

“Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you …” (John 6:27)

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.” (Matthew 7:7-8)

Let us not be lazy believers. Trusting God isn’t easy for anyone; praying is hard work, and persevering can sometimes seem exhausting. But if you will not plough, how will you have a harvest?

The joy of a Christ-like person

• Jesus began early

Did you notice how Jesus is exactly the opposite of everything described about the sluggard? The sluggard was slow to start but at the age of twelve, Jesus was in the temple (Luke 2:49). He gave Himself to the Father’s business, and He did it out of love for the Father and out of love for us.

Is there something that God has prompted you to do that you have been putting off? Have you been procrastinating and delaying? Telling yourself there is plenty of time? Have you become aware of your need to get right with God, and seek the new life that Christ offers?

CS Lewis makes the point that the devil has may ways of ruining souls, but his most effective is to make people think there is plenty of time.

“As it is said, ‘Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as if in rebellion.” (Hebrews 3:15)

Now is the time for repentance; to do the time, to do that which you know must be done. Now is the time for obediently following after the call of Jesus Christ and pursuing the call He has on your life.

• Jesus stayed focused

The sluggard was so easily distracted, but there was an urgency about everyday in the life of Jesus.

“We must work the works of Him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work.” (John 9:4)

Where in your life do you need to stay focused and to persevere? Jesus set his face like a flint to go to Jerusalem. He set his face to do the hardest thing that has been done in the history of the world. So, when you are discouraged, do not be distracted from doing the will of the Father, no matter how costly it may be. This is the joy of a Christ-like person.

• Jesus completed His work

“I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.” (John 17:4)

What was Jesus’ work? He came into the world to seek and to save the lost, and He has done it! Everything that is needed to bring you from where you are right now to the eternal joy of heaven has been accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ.

That is why on the cross, He cried out in a loud voice ‘It is finished!’ (John 19:30). And having completed His work, He entered His rest.

• Jesus entered His rest

Right now, He is seated at the right hand of the Father, where He is ready and able to save all who will look to Him in repentance and in faith. The opposite of everything we see in the sluggard. May it be that each and every one of us becomes like Him. God has prepared work for you to do.

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10)

There is a whole path of good things that God has called you to do this week. Start early, stay focused and persevere to the end so you can say with Paul, ‘I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith,’ and then by God’s grace, you too will enter His rest.

Let us pray:

Father, save us from being like the sluggard and make us even more like our glorious Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, Amen

Sunday 9 August 2020

Ps Ben Hooman

Please open your Bible at the book Proverbs as we are continuing our Wisdom Series on the ways of doing life here and now. Since Christ is our wisdom, the way of wisdom is always the way of Christ. So, this series is really about what it looks like to be a disciple or follower of Jesus. To follow the way of wisdom is to follow the way of Christ.

Proverbs 15:1-7, 14-23

We have looked at the way of wisdom in relation to friends and family, and today we come to the important subject of what it means to walk in the wisdom of Christ with regard to our words. There are more Proverbs on what we say than on any other subject.

The message today is very simple: why, what and how. Why your words matter, what your words should reflect, and how your words can be blessed.

Why your words matter

The effect of your words on others

“Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.” (Proverbs 18:21)

What we say, that is the tongue, is the means by which we bring the greatest help or harm to others.

• Death in the power of the tongue

Your tongue is a weapon that can wound another person deeply. If you carry around a weapon that can wound, you have to carry it with great caution and care. Remember that you carry such a weapon with you every day. Your tongue is a weapon that can bring deadly wounds.

“There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.” (Proverbs 12:18)

Notice this analogy to the weapon that can kill. We talk about ‘cutting remarks,” and Proverbs tells us that words just blurted out are like sword thrusts which can bring deep wounds. Some of you know the power of this because someone has said something that has deeply wounded you, and it has stayed with you: ‘You will never amount to anything’; or something of this sort.

Death is in the power of the tongue, and our Lord Jesus speaks about this with great clarity in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). Jesus quoted the sixth commandment: ‘Do not murder,’ and perhaps of all the commandments this is the one that we think, “Well, at least I’m not close to that.” But Jesus made it clear that the sixth commandment includes death by words.

“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.” (Matthew 5:21-22)

The original word for “fool” Jesus used was “raca,” a term of belittling, insult, demeaning, contempt and abuse. It meant, “you’re useless,” and Jesus warned whoever speaks to another person like that will be in danger of the fires of hell.

Now that would have certainly gotten the attention of the crowd. When Jesus says that the meaning of the sixth commandment includes death by words, you will recognize how this commandment hits a little closer to home than what you may once have thought.

Abusive speech is an offense for which a person is accountable to God. It is a violation of the sixth commandment that puts a person in danger of the very fire of hell. Death is in the power of the tongue.

• Life in the power of the tongue

“There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.” (Proverbs 12:18)

Here is the extraordinary thing about our words and tongue; they not only do great harm, but can also do great good.

Larry Crabb has written a helpful book on the power of encouragement. He tells about how as a youngster, he developed “a thoroughly annoying and humiliating problem with stuttering.” He had particular difficulty with the letters ‘l ‘and ‘p,’ and since his name was Larry and he went to Plymouth school in Pennsylvania, this caused him a great deal of trouble.

He describes how the church he grew up in had a time of open prayer, and one Sunday morning Larry found the courage to lead a public prayer for the first time as a teenager.

He says, “Filled less with worship than with nervousness, I found my theology becoming confused to the point of heresy. I remember thanking the Father for hanging on the cross, and praising Christ for triumphantly bringing the Spirit from the grave. Stuttering throughout, I finally thought of the word Amen, said it, and sat down. I recall staring at the floor too embarrassed to look around, and solemnly vowing never again to pray or speak aloud in front of a group. When the service was over, I darted for the door, but I was not quick enough. An older Christian man named Jim Dunbar intercepted me, put his arm on my shoulder, and cleared his throat to speak. I remember thinking to myself, ‘Here it comes, oh well, just endure it and then get to the car.’ “Larry,” he said, “there’s one thing I want you to know: Whatever you do for the Lord, I’m behind you one thousand percent.” And then he walked away. Even as I write these words, my eyes fill with tears. Those words were life words. They had power. They reached deep into my being. My resolve never again to speak in public weakened instantly.”

Your words matter. They can wound, or they can heal. They can harm, or they can help.

The effect of your words on yourself

“Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.” (Proverbs 18:21)

What you say will certainly have an effect for good or for ill in the lives of other people, but in the same way, the words you say will also have an effect on your own soul for good or for ill as well. What you say comes out of you, but what you say goes down into you as well. Words go into the stomach,

“From the fruit of a man’s mouth, his stomach is satisfied, he is satisfied by the yield of his lips.” (Proverbs 18:20)

Cursing and raging go deep down into your own soul, and they will make your soul sick. In a very profound sense, you will eat your own words. Proverbs is saying that we always eat our own words.

Our words not only go into the ear of another person, but that they also go down into the soul of the one who speaks.

What brings help and blessing to others will bring help and blessing to you, and the one who curses others will bring harm upon themselves. ‘With the measure you use, it will be measured to you’ (Matthew 7:2). Speaking destruction to others will bring destruction to you, and speaking life into the lives of others will be life-giving to you.

This is just another reason why it is not only right to forgive others but why it is wise to forgive others. To hold a grudge is to harm yourself.

The effect of your words before God

“I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” (Matthew 12:36)

God will hold us accountable not only for what we did but also for what we said.

Freedom of speech is a wonderful gift but also an awesome responsibility. “People will give an account for ever careless word they speak!” (Matthew 12:36), and God knows every word that everyone of us has ever spoken. David says,

“Before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, know it all together.” (Psalm 139:4)

Here is something far extremely serious. Every word you or I say is heard by almighty God. Every word you say in private, every word you write online, every tweet you ever make or comment you add, is known and weighed by almighty God.

God holds us accountable not only for what we do but also for what we say, and when you see this, you will know how much you need a Saviour. This is why your words really matter.

What your words should reflect

There are more proverbs about our words than any other subject, so what I have done is to group them together, and then use them to frame four prayers with regard to our words. Things I would ask of God with regards to my speaking, and things that I hope you would ask of God for your speaking too.

• Lord, help me to speak with restraint

“The heart of the righteous ponders how to answer, but the mouth of the wicked pours out evil things.” (Proverbs 15:28)

Notice the contrast between the righteous and the wicked. Words pour out from the mouth of the wicked instinctively, but the righteous ponders thoughtfully how to answer.

This is radically counter-cultural. Self-expression is a leading idol of our culture. It’s very common to hear people say, ‘I must say what I think. I must say what I feel!’ Must you? Must you? What disaster would befall you if you didn’t?

“A fool gives full vent to his spirit, but a wise man quietly holds it back.” (Proverbs 29:11)

Notice this important distinction. It is the fool who gives full vent to his spirit, who just lays it out there. But the wise person knows how to exercise restraint. This word recurs elsewhere in the book of Proverbs. Here are a couple examples:

“Whoever restrains his words has knowledge, and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding.” (Proverbs 17:27)

When we get heated, our words grow more and more numerous while becoming less and less clear.

“When words are many, transgression is not lacking, but whoever restrains his lips is prudent.” (Proverbs 10:19)

Here is a way to pray when we get heated: ‘Lord, help me think before I speak.’ This is a mark of a righteous person. We all know less is often more when it comes to our words.

