Shine the Light

The message given in the Sunday morning services in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, June 28, 2020.  The Bible verses used are Philippians 2:12-18.

            In his letter to the Philippians, the Apostle Paul writes about all the things the people there have been doing.  And he says he rejoices at all of it.  Paul rejoices at the faith the people have shown.  He rejoices at all the good things they’ve done.  He rejoices that they’ve stayed unified and are able to work together for the Lord.  He even rejoices at all the things he believes they’re going to be able to do, more things and better things, because they are allowing the Holy Spirit to work through them.

            But then, Paul writes this:  “Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.”

            What’s that about?  What does Paul mean that we need to “work out our salvation”?  After all, we’re saved by our faith in Jesus Christ as the Savior, right?  What more is there that we need to “work out”?  Did Jesus not work it all out for everyone when he was crucified and took the punishment that should have gone to us?  What’s Paul talking about?

            And how about the “fear and trembling” part?  What’s up with that?  I mean, God loves us, right?  God is full of grace and mercy and forgiveness.  And besides, salvation is the thing we all want.  Salvation is the best thing there is, really.  So what’s this “fear and trembling” thing?  How do “fear and trembling” fit into salvation?

            Well, I think the answer to both of these questions is in the very next thing Paul writes.  Paul writes, “For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose”

            You and I work out our salvation by doing God’s will.  We work out our salvation by allowing God to act in and through us.  We work out our salvation by fulfilling God’s purpose for our lives.

            This section comes right after the section we read last week, the one about humility.  I don’t think that’s a coincidence.  Remember what Paul said humility is--valuing others above ourselves.  So, if you and I are going to do this, we need to put God in first place, others in second place, and ourselves in third place.  In other words, the only way we work out our salvation is to put aside our own will, so we can do God’s will.  We work out our salvation by putting aside our selfishness and self-centeredness and allowing Got to act through us.  We work out our salvation by putting aside our own plans and purposes, so we can fulfill God’s purposes.

            So okay, that may be how we work out our salvation.  But what about the fear and trembling?  Why are fear and trembling part of working out our salvation?

            Fear and trembling are part of it because what we’re talking about is not an easy thing to do.  It’s not easy because it involves letting go of control of our own lives.  It involves giving that control to God.

            And that’s scary.  If we talk it seriously, it’s scary.  It does involve “fear and trembling”.  Because if we give control of our lives to God, we don’t know what God is going to do with them.

            The thing is that most of us are really fairly happy with our lives as they are.  Not over-the-moon happy are anything.  We know our lives are not perfect.  Most of us can think of ways our lives could be made better.  Sometimes those ways involve winning the Powerball, but still.  We know our lives are not perfect.

            But while we know our lives are not perfect, most of us are relatively happy with the way our lives are.  And if we’re not happy, at least we’re fairly comfortable with it.  It’s what we know.  We’ve come to terms with our lives.  Yeah, things could be better, but things could be worse, too.  So, we go with it.  It’s what we’re used to, and for the most part, it’s okay.

            But if we give control of our lives to God, well, who knows what might happen  God might have all kinds of things in store for us that we never would have thought of and that we never wanted to be any part of.  God might take us to places we really don’t want to go.  God might give us things to do that we really don’t want to do.  God might give us people to be with whom we really don’t want to be with.  And God might also lead us to give up things that we really don’t want to give up.

            All of those things are scary.  When we work out our salvation by truly giving control of our lives to God, we are taking a giant leap of faith.  There’s a lot of fear and trembling involved in working out our salvation.

            And the thing is, for us to truly work out our salvation, we need to do this completely willingly.  If we give up control reluctantly, if we give up control half-heartedly, if we give up control grudgingly, that’s not going to result in working out our salvation.  The first time something does not go the way we want it to go, we’ll try to take that control back for ourselves.  Listen to what Paul writes:  “Do everything without grumbling or arguing”.  

We cannot work out our salvation by just kind of giving control of our lives to God.  We cannot work out our salvation by just giving control of part of our lives to God.  You and I need to give control of all of our lives to God, so God can work in us “to will and to act in order to fulfill His good purpose.”

That’s not an easy thing to do.  I cannot say I’ve done it.  But listen to what Paul says happens when we do:  we “become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.”  We will “shine among them like stars in the sky”, because we “hold firmly to the word of life.”  And then, Paul says, “I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain.”

That sounds awesome, don’t you think?  To shine like stars in the sky?  To become blameless and pure children of God?  Not only would that be awesome, but it’s what the world needs right now, right?  Paul wrote about “a warped and crooked generation”.  It seems like there’s a lot of warpedness and crookedness going on, and I think there’s not just one generation responsible for it.

