When We Hurt God (pt1)

Growing up I always saw my dad as invincible. He was as tough as they came. John Wayne was a boy scout compared to my father. Oh, don't get me wrong; my father was anything but Superman. I witnessed my father suffer multiple back injuries. I saw him limping around after 14 hours on his flat feet and then have to walk a mile home after work. I saw him after he was "jumped" at the store where he worked by three angry riff-raff. I saw him, believe it or not, get frostbite on his hand in the middle of the summer. I saw him fall down a flight of concrete stairs while he was terribly sick with pneumonia. I saw my dad almost rupture his Achilles. I saw my dad in a neck brace following a serious neck injury. I saw my dad's arm in a sling due to him blowing his rotator cuff. I have seen my father collapse and bust his head during an athsma attack. I am telling you, I have seen my dad be ANYTHING but invincible. I do have a point to all of this so let me get right to it. The WORST injury I have ever seen my dad have is the one I am responsible for. I was 7 or so. My younger brother and I were running around in the house despite my father's instruction to stop. It was a Sunday Morning. We were getting ready for church. My dad was boiling a large pot of eggs for the Sunday School "party" during their sunday school hour. As my father was attempting to transfer the large pot of boiling water from the stove to the sink, my brother and I ran between he and the sink and under the extremely hot pot of water. Instinctively, my father pulled the pot towards him and all of the hot water escaped the pot and found its landing all over my father's stomach, legs and loins. Instantly, my father was covered with 2nd degree burns and blisters already forming from the seething hot water. I saw my father writhing in pain on the floor as he dropped to his knees and let out the most painful shriek I have ever heard. Looking at my father in so much pain was something I have never been able to forget. It was a pain that I inflicted on him. The deep seeded remorse and attempts at penance seemed insignificant at the moment. I caused my father to have extreme pain. The Children of Israel caused God pain as well. Sure, it wasnt with a boiling pot of water, but it was a pain that God deemed necessary to proclaim his affliction. I realize that God is a Spirit (John 4:23-24.) However, there is a term used as an example to bridge the pain that a spirit can feel in regards to human or physical pain. It is called "Anthromorphism." For an illustration: "He sat there like a bump on a rock." It is giving Human characteristics or responses to an object or to an inadamant object, in this case, an intangible being- namely God. Having this thought in mind, let me direct your attention to a passage of Scripture which lays out a brief but detailed diagnosis of God's pain which was inflicted by Israel and also by us today. Jeremiah 10:18-25

For thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will sling out the inhabitants of the land at this once, and will distress them, that they may find it so. Woe is me for my hurt! my wound is grievous: but I said, Truly this is a grief, and I must bear it. My tabernacle is spoiled, and all my cords are broken: my children are gone forth of me, and they are not: there is none to stretch forth my tent any more, and to set up my curtains. For the pastors are become brutish, and have not sought the LORD: therefore they shall not prosper, and all their flocks shall be scattered. Behold, the noise of the bruit is come, and a great commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah desolate, and a den of dragons. O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps. O LORD, correct me, but with judgment; not in thine anger, lest thou bring me to nothing. Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name: for they have eaten up Jacob, and devoured him, and consumed him, and have made his habitation desolate.

Right and Wrong in Education

A man's wife is dying of a rare kind of cancer. A local druggist has developed a cure for this type of cancer but demands far more than the man can afford to pay. Later the husband breaks into the store and steals the drug. Should he have done that? (p.20 "Why Johnny Cannot Tell Right From Wrong" William Kilpatrick)

It is an insight that Mr. Kilpatrick made back in 1992 when is book was published. Here is a situation eithic which is based on the supposition that man will choose what is wholesome and "good." Doesn't God's Word tell us the outcome of this man's choice?
"There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end therof are the ways of death."

There are two views in philosophy in dealing with teaching morality.

1. Character building - to train our children in What IS right. teaching them what is right. Training them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord in the FEAR of God. Moses held this philosophy. Joshua chose this philosophy. Christ used this philosophy. Paul used this philosophy. Peter used this philosophy.