“Do you see a man who is hasty in his words? There is more hope for a fool than for him.” (Proverbs 29:20)

Someone once said that when she was a student she became engaged, and looking back, she now sees that if she had married this man, it would have been a disaster. But while she did not see that at the time, her father did. One night her father came into her room and said, “Honey, just be sure that everything you see in him is what you want to live with for the rest of your life.” Then he said, “I love you,” and left. By the end of the week his daughter had ended the relationship, and sometime later she met the man to whom she has been happily married for many years.

Many fathers would have been tempted to pour out a great speech that went on and on, but this father had wisdom. Whoever retrains his words has knowledge, and whoever retrains his lips is prudent.

“Lord, help me to speak with restraint”. This is wisdom.

• Lord, help me to speak with humility

“Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; a stranger, and not your own lips.” (Proverbs 27:2)

In Luke 18 Jesus told a story about a Pharisee who went into the temple, but when he spoke to God, all he did was sing his own praises.

Don’t ever sing your own praises. Making a great deal of all that you have done, and all that you have accomplished, and all that you are. Let another praise you.

Lord, help me speak with humility.

• Lord, help me to speak with wisdom

“To make an apt answer is a joy to a man, and a word in season, how good it is!” (Proverbs 15:23)

“A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver.” (Proverbs 25:11)

The right word, spoken at the right time and in the right way has great power. The right word spoken in the right way at the right time is something beautiful and of great value. It is like a work of art.

Here a craftsman has depicted apples of gold, and he has placed the gold in settings of silver. What makes this a work of art is that the gold is surrounded by the silver. It is the two together that makes this the work of art that it is. If you cut out the silver setting, the gold apples would look bare, and if you cut out the gold apples, the silver setting would look like craters on the moon!

The point of this analogy is that the apples of gold and the setting of silver belong together. The fact that they are together is what makes them beautiful.

In the same way, what you say and how you say it belong together. These things together, the right words fitly spoken, are of great power and beauty. What you say may be right, but if the way you say it is harsh, it will do no good. But the right word, spoken at the right time and in the right way is a thing of great beauty.

Lord, let me speak with this kind of wisdom.

• Lord, help me to speak with grace

“Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body.” (Proverbs 16:24)

“A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” (Proverbs 15:1)

“And a gentle tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit.” (Proverbs 15:4)

“The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the LORD, but gracious words are pure” (Proverbs 15:26)

Don’t ever fall for the idea that soft, gentle, or gracious means ‘weak’.

“With patience a ruler may be persuaded, and a soft tongue will break a bone.” (Proverbs 25:15)

Try to take this in: a soft tongue, a gentle tongue, a gracious tongue, is stronger than bone! Gracious kind and gentle words are not weak, they are powerful. These words are very strong, and the reality is that venting has little effect. You can rage, but little will be achieved. Man’s anger does not accomplish God’s will, but grace does! Grace can change a heart of stone.

Just think about your own life. Believer, how did God change your heart of stone? Was it not His grace that won you? Was it not His kindness, was it not the glimpse of his love for you, that drew you to Him? God’s kindness leads us to repentance (Romans 2:4). You want to lead someone to repentance, show them kindness!

Saul of Tarsus, a man as hard as nail, breathed out threats and slaughter. His heart was like stone, but his heart was changed. How?

“By the grace of God, I am what I am, and His grace towards me was not in vain.” (1 Corinthians 15:10)

David says to the Lord, “Your gentleness has made me great” (Psalm 18:35). It is the gentleness of God that has made you what you are. It was the patience and kindness of God that led you to repentance, and since you know that from your own experience, let this be reflective of in your own words and the demeanour that you have in your own life.

“Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.” (Colossians 4:6)

Lord, help me to speak with restraint, humility, wisdom and grace.

This is the ‘why’ and the ‘what;’ now the ‘how.’ How can you do this? How can you be a person who speaks words of life to other people, and how can I bring blessings into the lives of others?

How your words can be blessed

An open ear

• Listening to the words of others

“If one gives an answer before he hears, it is his folly and shame.” (Proverbs 18:13)

If you want to bring blessing to others, you have to listen to them before you speak. We all have done this where we have given an answer before having heard the question.

“Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger;” (James 1:19)

The open ear means not only that we are cultivating the ability to listen to the words of others, but also that we are practicing what it means to listen to the Word of God.

• Listening to the Word of God

“Incline your ear, and hear the words of the wise, and apply your heart to my knowledge, for it will be pleasant if you keep them within you if all of them are ready on your lips.” (Proverbs 22:17-18)

These two verses both begin with the ear and end with the lips. Having wisdom on your lips begins with opening your ears.

Now, ‘the words of the wise’ referred to here by Solomon are the very words of Scripture, of which the whole of the book of Proverbs is part. Solomon is telling his son, ‘Here is how you get wisdom: You get wisdom drip-fed into you as you listen to the Word of God.’

The way to a wise tongue begins with an open ear. This is taken up very beautifully by Isaiah who spoke prophetically about the Lord Jesus Christ:

“The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught. The Lord GOD has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not backward.” (Isaiah 50:4-5)

Wouldn’t you love to know how to sustain with a word the person who is weary, to be able to say what is helpful to the person who is weighed down?

How did Isaiah get this gift? Isaiah says, “God wakens me and opens my ear”. The prophet had a morning-by-morning appointment with God, a daily discipline of hearing the word of God and hiding it in his heart, and this is what made him able to speak a word that would sustain the weary.

Alec Motyer very rightly and helpfully says, ‘the morning by morning appointment is standard curriculum for all disciples.’

A Pure Heart

“The heart of the wise makes his speech judicious and adds persuasiveness to his lips.” (Proverbs 16:23)

The heart of a righteous person makes his speech what it is. The words we speak always reveal the state of our hearts: An anxious heart produces anxious words; an angry heart produces angry words; a grace-filled heart produces grace-filled words, and a patient heart produced patient words.

Jesus says, “For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34). James tells us that no human being can tame the tongue (James 3:8), and the reason is that no human being can change the human heart. Only God can do that. God changes the tongue by changing the heart, and that is why David said,

“Create in me a clean heart, O God and renew a right spirit within me.” (Psalm 51:10)

Notice the pattern: The ear teaches the heart (Proverbs 22:17; Isaiah 50:4), and the heart teaches the mouth (Proverbs 16:23).

A Cleansed Mouth

When Isaiah saw a vision of God, he found himself overwhelmed by the sheer brightness and purity of God’s holiness. He felt his own sin as he had never felt it before, and he said, ‘I am ruined’. The sins he was most aware of was his sins of speech.

“And I said: ‘Woe is me! For I am lost, I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.” (Isaiah 6:5)

Isaiah was a prophet. He spoke the Word of God, and thus they were the organ of his public ministry. His ability to speak well was his greatest gift. But Isaiah discovered that sin hides not only in our darkest failures; it also clings to our greatest gifts.

So, Isaiah knew that if sin inhabits even my greatest gifts, ‘I am ruined!’ But do you remember what happened next? An angel picked up a burning coal from the fire on altar of God, and then flew over to Isaiah and pressed the coal from the altar onto Isaiah’s lips!

Remember at school, if a boy used bad language, he sent to the restroom to wash out his mouth out with soup. Whether it ever acted as a deterrent, I don’t know, but I do know this: Soap can’t cleanse a man or a woman’s mouth, but Jesus can. When Jesus died on the altar of the cross, He died for all of our sins, including the sins of our lips.

In Isaiah’s vision, God’s provision for sin touched Isaiah at precisely the place that he needed it most, and then God called Isaiah to go out and speak.

“See this has touched your lips. Your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.” (Isaiah 6:7)

What Jesus accomplished on the cross for sin, can bring cleansing to your lips too. The open ear changes the heart, and through faith in Jesus Christ there is a cleansing of the mouth.

When you have an open ear, then by God’s grace you too may be able to go and speak, and the words that we speak will not fall on deaf ears, but will be words that bring life!

Let us pray:

Father in heaven, as we have opened our ears to your words, the great desire of our hearts is that our lips should be brought under your control. Forgive us our many sins of speech and touch our lips with the cleansing power of our Lord Jesus Christ. Purify our hearts that we may speak with restrained, with humility, with wisdom and with grace, so as to honor You and to bring blessing to others. In Jesus Christ Name we pray, Amen.

05 August 2020

Ps Ben Hooman

We are in the Wisdom Series and on Sunday we looked at wisdom within the family. The way of wisdom is the way of Jesus and the way of Jesus is wisdom. To follow Jesus is to follow Jesus wholeheartedly.

And tonight, we will continue in the application of wisdom within the family. We need to understand that there is an alignment needed within the family context when serving the Lord.

Please open your Bible at Deuteronomy chapter six. Let us hear the Word of God by looking at the great commandment that follows the ten commandments in chapter five.

Deuteronomy 6:1-9, 20-25.

Looking at these verses, we see that these are words spoken to God’s own people, a people that He has redeemed, a people that God brought out of slavery in Egypt, a people that God Himself made a covenant with.

This is of huge importance for the ten commandments were never given as a ladder for unsaved people to somehow get nearer to God. The commandments are a way of life that are particularly given to God’s redeemed. And in essence the book of Deuteronomy is an explanation and application of the ten commandments given in chapter five.

The first commandment says you shall have no other gods before God,

“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before Me.” (Deuteronomy 5:6-7)

What does that mean? How does that look like to have no other gods before the Lord? The answer to that is in the next chapter of Deuteronomy. Here is how it look like to have no other gods before God,

“Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” (Deuteronomy 6:5)

Here it says positively what the first commandment says negatively. That is why Jesus says that this is the first commandment within the new covenant that we are in as the redeemed of Christ.