We’re in some really strange times right now.  There seems to be a lot of darkness, and not a lot of light.  But these are the times when Christians are needed most.  The world needs us, as Christians, to shine like stars in the sky.  

Now, I don’t mean that in an arrogant way.  The world does not need Christians who say, “Look at me!  Look at me!  Look at how I shine!”  I mean, again, last week we talked about how we’re supposed to be following Jesus’ example of humility.  Jesus did not brag about how great he was.  And you and I are not supposed to brag about how great we are, either.

So, how do we shine?  How do we become this light that the world needs?  Some of you probably already know what I’m going to say.  We become that light by following Jesus Christ.  We become that light by doing the things Jesus told us to do.

The things Jesus told us to do are pretty simple.  Not easy, but simple.  We’ve been through them before, several times.  Love God.  Love your neighbor.  Love your enemies.  Pray for those who persecute you.  Treat others the way you’d like them to treat you.  Go and make disciples of Jesus Christ.

Again, those things are not easy, but they are simple.  And one of the reasons they’re not easy is because they’re not what the world tells us to do.  The world does not tell us to love our enemies.  The world tells us to attack our enemies.  The world does not say to pray for those who persecute us.  The world tells us to turn the tables on them and persecute them.  The world does not tell us to treat others the way we’d like them to treat us.  The world tells us to treat others the way they actually do treat us.  If someone acts like a jerk toward us, we’re supposed to be jerks back.  And make disciples of Jesus Christ?  The world tells us to keep that Jesus stuff to ourselves.

Again, it’s simple, but it’s not easy.  But as the saying goes, if it was easy everyone would do it.  If it was easy Jesus would not have had to come to tell it to us.  If it was easy, being a Christian would not be any big deal.  But being a Christian is a big deal.  It has always been a big deal.  And being a Christian is as big a deal now as it has ever been.

Paul says that, when the people of Philippi do this, “I am glad and rejoice with all of you.”  And he says, “So you too should be glad and rejoice with me.”  Following Jesus is something we should all rejoice about.  And bringing someone else to Christ is something we should rejoice about, too.

Much of this world is “warped and crooked”, as Paul puts it.  It needs the light that we, as Christians, can give it.  When we work out our salvation in this way, it does not just help us.  It helps everyone around us.  If enough of us do it, it will help the whole world.  We may have some fear.  We may even tremble.  But we can do this.  We can shine like stars in the sky.  And when we do, the whole world will be drawn to our light.

The Gospel of Peace

This is the message given in the Sunday night service in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish.  The Bible verses used are Ephesians 6:10-18.

We live in a rapidly changing world.  That’s been true for a long time, but it’s as true now as it ever was.  You don’t need me to tell you that, of course.  All you need to do is look at news headlines.

            Some of the changes have been good and necessary, and others not so much.  That’s always true when we’re in a time of change.  And with many of these changes, we don’t yet know what the outcome of it all is going to be. That’s always true when we’re in a time of change, too.

            You may have heard the phrase “the winds of change”.  When things are changing this rapidly, we can sometimes feel like we’re being pushed around by strong winds.  We feel like we’re constantly being knocked off balance.  The things we’ve always counted on to be there, the things we’ve considered constants, the things we’ve thought would always be our refuge in the wind and in the storm--a lot of those things are not there anymore.  And they’re being replaced by--what?  We don’t know.  It’ll be a while before we do know.

            Again, my point is not to say whether the changes are good or bad.  But what happens, in this time of change, is that sometimes feel like we’re standing on the deck of ship that’s in the middle of a storm.  The ship is moving up and down, side to side, and we’re trying desperately to stay on our feet.  We’re trying to keep our feet planted, strong and secure, in the face of these winds, in the face of all this upheaval.  We’re trying to find something, anything, that we can rely on, something that will keep us standing upright and help us withstand all these winds and storms.

            The Apostle Paul tells us what that thing should be.  He tells us that have our feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.

            Unlike the other aspects of the armor of God we’ve talked about, we’re not given an analogy for this.  You know, we have the “belt of truth” and the “breastplate of righteousness”.  We don’t have the “shoes of the gospel” or the “boots of the gospel” or anything like that.  We don’t even have the “sandals of the gospel” or even the “socks of the gospel”.  But still, our feet are to be fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel.

            And you know, of all the things Paul talks about in discussing the armor of God, in some ways this may be the most important one.  I say that because Paul says three times about how we need to stand our ground, to stand firm.  He says the whole purpose of the armor of God is “so that, when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground.”  Paul then says it again, “and after you have done anything, to stand.”  And then one more time, “Stand firm, then”, with the armor of God.  Our feet, after all, are what we stand on.  If we’re not able to stay on our feet, the rest of the armor of God is not going to help us much at all.