A child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame.

2. Moral reasoning - This conditions a child to believe that what he would do is ethical and right. There are NO wrong or right answers - This leads us to all kinds of moral decay - as we see every day on the evening news, on the front page of the paper, in our christian education, and in our theology.

Aug5

Jesus' zealous endeavor to purge the temple of money changers and insincere worshipers was unpopular to those who profited from the synthetic reverence to God and towards his chosen methods of worship. Today, Jesus would be considered a legalist and an extremist.

50 Shekels of Silver

2Sam 24:24

And the king said unto Araunah, Nay; but I will surely buy it of thee at a price: neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the LORD my God of that which doth cost me nothing. So David bought the threshingfloor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.


David was desiring to restore fellowship with God after the

sin of numbering the people. He was trying to find out just

how powerful and great he was, neglecting the fact that God

had made him great. He “got too big for his own britches” and

God’s judgment was fiercely punishing King David.

As the destruction of his consequence advanced, David implored

to make peace with God. He went to the threshing floor to

sacrifice to the Lord. It was a good land and he wanted to

build an altar to God and sacrifice to Him a peace offering.

Although Araunah was willing to give David the land for free,

David realized that it had to cost him something for this to be

sincere and meaningful.

Fifty shekels of silver in today's economy is roughly $265.

It wasn’t about paying something that was super expensive.

David learned that if he desired reconciliation with God and

experience His forgiveness, he must sacrifice. What are YOU

willing to sacrifice today for God to effect your life? What are

you willing to part with? What is your “50 shekels of silver?”

Remember, Christ was betrayed for less than that!

Baptist By Conviction, Christian By Pursuasion,, Saved by the Grace of God.

Many friends have recently brought up the contentious debate of what they are in regards to title, doctrine, and practice. Let me tell you this, I am a Baptist by Conviction, a Christian by pursuasion, but Saved by the grace of God.

First, when I was at the ripe young age of 5 years old, I was convicted of my sin, truly for the first time. The weight of the realization and guilt of my sin against a Holy God was so intense that I could do nothing else but to call upon the name of the Lord. Yes, at age 5 I was fully aware of my need of a Savior. As fully as I understood my offense toward God, and of who and what Christ was and what he came to do, I placed my hope and trust in him alone. I know by the testimony of the Word of God, I was born of God by grace through faith. It is nothing that I have done or did not do. It was all of the working of the Holy Spirit of God through the witness of the Word of God and of the faithfulness of other believers who had an influence in and on my life.

As a believer, I began to read the Word of God and develop a prayer life with the Lord. As I matured in the faith, it began to be very clear that my parents, my pastor, my sunday school teachers, friends, and those around me at church not only believed God but patterned their life after Christ's example. I came to realize just how important it was and is to not only walk with the Lord but also to yield to the continuing work of the Holy Spirit as he fashions me to the fullness of Christ-likeness. I was persuaded by my upbringing to be "Christian."

As I read the scriptures I began to notice the application of what I read was more distinct than that of others. I say this with no condescension intended. I began to study other denominations. Although there was things that I agreed with in other denominations, there was so much that I did not agree with. I began to compare what "my" church had for doctrine. Some of what i grew up believing was not found or even hinted at according to Scripture. Those things I renounced. However, I found that the more I studied God's Word, the more I realized the order in which a Baptist Church operates. I did not become Baptist by upbringing. My mother would often say "i am not a Baptist. I am a Bible believer." My Father now attends a Methodist Church (when he does go to church due to his work schedule.) When I say I am a Baptist, it is not because of how I was raised. It isn't because of where I went to college. It isn't by any other reason but because of my own developed Conviction that the distinctions which associate a believer as a "baptist" are found exclusively in the Word of God.

copied

http://centralseminary.edu/resources/nick-of-time/324-responding-to-the-scanda

The DNA of Worship

http://cornerstonebaptist-rockhill.com/StreamingAudio/2010/Q2/TimDelelloTheDNAofWorship.htm

I preached this sermon back in April in 2010 at a great church in Rock Hill, SC.