In the gospel of Mark, we read of a certain teacher of the law asking Jesus which one of the commandments is the greatest, and Jesus answered,

“Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” (Mark 12:30)

Here is what we are called to as the redeemed people of God:

Loving God with all your heart means that you love with all of your affections, with all the workings of your mind, and all the strength of your will.

Loving God with all of your soul means you love Him with all of your vitality, with all of your energy, with all of your capacity, with all of your ability, and with all your gifts all the years of your life.

And loving Him with all of your strength means you love Him out of all of your substance, nothing that would hold you back from laying everything on the altar of sacrifice before the Lord.

So, love the Lord your God with all of your heart, and soul and mind. This is the life, a life separated to God which, as a redeemed in Christ, you are called to.

But here is the question and it comes straight of the description in Deuteronomy of what it means to live this life devoted to the Lord: If I love Christ like this, what will be the impact on my family? If I really stretch myself all out in serving Jesus Christ, will it hurt my children? What will the effect be on them? These are very real questions. Every parent faces these questions. You love the Lord, you want to serve Him, and you want your life to count for Him.

Some of you already have children and many more of you will have children in the future, and you will feel this tension. You love your children; you want to be a good mother, a good father, but the question is: What does it look like to love God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength when you are married and you have children?

As soon as Moses give the call to this first commandment, he immediately goes on to speak about the impact of that on the family. And this is the impact and the challenges I want to bring to you tonight. We want to see from the Word of God that if you chose to stretch yourself out throughout the course of your years, to love God with all your heart and soul and strength, and to extend yourself for whatever it takes to give yourself to Him, far is it from destroying your family!

The promise of God is that your family will be blessed by it. To put it in one sentence: The best way to serve your family is to live for the Lord. Any other choice will ultimately have a negative and destructive effect on the people that God has entrusted to you.

The principle is a very simple one to grasp: Love the Lord first and your family will be blessed, love your family first and your family will suffer.

Let us see this in the Word of God. Turn with me to Deuteronomy chapter one. Remember in this book Moses speaks to a new generation of God’s people who are now on the verge of entering the promised land. Forty years before this God commanded the parents of this generation to enter the land. They then sent out spies that reported back that the land was good, but then they said that there are giants in that land that are much taller than them, and that the cities were large and fortified.

Parents standing in front of their promise from God of a new free life in the promised land. But when they heard from the spies, it alarmed them greatly and they were unwilling to enter the land. They disobeyed the command of the Lord. Even after Moses told them that God will go before them and fight for them, that He will carry them as a father carry his children, but they refused and spent the next forty years in the desert.

Now why did the parents then made that decision? Why did they refuse to go up into Canaan? There must have been many factors but we get a fascinated insight in what was going on in their minds. Here is why,

“And the little ones that you said will be taken captive, your children who do not yet know good from bad – they will enter the land. I will give it to them and they will take possession of it. But as for you, turn around and set out towards the desert along the route to the Red Sea.” (Deuteronomy 1:39-40)

What happened? The spies came back saying that there are giants in the land and the parents decide that it is to great a risk to enter the land. “We have little children and we have to think what is best for them. We have to put our children first. If we go into the land, some of our little children could be taken captive, and the risk is just to high. We cannot do what God says”.

That is what they said, and in a way, we might understand their thinking, but we have to follow the story for further instruction. They put the children first and what was the result? Children they tried to protect, spent forty years, the largest portion of their lives in the desert. The parents walking away from the blessing and promises in disobedience to God and that is the reason for their children growing up in a desert, growing up in a dry place and they knew nothing better. If their parents had been faithful, they would have grown up in the promised land!

The parents put their children first and it was devastating for them. It meant that their experience of life was that of a wilderness due to the decision of their parents by not putting God first.

As the new generation comes to the edge of Jordan, at the verge of entering the promised land, I want to bring the challenge of this to you tonight. Let me bring it to you in three ways:

• Don’t live for your spouse or for your family.

I believe I now have everyone’s attention by saying this.

Moses is with the new generation, the ones of whom most have been born in the desert and raised up to in the wilderness, and now even have their own little children around them. They also now have to decide how they going to live their lives.

This is the whole point of the book of Deuteronomy. It is actually one sermon of a massive presentation Moses is making to them.

Take this challenge from these Scriptures tonight: Don’t live for your spouse or for your children. Putting your children first is the worst thing you can do to them.

The same is true of marriage. Wives, do not desire to be put first in your husband’s life. Desire that Christ will be first in your husband’s life. If he loves Christ with all his heart, all his mind, and all his strength, he will love you well. But if you become first in his life, then you have taken the place of God and taking the place of God causes a burden that you cannot bear. You can only fail and you can only disappoint and it will not be good for your marriage.

Husbands, by all means go and buy a card that says: I love you! But do not buy a card that says: I live for you. That is idolatry and you don’t want to make of yourself an idolater. You place a burden on your spouse that she cannot possibly bear. Only God can be god to you. Your wife can never have that capacity.

This is also true of children. The first commandment is clear; ‘you shall have no other gods before God’. That includes the children, those little gods. That is what Christ says; anyone who loves his son or his daughter more that Him, is not worthy of Him.

“Anyone who loves his father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me; and anyone who does not his cross and follow Me is not worthy of me.” (Matthew 10:37-38)

Why is our Lord saying that? Jesus is referring to the first commandment. If we allow our children to have the very first place, the first claim, we make of them an idol and we teach our children to worship themselves. That is what satan tried to get Adam and Eve to do in the garden of Eden, “you will be like God” (Genesis 3:4), be your own god.

This is why it is so important for us to be clear about these things. Live for your family, and you will lead your family into the desert with huge spiritual consequences. Live for the Lord and you will point your family to the promised land. When God says to us to be holy, it means to be set apart for Him. So, the first challenge tonight we can frame like this: Don’t live for your spouse and for your family, for you will do terrible harm apart from the idolatry that is involved.

The second challenge, the first was negative, this one positive, and here is what we have to do:

• Align your life around one holy passion for the Lord

Picture this dramatic scene: It is forty years on and after all these years in the desert, after the parents tried to protect their children, the children themselves raised and with most of their parents now dead, they now have their own little children gathered around them. And Moses says to them,

“Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” (Deuteronomy 6:5)

Moses is saying by implication, “Your parents did not do that by putting you first. You have seen what that did to them and you have experienced what it has done to you. Here you are standing at the same place. You must now choose who is first in your life”.

And here redeemed people of God, is what Moses is saying to us, “I am calling you today! Love the LORD your God with all you are so it be well with you and with your children!”

“If you seek the LORD your God, you will find Him if you look for Him with all your heart and with all your soul” (Deuteronomy 5:29)

The positive call here is to align ourselves around one holy passion for the Lord. Why am I using the word ‘align’ here? Aligning is not prioritising. We hear so often in discussion about life, and ministry, and service, the language of prioritising and never find it particularly helpful.

Sometimes people say, “Well, you must put God first, family second, and ministry third”. We all have heard this and you will hear it many times in the future.  But how in the world you going to separate loving God from serving God! Loving God is seeing in obeying His commands and a life of service in His Name. Christ is claiming a whole of your life and not a part of it. The language of prioritising is therefore not very helpful.

Then there is another kind of language that helps even less, and that is the language of balance. Where ever people talk about balance, they mostly trying to do good in saying: “Well, when the issue comes up in loving God and loving your family, you got to keep a balance. You got to have time for this or that, so keep a balance”.

It sounds awfully good, but I find it not very helpful. Here is why: If loving the Lord, and loving or serving your family, need to be kept in balance, it means that the two become separated. They are like two pans of the scale where the word balance is used. We got to then weigh the one against the other and keep a balance.

I don’t want family to be weighing against the Lord. No, I want my family to be weigh for the Lord! This is what Joshua understood when he said,

“But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, … But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” (Joshua24:15)

That is not the language of balance but of alignment. Understanding this will help us in life and in ministry, and what it means to lay all on the altar of God. We are not trying to keep a balance but to achieve an alignment.

Moses tells us how to do that. He says that if you going to have a life and a family that is aligned around one consuming passion for the Lord, it begins in the heart.

“These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.” (Deuteronomy 6:6)

Loving God is the fountain of this holy life. The love of Christ flow from the knowledge of Christ. It begins there, my heart beats for God as a father or a mother apart from anything else we do.

But then it is not to be only in your heart, but also in your conversations.

“Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” (Deuteronomy 6:7)

This is a family conversation. Don’t let your love for the Lord, your work for the Lord, be some kind of private thing. Talk about it openly with your family. Open your heart to those God has placed around you and let them see and grow up in the passion for the Lord that drives your whole life.

Moses is not speaking about the ten commandments in general but about the first commandment in particular. What he is saying is that the whole of family life is an expression of this one consuming passion of loving the Lord that works its way into everything. It is the fabric of family life because it is the very nature of a father and of a mother.

“Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.” (Deuteronomy 6:8)

Hands are the means of action. This is one consuming passion you align your life around, not only remaining in your heart, not only expressed in your conversations, but let it also be seen in what you do; the actual practices, commitments, priorities, and choices in your life. You want to align a family around a single passion. Step out not only in what you say but also in what you do.

“Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.” (Deuteronomy 6:9)

Bring your children into this great holy passion. Help them to feel part of it. Help them to participate in it.