            What strengthens our feet, what makes us able to stand our ground, what makes us stand firm, is the gospel.  The gospel of Jesus Christ.

            In Hebrews Chapter Thirteen, Verse Eight, we read, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”  I know some of you have heard that before.  But that is one of the most important verses in the Bible.  And in terms of standing firm in a time of change, it may be the most important verse.  No matter what else may happen, no matter how much the world may change, Jesus Christ is the one who will never change.  And the things Jesus told us to do will never change, either.

            What that means is that the storms of the world do not affect our faith.  Now, don’t take that the wrong way.  I am not saying that Christians should ignore the storms of the world.  I am not saying that Christians should have nothing to say about what’s going on in the world.  What I am saying is that our faith should not be changed by what goes on in the world.  Our faith should not change, because the one in whom we have faith has not changed.  Our faith in Jesus Christ remains the same, regardless of what the world says, regardless of what the world does, regardless of what happens.

            We need to stand firm in our faith no matter what.  Again, remember what the armor of God is.  It’s not an offensive weapon--all the things we’ve been talking about are defensive.  The belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness--they don’t enable us to attack anyone.  They protect us from attacks.  And remember whose attacks they protect us from.  It’s not the attacks of other people.  Other people may be involved, but that’s not what we’re protected from.  We’re protected from the powers of the dark world and the spiritual forces of evil.

            The gospel of Jesus Christ is always our best protection from that.  And how does Paul describe that gospel?  Paul describes it as a gospel of peace.

            There does not seem to be a lot of peace in the world right now.  Whatever you may think of what’s going on in the world right now, peace is not the word any of us could use to describe it.  The world is in turmoil.  We can hope that, at some point down the road, what’s going on will ultimately result in peace, but we do not see peace right now.  We don’t even hear very many people who seem to be interested in peace.  And in fact, there are some people who argue that peace is not and should not be a goal right now, that there are other things in the world more important than peace.

            And yet, here’s the Apostle Paul telling us that our feet need to be fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.  We need to stand firm in that gospel of peace, no matter what the world is saying or doing.  How do we do that?

            Well, let’s think about armor.  Armor is a very personal thing.  You don’t have armor that protects a society.  You don’t have armor that protects a community.  Armor protects one person.  If I put on the armor of God, it’s going to protect me.  If you put on the armor of God, it’s going to protect you.  Each of us, if we want the protection that comes from the armor of God, has to make the individual, personal choice to put on that armor.

            Another way of saying that is that the only person whose behavior each of us can determine is our own.  I cannot put on the armor of God for you, and you cannot put on the armor of God for me.  We can attempt to persuade people to put it on, but ultimately, it’s a choice each of us has to make for ourselves.

            So, as we see what’s going on in the world, that’s what we need to remember.  We cannot control what other people do.  We cannot control what other people say.  We cannot control what other people think.  But we can control what we do, what we say, and what we think.  That is true, and that will always be true.  No matter how hard other people may try to control us about those things, they cannot control us unless we allow them to.  You and I always have control over what we do, what we say, and what we think.

            And so, no matter what’s going on in the world, you and I need to continue to follow what Jesus Christ has told us to do.  What are those things?  You know them.  We’ve gone through them before, but we can never go through them too many times.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.  Love your neighbor as yourself.  Love your enemies.  Pray for those who persecute you.  Treat others the way you would like them to treat you.  Not the way they actually do treat you, but the way you would like them to treat you.  And go and make disciples of Jesus Christ.  Spread the gospel of Jesus to everyone you can in whatever ways you can.

            That’s the gospel of peace.  That’s the gospel that, some day, is going to bring peace to the entire world.  And you know what else?  That’s the gospel that will bring you and me inner peace, too.

            If you and I respond to what’s happening in the world this way, we will have inner peace.  Because we will know that those things cannot touch us.  If you and I follow the gospel of Jesus Christ, if we follow the gospel of peace, we are completely protected from the powers of the dark world and the spiritual forces of evil.  Yes, they may affect our lives here on earth.  But they cannot affect our eternal lives.  They cannot affect our salvation.  If have faith in Jesus Christ as the Savior, if we follow the gospel of Jesus Christ, the gospel of peace, we know that we will have salvation and eternal life.  And no matter what else is going on in the world, that knowledge can give us inner peace.

            The world is constantly changing.  I have no idea what’s going to happen.  But God does.  And God has told us how to handle it.  Stand firm in the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Stand firm in the gospel of peace.  If we do that, we can withstand whatever the world may throw at us.

