Guilty Pleasure
I took a two-hour break from my busy schedule this morning. You see I got two messages that I’d like to compare and contrast. I’ll start with the harder (and longer) of the two.
I have a cousin who has a grown son that pastors a Baptist Church in Tennessee. He posted on FB the topic of his upcoming Sunday sermon and it intrigued me. I replied and asked if it would be recorded, and he sent me a link to the recording. Since I was intrigued with the topic (and since I’ve never had the opportunity to hear him preach in person), I listened this morning.
The Bible focus was Luke 11:36 to the end of the chapter and entitled The Peril of Religious Hypocrisy. Let’s start with the Word of God:
“If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light.” While Jesus was speaking, a Pharisee asked him to dine with him, so he went in and reclined at table. The Pharisee was astonished to see that he did not first wash before dinner. And the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You fools! Did not he who made the outside make the inside also? But give as alms those things that are within, and behold, everything is clean for you. “But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seat in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces. Woe to you! For you are like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without knowing it.” One of the lawyers answered him, “Teacher, in saying these things you insult us also.” And he said, “Woe to you lawyers also! For you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers. Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed. So you are witnesses and you consent to the deeds of your fathers, for they killed them, and you build their tombs. Therefore also the Wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute,’ so that the blood of all the prophets, shed from the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation. Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering.” As he went away from there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to press him hard and to provoke him to speak about many things, lying in wait for him, to catch him in something he might say.” - Luke 11:36-54 ESV
The gist of the sermon was how progressives fight against or pervert religion to destroy God’s direction in how we should live. What spoke to me was the argument that the enemy uses tolerance to erode values millimeter by millimeter until they are completely perverted. I’ve seen so much of this in my lifetime (not that I think society was perfect when I was younger, but it certainly seems to have degraded some since then). I remember how political candidate’s careers (Gary Hart, for example), were derailed by a scandalous report that today wouldn’t even raise an eyebrow. Commercials on tv hawking women’s personal shaving products demonstrating intimate shaving areas. And the list goes on.
What hit me was the part where he spoke on complacency by believers to get along, to love each other and how this contributed to the decline in societies’ values and the success of the enemy. Patrick just yesterday (for me) spoke with similar points.
The second message was from Crossway regarding Genesis 1:
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” - Genesis 1:1
The message was to focus on God being eternal and the creator of everything. He expanded to point out that God doesn’t need us but he chose to create us not for his benefit but for our benefit. This implies that we need God.
Now the promised compare and contrast…both messages were, in my assessment, valuable and thought provoking. The difference was tone. My relative’s message had a slightly negative tone in that it was focusing on the enemy in the spiritual war that is going on around us. The Crossway message was more positive in that, while it emphasized that God doesn’t need us, he wanted to create us for his divine purpose and glory. It went on to emphasize that we most certainly need God. It is important to glorify God for creating and saving us and for us to be aware and prepare ourselves for the spiritual warfare that is going on around us. I’d say my break this morning was time well spent feeding my soul.
If you want to find the source…
FB
First Baptist Church, Jackson, TN
Pastor Johnathan Clemens
Crossways
Daily Devotion from October 7th
Sr Pastor Jon Nielson