Young people, allow this message to paint a vision of what a holy life, a holy family life, a married life with children can look like. Don’t ever lose the opportunity to bring your children up in the ways of the Lord, aligning their whole life in the love for God.

Parents, religion will let your children rebel against God. It is not about the works but your first love, your love for Christ as you align everything around one holy passion for the Lord. It is about the love for Christ, the first commandment of loving God with all you are. Impress that on your children and they will not hate what you do, but love who you are in Christ.

Young people, if you hope to be married, the time for you to shape this vision is now. The person you are looking for is someone who will share this vision with you.

Some of you are married and you are trying to figure out how you can best serve the Lord; grasp this and hide it in your heart. If God give you the gift of children, it is not with a view of serving Him less.

Remember the parents who said they cannot follow God’s calling because of the children? They were the ones who led their children into the desert. But the one that said, ‘For me and my children will serve and obey the Lord’, entered into the promised land.

So, don’t live for your spouse and for your family for it is idolatry. Positively align your life around one holy passion for the Lord. And here is the third and last challenge:

• Give gospel-centred answers to the questions raised by your life

As you live for one holy passion for the Lord, your life will provoke all kinds of questions, especially by your children.

“In the future, when your son asks you, ‘What is the meaning of the stipulations, decrees and laws of the Lord our God has commanded you?” (Deuteronomy 6:20)

Here he is asking for an explanation, “Dad, why do we live like this? Other families don’t live like this. Why are we living like this?”

“But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. …” (1 Peter 3:15)

If you set your life apart for God, it will provoke questions. That is why Peter says to be always ready to give an answer from the hope that is within you. A holy life always produces questions and that is wonderful. When the questions come give gospel-centred answers.

Christopher Wright in his commentary on Deuteronomy says it would be easy to jump from verse twenty to verse twenty-four in chapter six. The question in verse twenty is: Why do we keep these laws? The answer is in verse twenty-four,

“The Lord commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear the LORD our God, so that we must always prosper and be kept alive, as is the case today.” (Deuteronomy 6:24)

But what is between these two verses? Before we get to the Lord who commanded us in verse twenty-four as His redeemed people, we have the Lord who deliver us!

“Tell him: ‘We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Before our eyes the Lord sent miraculous signs and wonders – great and terrible – upon Egypt and Pharaoh and his whole household. But He brought us out of there to bring us in and give us the land that He promised on oath to our forefathers.” (Deuteronomy 6:21-23)

Why do we pursue a holy life? Here are the answers you give: Son, we were slaves in Egypt and the Lord delivered us with a mighty hand!

That is gospel, that is redemption right here. “Son, if it was not for the Lord, I would have been a slave of the world, but He brought me into His inheritance, into His promised land, into the kingdom of God. His redeeming love is the reason why I have an aligned life around this one holy passion for the Lord”.

We desperately and confidently need to be able to communicate this gospel as an answer to the questions that will arise from the family. We got to be able to say that we once were all slaves of sin from which every person needs to be delivered. Jesus Christ brought us out and He delivered and redeemed us. Everyone needs the Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ.

We are living in an affirming culture that give us the idea that the best thing we can do for our children is to constantly tell them how great they are. But here is the problem and I consider my words carefully: that is the most damning thing you could ever tell your children because if nothing in your children is broken, what then is the need to be redeemed? How will they ever see the need for a Redeemer?

You may say that I am suggesting that you start telling your children that they are little sinners. No, I want you to start telling them that we as parents are big sinners. You need Christ and I need Christ. We need Christ much tonight for apart from Christ there is no good in us and there is no hope for us.

Let us help our children to understand the mystery of sin that is in them. And whatever you do, please do not harden their hearts by drip-feeding them the false gospel of self-esteem. Also don’t end there but tell them we were slaves in Egypt.

How will anyone come and take a seriousness in Christ who claims everything and said: Take up your cross and follow Me! How will anyone be interested in Christ if they have not come seriously to deal with the devastating condition sin brings to every person born into this world.

When that is established, tell them something else, and that is that the Lord has brought us out with a mighty hand! When your son, your daughter, ask you why you live like this, why you pursue Christ with one holy passion for Him, the answer is the gospel.

Once a slave, but God’s redeeming power brings you out of the desert, out of the wilderness, into all the promises and into His kingdom. It is more than just a moral code to live by. It is a call to a new life that is aligned along this single passion for the Lord. Tell them what the Lord means to you, and tell them in New Testament terms that the Son of God loves us and has given Himself for us.

Don’t live for your spouse or for your family, but rather align your life around the holy passion for the Lord.

Give gospel-centred answers to questions that are raised in your life.

Tell your children that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and that is why you love Him with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength.

Your children will be a generation that will want to enter the promised land and live a life for the Lord in an extraordinary way. I am saying to you tonight from the Word of God that if you do that, your children will be blessed!

Let us pray:

Father help us through the Holy Spirit to so live this life as is described in Your Word. We want to do this for the sake and the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ in whose Name we pray, Amen.

Sunday 02 August 2020

Ps Ben Hooman

We are continuing our series ‘Wisdom’, wisdom in doing life here and now. We are looking at this book of Proverbs that is a collection of wise sayings that reflect the normal pattern that prevails in this world.

Please open your Bible at the book of Proverbs 3:1-18.

We come to this book knowing that Christ is our wisdom. So, the way of wisdom is the way of Jesus. And the way of Jesus is the way of wisdom, and to follow Jesus is to follow wisdom. Accordingly, Proverbs maps out the life of a disciple, of one who follows Jesus Christ, our Lord. To walk in the way of wisdom is to walk in the way of Jesus.

Proverbs gives us wisdom for the whole of life. We are looking at five themes in the book of Proverbs. Last week, we looked at friends, and today we look at family.

Proverbs gives us wisdom for husbands and wives, parents and children, brothers and sisters, so there is something here for all of us today.

Wisdom for brothers and sisters

Close relationships are vulnerable to deep wounds.

“A brother offended is more unyielding than a strong city, and quarrelling is like the bars of a castle.” (Proverbs 18:19)

If I were to ask how many of us have a strained relationship with a brother or sister, I think it would be many. If you have siblings, how do you get on with your brother? How do you get on with your sister?

If you have a good relationship with your brother or sister, cherish it and guard it, because Proverbs reminds us that close relationships are vulnerable to deep wounds that don’t heal easily. “A brother offended is more unyielding than a strong city,” (Proverbs 18:19).

You see this in the Bible. The first children born into the world were two boys, Cain and Abel. One was jealous of the other and in the end killed him. Then you have Jacob and Esau and Joseph and his brothers.

In the gospels, two brothers came to Jesus because they were quarrelling over an inheritance,

“Someone in the crowd said to Him, ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” (Luke 12:13)

And we are told that the family of Jesus, that is his brothers and sisters, said that He was out of His mind,

“Then He went home, and the crowd gathered again, so that they could not even eat. And when His family heard it, they went out to seize Him, for they were saying, ‘He is out of His mind.” (Mark 3:21)

Mark chapter six give the names of the four brothers and unnamed sisters of Jesus,

“Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not His sisters here with us?” (Mark 6:3)

“So, if the jealousy of a brother or sister is a trial in your life, Jesus has been there. He knows what this is like. “A brother offended is more unyielding than a strong city, and quarrelling is like the bars of a castle.” (Proverbs 18:19)

Quarrelling is like the bars of a castle. In other words, when quarrelling breaks out, it locks you and another person in. It is as if both of you are locked behind the bars of a castle. It’s a very vivid picture. You just can’t get out! The closer the relationship, the stronger the bars can be when quarrelling breaks out.

Here’s why: When a close relationship breaks down, the offended brother will say, ‘well if something that seemed so good proved that hollow, what is the point of trying to restore it?

Close relationships are vulnerable to deep wounds that don’t heal easily, so handle them with special care. Another Proverb says,

“The beginning of strife is like letting out water, so quit before the quarrel breaks out.” (Proverbs 17:14)

Wisdom for Husbands and Wives

Your spouse is a gift from the Lord. Someone might question this, but your spouse is from the Lord.

“He who find a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord” (Proverbs 18:22)

These are the words of Solomon to his son Rehoboam, and this wise father commends marriage to his son as a good thing. Marriage is a good gift from the Lord.

We live in a culture that flaunts ‘freedom’. So, we hear things like, “Who wants to be tied down?” ‘Live your life a you want to, it is all about you”. Does that sound familiar of the world we live in?

The Bible has a very different view of marriage, a much higher view of marriage. Solomon says to his son, “An excellent wife is the crown of her husband,” (Proverbs 12:4). The book of Proverbs ends with a poem in praise of a good wife:

“Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all.” (Proverbs 31:29)

Notice that the wise husband appreciates his wife. He tells her where she excels. Ray Ortlund, who has an excellent book on Proverbs, points out that when the word ‘husband’ is used as a verb, it means ‘to cultivate.’ When we talk about ‘husbandry’ we are talking about care and cultivation.

If God has trusted you with the gift of a wife, your job as a husband is to create the conditions and the atmosphere in which she can flourish. That’s what it means to be a husband.  “Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her,” (Ephesians 5:25)

In our core chapter in Proverbs, it says:

“Let love and faithfulness never leave you; Bind them around your neck; Write them on the tablet of your heart so you will win favor and good success in the sight of God and man.” (Proverbs 3:3-4)

So, there is wisdom for brothers and sisters, and wisdom for husbands and wives, but the largest number of Proverbs relating to family life, are addressed to parents and to children.