Jesus' Example of Humility

The message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday morning, June 21, 2020.  The Bible verses used are Philippians 1:27--2:11.

            Humility is one of those virtues that we don’t hear a whole lot about these days.  Well, that’s not actually true.  We hear about it all the time.  There are a lot of people who’ll pay all kinds of lip service to humility.  But actually seeing it, actually experiencing humility is another matter entirely.

            Humility is kind of a tricky thing to have, you know?  If we actually think of ourselves as humble, then we might not be.  And if we’re pleased about how humble we are, then the chances are we’re not humble at all.

            And it can be easy to misunderstand what humility is.  Humility is not having a low opinion of yourself.  We can believe in ourselves, we can believe in our ability, we can believe in our talents, and still be humble.  In fact, we should do it that way.

            Let’s look at what Paul says about humility.  He starts with a definition of it.  He begins with, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.”  

            What does that refer to?  It refers to attitude, right?  By starting here, Paul is saying that humility is not so much concerned about what we do.  It’s concerned with why we’re doing what we do.  Are we doing something to help someone else?  Or are we doing something for what we can get out of it?  What’s our motivation?

            Maybe you think, well, what difference does our motivation make?  If we do something good, why does it matter whether we did it to help someone else or to further our own interests?  If the thing we did is good, if it ended up helping people, what the difference why we did it?

            Well, suppose I do something for Wanda.  Say that I cooked a fabulous meal for her.  I mean, there’s no way that’s going to happen, because I cannot cook worth a darn, but just suppose I could and I did.  Wanda would probably be very happy.  Well, I mean, after she’d gotten over the shock of it, she’d be happy.  And if that was the only reason I’d done it, just to try to make her happy, then I’d be happy, too.

But suppose, instead, that I had done that with the expectation that Wanda would do something for me in exchange.  Suppose I wanted a payback.  Well, one of two things would happen, right?  Either Wanda would feel obligated to do it, in which case she would not be nearly as happy about what I’d done.  Or, she would not do it, in which case I’d be disappointed because I had not gotten anything out of cooking a meal for her.  Either way, what I’d done would not make either of us happy.  Because it would not have been done out of humility.  It would not have been done out of a desire to serve her or anyone else.  It would’ve been done, as Paul says, out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.  And it would not honor God.

The next thing Paul says goes right along with that.  He says we should “value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”

Value others above yourselves.  If we do that, we won’t have to worry about our motivation.  If we truly value others above ourselves, we won’t be doing anything out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.  Our own ambitions won’t matter to us.  We’ll automatically do things with the right motives, because we’ll be putting others’ needs ahead of our own.

But how do we actually do that?  I mean, it’s easy to say it.  Maybe we agree with it.  But it is not at all easy to put that into practice.  How do we do it?  How do we actually value others above ourselves?  How do we actually look not to our own interests, but to the interests of others?

Here’s how Paul tells us to do it.  Paul tells us to do it by looking to the example of Jesus Christ.

Jesus was the divine Son of God.  Jesus is God--God the Son, part of the trinity.  Jesus was, in fact, God Himself come to earth to live among us mere human beings.

If there was ever anyone who walked the earth who had the right to feel like he was better than everyone else, it would be Jesus Christ, right?  Because, in fact, Jesus was and is better than any human being who’s ever lived.  

And make no mistake about it, Jesus knew that.  Jesus knew exactly who he was.  He knew he could do things no human being could do.  He knew he had power no human being had.  He knew he had a connection to God the Father that no human being had.  Jesus knew, in short, that he was, in fact, the divine Son of God.  

And yet, listen to what Paul says about Jesus.  He says that Jesus, “being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage.  Rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.  And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by being obedient to death--even death on a cross.”

Knowing exactly who he was, knowing exactly what power he had, knowing that, as he said in Matthew 26, he could call upon God the Father and God would put more than twelve legions of angels at his disposal, Jesus remained humble.  

You see, that’s the thing about valuing others above ourselves.  It does not mean that we have to think we’re worthless.  Jesus did not think he was worthless.  It does not mean that we have to think we’re not important.  Jesus did not think he was unimportant.  It does not mean that we have to think we’re insignificant.  Jesus knew how significant he was.

Valuing others above ourselves means making a deliberate choice.  It means that, knowing exactly who we are and what we can do, knowing exactly what talents and abilities we have, we choose to put other people’s interests ahead of our own.  That’s what Jesus did.  Knowing exactly who he was and what he could do, Jesus deliberately chose to put the interests of sinful human beings--you and me--ahead of his own interests.  Jesus did that even to the extent of dying--being killed, in a very painful way--so that our sins could be forgiven.