Wisdom for Children

• Always seek to bring joy to your parents

“A wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish son is a sorrow to his mother” (Proverbs 10:1)

“Let your father and mother be glad; let her who bore you rejoice.” (Proverbs 23:25)

This is an application of the fifth commandment to honour your father and mother. The word honour means ‘give weight to’ or ‘regard as heavy.’ So, to honour your father and mother means to give weight to what they say. Or, if they are in particular need, it is to give weight to their need.

So, I’m glad to have the opportunity to say to younger folks in the congregation and those connecting with us today that if your mother tells you to do something, and you don’t want to do it, say to yourself, ‘the person who told me to do this is my mother!” You have to give weight to the word of you father and mother.

If there is a time to look on your father as if you despise him, or to defy your mother, here is a Proverb for you:

“The eye that mocks a father and scorns to obey a mother will be picked out by the ravens of the valley and eaten by the vultures” (Proverbs 30:17)

I think that means don’t ever mock or dishonour your father. Don’t ever refuse to obey your mother! Always seek to bring joy to you mother and your father.

• Always be willing to learn

“Whoever ignores instruction despises himself, but he who listens to reproof gains intelligence” (Proverbs 15:32)

“A wise son hears his father’s instruction, but a scoffer does not listen to rebuke” (Proverbs 13:1)

When you are young, you can easily feel that you know it all. The Word is speaking to teenagers! You don’t need to grow much older before you realize that you don’t know as much as you thought you did.

Mark Twain said something to the effect of, “When I was 14, I thought my father knew nothing. But by the time I was 21, I was amazed how much he had learned in 7 years!”

We read earlier, “Do not be wise in your own eyes,” (Proverbs 3:7). That theme is repeated throughout Proverbs.

“Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.” (Proverbs 26:12)

Solomon was a teacher of wisdom, and as a teacher, he knew that there are some students who learn and others who don’t. Solomon’s observation from his teaching experience is that the people who don’t learn are the ones who think they are wise already. They are ‘wise in their own eyes.’ They think they have all that they need.

Solomon says, there is more hope for a fool than for the person who is wise in his own eyes. Why is there more hope for a fool? Because the fool knows that he needs to learn. And the first lesson in the school of wisdom is that we all need to learn.

This is why the Bible says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Wisdom begins when I see that I don’t have it, and I need to receive it from the Lord through His Word.

The greatest barrier to gaining wisdom is the conviction that you have it already. We see this consistently. “Thinking themselves wise, they became fools” (Romans 1:22). “If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise,” (1 Corinthians 3:18).

Recognize that you need to learn, and listen to those God has placed around you, starting with your parents.

Wisdom for Parents

• You have more influence than you may think

“Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old, he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22:6)

Remember that the Proverbs are proverbs and they are not promises. Proverbs are wise sayings that describe the normal pattern that prevails in this world. This Proverb describes a normal pattern; it does not promise a particular outcome.

But when all of that has been said, Proverbs is making a stunning statement: Your influence in the lives of your children goes deeper than you may think! It will still be with them, even when they are old!

I think this is particularly important for parents who may feel discouraged. There may be times when it seems that your children are not listening. There may be times when you wonder, ‘Does anything I say ever go in?’ More goes in that you see, and more will remain than you think!

Let me give you an illustration of this. The thief on the cross lived his life in open rebellion against God. He was a thief, and from the penalty he suffered, he was most likely a violent one at that. This man was a robber. He is the kind of man who would assault a traveller on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho and leave him bleeding and wounded in the road.

Here is a man who has no place for God in his life, and yet in his last hours, he says to his companion, who was also a thief, “Do you not fear God?” (Luke 23:40).

Where did that come from? Some awareness that there is a God to whom we must give an account had been planted in his soul, but the truth was suppressed. Yet even after years of rebellion, the conviction remained!

So, if you have a rebellious son or daughter, do not despair. The living seed of the Word of God has been planted. Who knows what God may yet do with it? You have more influence than you may think. So be encouraged by this Proverb.

• Your children need restraint as well as affirmation

“Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him.” (Proverbs 22:15)

Our secular world has largely bought into the idea that if you follow the impulses of your own heart, they will lead you to life. But Proverbs says not so fast! There’s a problem with that. Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child so if you follow every impulse of your heart, your heart will lead you to destruction.

Parents who believe that everything in their child’s heart is good, will focus their entire effort on affirming and encouraging their child, bringing out what’s there, because all that’s there is good.

But parents who believe that foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child, and that sin is deeply rooted in the human heart, will focus, not only on affirmation and encouragement, but also on restraint.

Proverbs speaks repeatedly about the rod:

“The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother.” (Proverbs 29:15)

Is the Bible telling us to beat our children with sticks? Answer: No! That may be the way that these verses have been interpreted in past centuries, but I think there is a better way to understand this.

The best-known reference to the rod in the Bible is in Psalm 23,

“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; Your rod and Your staff comfort me.” (Psalm 23:4)

Why would David say that the rod was a comfort to him? The answer is that the shepherd did not use the rod to beat the sheep. He used the rod to fend off the wild animals that might attack the sheep. The shepherd carried the rod to fend off the wolf and the sheep had the comfort of knowing that they would not be left at the mercy of enemies that would destroy them.

Foolishness is bound up in the heart of your children. You will bring your children great comfort if they know that you will not allow them to follow the destructive impulses that assail their hearts.

A ‘child left to himself’ is in a very scary place. Your little girl or your little boy will find impulses of pride, selfishness, anger, laziness and much else bound up in their own hearts. They need to be restrained by rebuke, by incurring some loss, or by bringing some penalty to bear. And with that restraint you will bring comfort.

Don’t expect your children to say, “Your restraint comforts me”, but without it, they would be in a scary place.

• Never underestimate the power of example

“My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments.” (Proverbs 3:1-2)

“My son, keep my words and treasure up my commandments with you; keep my commandments and live.” (Proverbs 7:1-2)

Now the only commands that are life-giving are the words and commands of God. But here is a father who has made God’s words his own. Notice how he says, “My teaching. My words. My commandments” He has made God’s words, God’s teaching, and God’s commandments his own. What he commends to his son is what he pursues himself. That is the power of example.

You know that I don’t often speak in regard to my own experience in ministering. But in regard to the power of example, I want to share this with you.

At age nineteen and after a few months of a great relationship with my father, he passed away to be with the Lord at age forty-seven. My father was a hard-working man, a great farmer, an elder in the church, giving us of the best he could within his means. But what we needed most as children, he lacked.

My father grew up in an orphanage all his years at school. During the war, his mother thought it best to send the three younger children to a children’s home whilst the elder three can assist at home. At the age of twelve my father found himself at a children’s home with a responsibility over his two younger sisters.

A father never experience love within a family context, ending up to find it difficult to express love and affection towards his own children. Most probably made inner vows that he will never lack or let his family lack in material things. The result is to work hard, to chase after success, to do the best he can within his ability.

Looking back at all the years before salvation, I see the things I pursued – hard working, success in the workplace, giving my children what I thought they need. Thank God for a Damascus encounter that changed my life forever.

But what I want to come to is that the window of opportunity to bring my children up in the ways of the Lord had passed. Today they are all successful in what they do, following in the way they have been brought up. They also look back and call to remembrance the lack of love and a fatherless childhood.

Why do I share this to you as parents? So that you do not miss the opportunities to bring up your children in the way of the Lord, to express the love and affection of the Lord to your children. Don’t look back one day and see all the wasted opportunities given to you by God to love your children well. Know that they don’t want your things, but they want you. Don’t bring them up to chase after things, but by example let them see Christ in and through you, for in that lies their future. Teach them to first seek the kingdom of God and all these things will be added to them.

If you are a parent, a great motivation for living a godly life is to give your children a credible example to follow. You will be able to say, “God’s words are the words I believe. God’s way is the way that I follow.”

How are you going to do that? The way to walk in obedience is to walk by faith, not seeking after the flesh but after the Spirit of God. Solomon says, to his son,

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5)

The only way to walk in obedience is to walk by faith. You can’t say that to your children unless you are doing it yourself. So, I want to say to parents today. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, especially when it comes to your children!

Wise counsel came from a man who never had the joy of being a father. William Still was a Scottish pastor who remained single throughout his life. This was his counsel to parents: “Bring your children up in faith, not fear. Trust God in regard to your children. You fear what sin can do to them. Trust what God can do in them. You fear the pressures of the world, the schools, the media and the culture. Trust what God can do through His Spirit and His Word. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Give your children reason to think, “My father and mother trust God, even when it comes to me!”

Let’s turn to God in prayer. I want you to think about the important relationships in your life. Think about your brothers and sisters if you have them. Ask God to help you in these relationships.

To show the love of Christ to your brother or your sister. If there are “bars of a castle” in your heart, ask God to take them down. If there are bars in your sister or your brother’s heart, ask God to help you do what you can to make things better.

I want you to think about your father and mother. Thank God for them. If they are still living, ask God to help you honour them by giving weight to their words and to their needs.

If you are married, I want you to think about your husband or wife. Thank God for giving that person to you and resolve with the help of God to do all in your power to help them flourish.

If you have children, trust them into the hand of God. Ask the Lord to help you bring them up in faith not fear. If they are far from God, ask Him to bring them back.

Let us pray:

Father hear our prayers and strengthen our resolve. Cover our many sins and failures with Your grace and pour out your blessing on our families for Christ’s sake, Amen.

Wednesday 29 July 2020

Ps Ben Hooman

We are in the Wisdom Series and I wanted us tonight to look at the application of friendship. But we first need to understand how we see ourselves and others in the love of Christ here and now. How do we regard Christ, ourselves and others? If we understand this, it will be an application in friendship.

“From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard Him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”  (2 Corinthians 5:16-17)

The keys words here are according to the flesh. What does it mean to regard someone according to the flesh? To regard someone according to the flesh is to form an impression from the most obvious or surface things about them.

The Bible says “Man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). Remember that wisdom comes from the Lord. Jesus is wisdom, and wisdom is in Jesus. That is the difference from worldly wisdom. God looks at the heart, looking inside. It is natural for us to form impressions from the most obvious things about other people as man looks on the outward appearance. Now we also want to know the heart, but that takes time and you can only do that with a few people.

Ten Factors that distinguish us ‘According to the Flesh’

We need to grasp these in order to understand the radical transformation that comes from knowing Jesus Christ. All of them are sensitive. Most of our problems, and most of our conflicts arise from what we are ‘in the flesh.’

Appearance

This is often the first way we identify people in ordinary conversation.  Let us look at an example: My wife will say, “I spoke to Mary this morning.” I would ask, “Who is she?” the answer I get, “The tall lady, with dark curly hair, skinny and she always wears a green coat!” That’s a description of how she appears. According to the flesh you are a certain height and a certain weight. You have your own style and your own level of fitness.

All of us have thoughts about our own appearance, what we like or don’t like about it, and how it compares with the appearance of others.

Ability

Here we are thinking about the gifts, talents, and abilities that each of us has. We are gifted in different ways and to different degrees – in sports, in the arts, and in music, etc. Our abilities in different areas are part of what we are according to the flesh.

I went to school at the age of five. So, for me, high school began at age 12. In the school I attended, for which I will always be grateful, we were divided right from the beginning according to our ability. There were classes or streams in every grade. For some reason I ended up in class ‘B” in standards nine and ten having to compete with others much more intelligent than I was. Most clearly because of my choice of subjects, but challenged my ability. Clearly the classes at that time was streamed with University exemption subjects at higher grade starting with A, B, C going down alphabetically. Nowadays it starts most probably with X going upwards.

How many of you have memories of two captains picking teams for a rugby game: The ones who get picked first walk with a swagger. The last kids picked, the ones who had no hope of being good at that particular game, kind of slumped over to their team. In standard six I was one of that last ones, most probably not because of ability but according to the flesh being small and thin. We have different abilities and they distinguish us according to the flesh.

Age

Paul says to Timothy, “Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity” (1 Timothy 4:12). Age is something that distinguishes us according to the flesh. Some people, seeing that Timothy was young, would not take him seriously. They would need to be won over by his godly example. Similarly, many older people feel pushed to the margins in a culture that chases after the young.

Friends

When you are at school this can be a big factor in your life. Who are your friends? Which group are you in? What was important to be part of a specific group? It remains true throughout life. We talk about our “social circles.”

Culture

We are talking here about the things that distinguish us according to the flesh, and clearly culture, colour, language and ethnicity are among them.

Many will call it “race”. God created one human race which all people belong to. Racism is nowhere in the original direct translations of the Bible. We are all of one original blood and one race. I will soon be teaching on this very worldly created current time bomb being fuelled by the devil himself.

It’s very striking how often you have reference in the Bible to Jews and Gentiles, the distinctions between them and how these often-bitter divisions might be overcome in Christ Jesus bringing all believers into a new nation in Christ. God sees only two kind of people; saved and unsaved, belonging to the kingdom of God or to the kingdom of the world.

You can’t understand the history of South Africa or the tensions in our country that continue today apart from this issue, and the many injustices that have gone with it.

Gender

God has made us male and female and this distinguishes us according to the flesh. As we think about culture and gender it strikes me that the great cultural debates of our time all focus around what we are according to the flesh. How do we deal with these great things that make us different according to the flesh?

Work

We are looking at factors that distinguish us according to the flesh.  What is your work? Manual labour?  Business?  Education?  Health?  The Arts? Science? Or is your work with the home and family?

I am always interested to ask people “What is your work?” because knowing what a person’s work is gives you some insight into their experience of life according to the flesh.

Home

A person’s lifestyle involves the home they live in, the car they drive, the vacations they enjoy, the restaurants they frequent, and the entertainments that they choose to enjoy. And all of this is driven by the means (or lack of it) that are available to them. We could have called it wealth or lifestyle, but decided to call it home.

Where you live has associations. We sometimes use the phrase “on the wrong side of the tracks.” Communities are sometimes divided between a more prosperous area on one side of a railway line and a less prosperous area on the other side.

Family

This can include family of origin, family by adoption, and family by marriage. There is the whole issue of the peculiar mix that got scooped up out of the gene pool and poured into you. Gifts, talents, and physical features were all passed to you from your parents. And along with them, the battles, desires, and struggles that were in your father and mother may also now be in you.

Most of us spend quite a lot of time, especially earlier in life, trying to figure out what is in us, and when we do this, we are trying to come to terms with who we are according to the flesh. For some there are more blessings than sorrows. For others there are more sorrows than blessings, but some do not know who their biological parents are and so you have many questions about what is in you according to the flesh.  For all of us, it is a mixed bag.

Experience

Who we are according to the flesh, is shaped both by nature and by nurture; and not only by genes but also by environment. Our early experiences of love or of neglect of love, have a huge influence on the shape of our lives. The opportunities that come as we develop – open doors and closed doors, make a big difference.

So here are ten factors that distinguish us according to the flesh: appearance, ability, age, friends, race, gender, work, home, family, and experience. We could go on because there are many more, but we won’t.

As we reflect on these issues, we find ourselves wondering, “Why are all these issues so sensitive?” The answer is that for the vast majority of people what we are ‘according to the flesh’ is all that there is. And if it’s all that there is, we are going to be constantly uptight about who we are according to the flesh.

Hear and feel the extraordinary power of the Scripture

“From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard Him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold the new has come.”  (2 Corinthians 5:16-17)

A change in how you see Jesus will lead to a change in how you see others and a change in how you see yourself.

• A change in how you see Jesus

“… Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard Him thus no longer.” (2 Corinthians 5:16)

Here’s what Paul is saying, “The opinion I had of Jesus was formed entirely by what He was according to the flesh…”  In other words, “I thought of Jesus as a Jewish man, born into a poor family, raised in an obscure village, a carpenter by trade, of unusual ability, who hung out with sometimes embarrassing friends, who died early in life, without owning more than the robe for which the soldiers gambled in the final hours of His life.

Today we find people praying in the name of Jesus of Nazareth whilst Jesus is the Christ sitting at the right hand of the Father. As you read the Gospels there are multiple examples of people who dismissed Jesus because they regarded Him according to the flesh. Let look at some examples:

In John 6:42, Jesus says, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.”  But the crowd doesn’t like this so they begin to grumble, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Mary and Joseph, whose father and mother we know?”  They regard Him according to the flesh. Their view of Him is based on family, on His parents.

In Matthew 13 when Jesus came to His home town of Nazareth, “They said, ‘Is not this the carpenter’s son?’” (Matthew 13:55). They regard Him according to the flesh and they dismissed Him. Why? Because their view of Him is based on His work. This was normal, at that time for Him to continue the work of Joseph who they regarded as His father. “Why should we give weight to someone who has such an ordinary job?”

In Mark 2 we are told about how Jesus spent time with people who were despised by others. The Pharisees said, “Why does He eat with tax collectors and sinners?” (Mark 2:16). They regard Him according to the flesh. Their view of Him was based on the people to whom He showed friendship. “Look at the company He keep, He couldn’t possibly be the Messiah.”

In John 19 we are told about the sign written by Pilate and placed above the head of Jesus as he hung on the cross. It said: “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews” (John 19:19). Pilate regards Him according to the flesh. His view of Jesus is shaped by culture (or in current worldly term race) as the king of the Jews. This is quite clearly a racial slur here, which is why the Jews objected to it, but Pilate would not change what he had written.

All through the Gospels you have examples of people who dismissed Jesus because they regarded Him according to the flesh. And Paul says, “That’s where I was! We once regarded Christ according to the flesh.”

How did that change? Answer: Because of the resurrection! It changed on the road to Damascus when the risen Lord Jesus Christ appeared to him. After that, Paul could no longer write off Jesus as a misguided Jew who died on a cross. He is the risen Lord!

“And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?’ And he said, “Who are you Lord?” And He said, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.” (Acts 9:4-5)

Either Jesus Christ is the risen, sovereign Lord, who by virtue of who He is and what He has done in His birth, life, death and resurrection lays claim to your life and to every other life. Either this is true, or Christianity should be rejected completely.

Paul as Saul, had come to the second conclusion: Christianity should be rejected completely. That is why he persecuted the church, tried to stamp it out and destroy it. Because he regarded Jesus according to the flesh, and as long as he did that, the idea of one man, laying claim to the loyalty, worship, and obedience of every person was preposterous and offensive. And, of course, that is still the conclusion of many today.

But Paul who was so angry with Jesus, but when he was confronted by the risen Lord, he found himself offering his life in the service of the One he had previously despised, “Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard Him thus no longer.”

Notice the word ‘we’ here. Paul includes himself, but he is making a statement that is true of all Christians. A Christian is a person who has come to a new opinion about Jesus in the light of the resurrection, “We no longer regard Him according to the flesh. We have come to worship Him as the risen Lord, the sovereign King, the gracious Redeemer. He is God with us, God for us.” If you believe Jesus rose from the dead, it would be madness to continue to resist His claim over your life.

A change in how you see Jesus leads to a change in how you see others.

• A change in how you see others

“From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh…” (2 Corinthians 5:16)

Here is something that is unique and wonderful in the body of Christ.  The things that make us different according to the flesh, are overwhelmed by the new life of Jesus that we share in the body of Christ.

In the flesh, we lived for ourselves and our death would mean passing into condemnation. But Jesus died to change all that. Who we are according to the flesh, died with Him through His atoning death on the cross. Who we are in Christ is born from Him, through His resurrection life.

“For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.” (Galatians 3:27-29)

What makes us different according to the flesh falls away in the light of the new creation in Jesus Christ. This new creation includes men and women of every culture or group, people of all kinds of appearance and age, people of every background and experience, people from every trade and profession and every level of ability, all brought into peace with God through the same Saviour, all submitting our very different lives to the same Lord.

This is Paul’s answer to the ‘super apostles’ who criticized him for what he was in the flesh. That he was not a good speaker and not an impressive personality,

“For they say, ‘His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech of no account.” (2 Corinthians 10:10)

He wants the Christians at Corinth to know how to answer “those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart” (2 Corinthians 5:12).

A change in how you see Jesus brings a change in how you see others.  That means we do not see each other through the lens of what we are by nature and the ten things as seen that make us different, but of who we are by grace and the redeeming work of Christ that makes us one.

A change in how you see Jesus leads to a change in how you see others, and a change in how you see yourself.

• A change in how you see yourself

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation…” (2 Corinthians 5:17)

If you are in Christ you are a new creation. This is true of every Christian. Being a new creation means that there is more to you than what you are according to the flesh.

You have been reconciled to God. You have been adopted into His family. You have an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. And the Holy Spirit lives in you.

Your little life has been caught up into the eternal purpose of God!  When you are tempted to lose heart because of what you are in the flesh, take heart from who you are in Christ:

There are natural gifts that will impress people who judge according to the flesh, but there are also spiritual gifts that Christ gives to make you useful in His service.

There is a natural beauty that gets a face on the cover of a magazine, but there is also a spiritual beauty that is precious in the sight of God (1 Peter 3).

There is natural strength that comes from developing the body, but there is also a spiritual strength that God can give to you to help you through the hardest of times and trials.

There is material wealth that lasts for a time in this world and then it is gone, but there is also spiritual wealth that will last for eternity.

If you have had experiences in the flesh that have broken your heart, remember that there are experiences of the love of Christ that can rebuild your spirit.

“From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.” (2 Corinthians 5:16-17)

• How Christ sees you

If you judge yourself according to the flesh, either you will always be looking down on others because you see yourself as having more going for you than they do, or you will always be losing heart, because others have more gifts and talents and advantages and opportunities than you.

Here’s the good news: Christ does not regard you according to the flesh. Jesus said to the Pharisees,

“You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one.” (John 8:15) 

We know from other Scriptures that Jesus will be the judge of every person,

“For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgement to the Son, that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.” (John 5:22-23)

Jesus is saying, “You judge people according to the flesh. But I don’t do that!”  Jesus does not form an opinion about you according to the flesh.  He does not base a judgment about you on your appearance, ability, age, friends, worldly called race, gender, work, home, family, or experience.

What you are according to the flesh will not make Jesus more or less interested in you. He is not drawn to you because of these things, and these things will not keep Him from you either.

Jesus offers Himself to every person, of every culture, with every ability, and from every background. He offers Himself, without partiality, as the living Saviour and the reigning Lord. And whatever you are according to the flesh, He is able to make you a new creation.

“If anyone is in Christ…” That’s what matters, not what you are according to the flesh. What matters more than your appearance, ability, age, friends, gender, work, home, family, or experience is that you are in Christ!

When Jesus Christ is your sovereign Lord, what he thinks of you is the first (and ultimately the only) thing that really matters. A change in how you see Jesus will lead to a change in how you see others and a change in how you see yourself, so that you will not lose heart!

Start seeing others as Christ sees them and you. The wisdom that is in Christ alone, will help you to do just that.

Let us Pray:

Father thank you that you have chosen not to regard us according to the flesh but in Your gracious Son, our redeeming Savior and reigning Lord, equally to all and stand before even now saying, Come to Me all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Father, do that miracle of grace by opening our eyes to you for wisdom and understanding in living for you here and now. Lord thank you that you reign, and therefore we overcome in times like this. In Your precious and wonderful and gracious Name we pray. Amen

Sunday 26 July 2020

Ps Ben Hooman

We are in a series in Proverbs and we are looking at wisdom in doing life here and now. We already looked at the condition of the heart and that you need to be born again to gain this wisdom from above. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

There are three things you need to know about this book of Proverbs:

First, the Proverbs are proverbs. They are wise sayings that describe the normal pattern that prevails in this world. The proverbs are not promises, they are proverbs.

Second, The Proverbs assume a relationship. They were first spoken as the words of a wise father to his son. But Proverbs is in Holy Scripture, and so in this book we hear the voice of our loving Father speaking to us, his own children.

Third, the Proverbs point to Jesus. “In Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Colossians 2:3).” Christ is our wisdom, so to follow Jesus is to follow wisdom; to listen to Jesus is to listen to wisdom; to grow in Jesus is to grow in wisdom. The way of wisdom is always the way of Jesus. The way of Jesus is always the way of wisdom.

Proverbs describes what this life looks like. It lays out the life to which wisdom calls us, the life of a disciple of Jesus.

This series will be very practical. In this series, we will look at what it means to follow the way of wisdom in five areas: Friends, Family, Words, Work and Wealth.

Today we begin with the subject of friends.  This morning I want us to look at three things. First, how you can have good friends. Second, how you can be a true friend. And third, why you should seek the best friend.

How you can have good friends

• Seek friends intentionally

“Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire; he breaks out against all sound judgment.” (Proverbs 18:1)

Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire. That is, he is concerned about himself. And if you are only concerned about yourself, you break out against all sound judgment.

Why? Because you are made in the image of God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God enjoys relationship within the tri-unity of His own nature, and you are made in His image.

Drew Hunter says, “To be made in God’s image… means that we… are wired for relationships.” He points out that the first human problem was not sin but solitude. At the end of each day, when God looked at what He had made, He said it was “good.” That was the divine verdict at the end of each of the days of creation. “And God saw that it was good.”

But when God created Adam, He said for the first time that something was ‘not good.’

“Then the LORD God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone, I will make him a helper fit for him.” (Genesis 2:18)

So, “whoever isolates himself… breaks out against all sound judgment,” Friendship is a good gift from God. God did not intend you to live in isolation, so seek friends intentionally.

How do you do that? We do it by taking an active interest in the lives of others. There is a wonderful reference to Timothy in the New Testament. Paul says,

“I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I too may be cheered by news of you. For I have no one like him, who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare.” (Philippians 2:19-20)

Timothy is outstanding because of the genuine interest he has toward others. As the old proverbs says, “He who would have friends must show himself friendly.”

How many friends should you have?

“A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” (Proverbs 18:24)

It is possible to have a wide circle of acquaintances, but no real friends. The higher your profile and the more fast-paced your life, the harder it is to make good, deep, and lasting friendships. You end up with many acquaintances but few real friends. You will find yourself being very lonely in a crowd.

The quality of your friends is more important than their quantity. Character among friends is more important than their number. So, focus on depth rather than breadth. The important question is not “how many friends do you have?”, but “how deep are these friendships?”

Perhaps the place where the word ‘friends’ is most commonly used these days is in connection with Facebook. How many friends do you have on Facebook? The average number is around 350. That is a lot of friends!

But, the important thing to remember here is that there are different levels of friendship. You see this in the life of our Lord Jesus. He ministers to the crowd. Then there is a group of 70 who are sent out (Luke 10:1). Then there are the twelve. Then there are the three; Peter, James and John who are closest to Jesus.

These are all like expanding circles around Jesus. Jesus gives the closest access to Peter, James and John. They are there when Jairus’ daughter is raised to life. They see the glory of Jesus at the transfiguration. They are invited to watch and pray with Him in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Let me suggest to you that we need these different circles of relationship in your life. If you have 350 friends on Facebook, who are the seventy? Who are the twelve? Who are the two or three? It is possible to have many acquaintances but no real friends.

What does it look like to have an inner circle of friends? Our Lord tells us:

“No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.” (John 15:15)

Notice Jesus’ definition of friendship. His closest friends are the ones He opens Himself up to most fully. The reason they are friends is that Jesus has made known to them ‘all’ that He heard from the Father. Jesus opens Himself up to His closest friends.

There is an important principle here: Open your life most fully to the friends you can trust most deeply.

Christ opened Himself up to different people in different degrees. So, if you are following His example, you will be wise in opening your life to different people in different degrees. To the crowds, He spoke in parables. To Herod, He said nothing at all. To the disciples who were His friends, He made known all that He heard from His Father and for this reason, He calls them His friends.

So, open your life most fully to the friends you can trust most deeply.

• Choose your friends wisely

“Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.” (Proverbs 13:20)

The people with whom you are closest will have the greatest influence in your life. The character of the friends you choose will rub off on you. And the deeper a friendship becomes, the more like your friend you will be. Friendship can bring you great good or do you great harm depending on the friends you choose.

God says, “The companion of fools will suffer harm.” That’s the normal pattern that prevails in this world: “Bad company ruins good character” (1 Corinthians 15:33). And it would be naïve for you to think that this does not apply to you.

When you grasp the principle that the people to whom you give the deepest access in your life; those who have the greatest influence upon you, you will see that good friends can be a wonderful gift and blessing in your life. Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise! So, get close to the kind of people you want to be like.

And on the other side, Proverbs exhorts us to exercise great restraint in getting to close to the kind of people you don’t want to be in your life. Proverbs says,

“Make no friendship with a man given to anger, nor go with a wrathful man, lest you learn his ways and entangle yourself in a snare.” (Proverbs 22:24-25)

Notice the reference here is to a man who is habitually angry. Don’t make him your friend. You may have to work with such a person but don’t give him deep access into your life or you will become angrier yourself.

Choose your friends wisely. Let friendship develop slowly. Good friendships are like fruit: They take time to grow and time to ripen. The true character of a person will become evident over time, and you will be able to discern if this is a friendship that should go deeper or not.

• Guard your friendships carefully

Remember that a friendship is a gift from God. A good friendship should be cherished and protected, because if you lose it, it is a great loss indeed. The book of Proverbs gives us wisdom in how to do this as well.

By being considerate:

“Let your foot be seldom in your neighbor’s house, lest he have his fill of you and hate you.” (Proverbs 25:17)

The easiest way to kill a good friendship is to become demanding. Be considerate of your friend’s time. Here is a person who becomes friends with his neighbour, but then he over-does it! He keeps coming around, and he stays too long. Eventually, the neighbour has had enough. He’s had his fill. You can imagine it. The bell goes in the neighbour’s house, and she says, ‘O not again! He is always showing up on the doorstep, and it is just too much!’

Here’s some good news though: You have no need to worry about wearing out your welcome with God. There will never be a time when you come to the Lord and He says, “I’ve had My fill of you.”

Charles Bridges says, “Blessed be God. There is no need for this caution and reserve on our approach to Him…Our earthly friend may be pressed too far. [Human] Kindness may be worn out by frequent use, but never can we come to our heavenly Father unseasonably [too often].”

God will always welcome you. “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and whoever comes to Me I will never drive away,” (John 6:37)

Be considerate not only of your friend’s time but also of his or her mood.

“Whoever sings songs to a heavy heart is like one who takes off a garment on a cold day, and like vinegar on soda.” (Proverbs 25:20)

Here we have a person who is insensitive to the feelings of others. Someone has a heavy heart, and her so called ‘friend’ breezes into her house on a mission to cheer her up. She bursts thought the door singing ‘Joy to the world’ at the top of her voice. That isn’t going to work so well!

Notice the effect: Singing songs to a heavy heart is like taking off a garment on a cold day. It will have a chilling effect on the friendship. The one who has the heavy heart will think, “You have no idea what I’m facing right now.” It will create a distance.

And more than that, it will produce an explosive reaction, like vinegar on soda. The point here is that the hearty songs actually aggravate the sorrow of the person with the heavy heart. It makes their sorrow worse.

Matthew Henry says, “We take a wrong course with them by being merry with them and endeavouring to make them merry; for it adds to their grief to see their friends so little concerned for them.” It aggravates them and “makes them harden themselves in sorrow against the assaults of mirth.”

If you want to keep your friends, learn to be sensitive to their feelings.

“Weep with those who weep; rejoice with those who rejoice.” (Rom 12:15)

How wonderful then that our Lord Jesus Christ knows us completely. He knows what it is to have a heavy heart. He was once in a garden when His heart was sorrowful to the point of death. He’s been there. He is “touched with the feeling of our infirmities,” (Hebrews 4:15 KJV)

By being discreet:

“A dishonest man spreads strife, and a whisperer separates close friends” (Proverbs 16:28)

“Whoever covers an offense seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates close friends.” (Proverbs 17:9)

Proverbs identifies two things that separate close friends. A close friend is someone who trusts you enough to open his or her life up to you deeply. If you have been given that trust, you must honour it. Nothing kills a friendship more quickly than repeating to others what was trusted in private conversation to you.

How you can be a true friend

What are the qualities of a true friend? How can I be a better friend? We could also frame this as what to look for in a true friend. But what you want to receive from others you have to give yourself. So, we must ask, “How can I be a better friend to people?” Proverbs gives us a profile of a true friend.

• Your presence

“Do not forsake your friend and your father’s friend, and do not go to your brother’s house in the day of your calamity. Better is a neighbor who is near than a brother who is far away.” (Proverbs 27:10)

The contrast here is between a ‘neighbour’ (also translated friend) ‘who is near’ and ‘a brother who is far away.’ When the day of calamity comes, you can’t show up at your brother’s house if you only have a distant relationship with him.

Cultivate friends who are near. They are the ones you can go to in the day of trouble. They may be old friends (your father’s friends are those you have known since you were young) or they may be friends you have made in adult life. These are the people who are near and with whom you have walked alongside in life. These are the people who will be there for you when the day of trouble comes.

A true friend will be present in times of trouble. This reminds us of the wonderful statement about God Himself: “God is our refuge and strength an ever-present help in time of trouble,” (Psalm 46:12).

• Your words

“Oil and perfume make the heart glad, and the sweetness of a friend comes from his earnest counsel” (Proverbs 27:9)

A true friend speaks into your life in a way that always does you good. The sweetness of a true friend comes from the way that his or her words build you up. You see this in the friendship of David and Jonathan where Jonathan “strengthened David’s hand in the Lord” (1 Samuel 23:16).

That’s what a true friend does. Because the true friend has deep access to your life, he or she is able to tell you things that others would not say:

“Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.” (Proverbs 27:6)

When this friend speaks to you, even when they say something uncomfortable for you to hear, you know that they speak out of love and with your own interests in mind. Even when their words wound you, you know that it is always to heal.

We are living at a time when people are choosing to listen only to what they want to hear. We live in a world of ‘safe spaces’, and the reason is that the world has become so angry.

In such a world, it’s very easy for us to filter out from the Bible what we don’t want to hear. But then, all you are left with is an echo of your own voice. In doing that, you lose the friendship of Jesus. You lose the sweetness of one who loves you and can speak into your life in such a way that even when it hurts, you know that it will heal.

The Word of God is given so that we have all we need for life and godliness, including correction where we are wrong.

We began today with the principle of opening your life most fully to the friends you trust most deeply. Open your life to Jesus and to His truth even when it hurts, because when His word hurts, it also heals.

• Your love

“A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.” (Proverbs 17:17)

So here we have a brother who is not far away. This brother is a true friend. He loves at all times. He was born for adversity.

When Jesus came to the time of His adversity in the Garden of Gethsemane, the friends who loved Him all forsook Him and fled. When Paul first stood trial, no one stood with him. But he says, may it not be charged against them,

“At my first defense no one stood with me. May it not be charged against them. But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, …” (2 Timothy 4:16-17)

A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.

How can you be a true friend? By your presence, your words and your love. If you are to become that kind of friend to others, you need to walk with someone who can be that kind of friend to you.

Why you should seek the best friend

“A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother” (Proverbs 18:24)

The Lord Jesus Christ is the best friend you can ever have. A true friend is present, and Jesus will always be with you. Christ is the only one who can say, “I will never leave you nor forsake you,” (Hebrews 13:5).

Jesus says, “I am with you always. No one else can say that to you. In every adversity, in life and in death, I am the friend who will always be with you”.

Your best friend in this world may say, “I will love you till death parts us.” And your wife, your husband should be your best friend and companion. But Jesus says to you, “I will love you, and death will never part us.”

A true friend brings sweet counsel and the words of Jesus are sweet. When others were abandoning Jesus, He asked His disciples,

“After this many of His disciples turned back and no longer walked with Him. So Jesus said to the twelve, ‘Do you want to go away as well?’ Simon Peter answered Him, ‘Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that You are the Holy One of God.” (John 6:66-69)

“The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.” (Psalm 19:9-10)

A true friend brings sweet counsel. The words of Jesus are like oil and perfume that make the heart glad. They are sweeter than honey from the honeycomb!

A true friend loves at all times, and the love of Jesus will never let you go. He loved you before the world began, and He will love you forever. He says, “I have loved you with an everlasting love,” (Jeremiah 31:3). His love is everlasting: it had no beginning and it will have no end! It is eternal.

“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every; morning; great is Your faithfulness.” (Lamentations 3:22-23)

Consider what a friend Jesus can be to you! It was love for you that caused Him to come into the world. He was born to stand with us in our adversity. He came from far to bring us near to make us His friends.

It was love that led Him to take our flesh, to experience the heavy heart for Himself, and in the end even to lay down His life.

“Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends,” (John 15:13)

Now, He is in heaven where in love He intercedes for you. In Christ you have unrestricted access to the Father. His love will cover the multitude of your sins. And you will never wear out your welcome with God!

So, open your life most fully to the Friend you can trust most deeply. And here is the thing: The deeper your friendship with Jesus becomes, the more like Jesus you will be.

Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise. Whoever walks with Jesus becomes like Jesus.

There is a friend who always loves at all times, a friend who sticks closer than a brother, and His name is Jesus!

Let us pray:

Father, we are in awe of such a Friend and that He should be Your Son, causes us to bow with worship and love and gratitude and praise. Help us by Your Spirit to open our lives most fully to the Friend who loves us most deeply, our Lord Jesus Christ in whose Name we also pray, Amen.