That’s the ultimate example of humility.  And that’s the ultimate example that you and I are supposed to follow.

It’s easy for us to make excuses not to follow that example.  We say, well, sure, but he was Jesus.  Of course Jesus could do that--that’s what made him Jesus.  Jesus could do all kinds of things you and I cannot do.

But that’s exactly why we should follow this example.  When you think about it, in some ways it should be easier for us than it was for Jesus.  You and I do not have the power Jesus had.  You and I cannot call down twelve legions of angels.  You and I are not at that high level that Jesus was and is.  We’re not even close.  Logically, then, it should be easier for us to put other people’s interests ahead of our own.  If we take our Christian faith seriously, if we truly want to call ourselves followers of Jesus Christ, then Jesus’ example is the one we should always follow.

You know, when you think about it, there are a lot of things Jesus did that you and I cannot do.  We cannot work miracles.  We cannot feed thousands of people with five loaves of bread and two fish.  We cannot make the blind see or the lame walk or any of those other things that Jesus did.  But this is one we can do.  You and I can be humble the way Jesus was.  You and I can put others’ interests ahead of our own.  It does not take any miraculous power.  It does not take anything but desire, the desire to follow Jesus.  The only thing that’s stopping us is us.

Paul finishes this passage by saying that, because of Jesus’ humility, God the Father exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow...and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of the Father.  So, will something like that happen to us, if we follow Jesus’ example?

I don’t know.  I mean, I’m pretty sure it’s not going to happen exactly that way.  No matter how humble I might be, I am not going to be given the name that is above every name.  Every knee is not going to bow to me, and of course that should not happen.  I am not and never will be on any level anywhere close to Jesus Christ.  That’s not what I mean.

But will there be some reward, some blessing of God, that is given to us if we follow Jesus’ example of humility?  Maybe.  I do believe that when we do our best to be faithful to God and serve God and show love to God, God blesses our efforts in some way.  That’s part of the justice of God.  But of course, that way may not be anything we’d have thought of.  And that way might not be a way that directly benefits us.

But the thing is, asking about a reward misses the point.  That gets us back to acting out of selfish ambition, which is exactly what Paul tells us not to do.  Our reward is that we are following Jesus Christ.  Our reward is that we are honoring God and being the people God wants us to be.  For us, as Christians, faithfulness to God is its own reward.  God does not owe it to us to do anything for us in return.  Thinking God owes anything to us is, again, acting out of selfish ambition, not out of humility or love of God.

Jesus gave his life for us.  If we truly believe that, and if we truly love him for it, we need to follow his example.  We especially need to follow his example of humility.  We can do it.  With God’s help, we can do it.  The only thing stopping us is us.

The Breastplate of Righteousness

This is the message given in the Sunday night service in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on June 14, 2020.  The Bible verses used are Ephesians 6:10-18.

            If you were watching our service last week, you might have thought that Bible passage sounded familiar.  Yes, it’s the same one we used last week, and no, I did not forget to change the slides on the power point.  Paul, in this passage, describes the full armor of God.  Last week we talked about the belt of truth.  This week, we talk about the breastplate of righteousness.

            That word, righteousness, is really kind of off-putting to a lot of people.  We hear “righteousness” and we tend to think of self-righteousness.  And self-righteousness is not good at all.  Self-righteousness is a feeling that we are better, that we are somehow morally superior to other people.  That’s not good.  Nobody likes being around someone who thinks they’re better than everyone else.  And we especially don’t like being around someone who thinks they’re morally superior to everyone else.  In fact, one of the surest ways for a Christian to turn people off is to have that attitude that we’re better than others.

            But while Christians are not supposed to be self-righteous, we are supposed to be righteous.  Righteousness means to be morally right or virtuous.  As Christians, that what you and I are supposed to be.  We are supposed to have “the breastplate of righteousness” in place.

            Righteousness is referred to as a breastplate.  What’s a breastplate?  A breastplate is something you wear around your chest.  It protects your heart, your lungs, things like that, and other vital organs.  

            The thing is that a breastplate is a purely defensive thing.  It’s something we wear to protect ourselves.  It’s not an offensive weapon.  In fact, it’s not a weapon of any kind.  I mean, i guess you could take it off and bonk someone over the head with it, but that’s not the point of it.  A breastplate is worn solely for your own protection.  It protects your vital organs from attacks.

            So that tells us a couple of things.  For one, it tells us that we are not supposed to use our righteousness as a weapon.  We try to be morally right and virtuous, but we don’t use that as a way of attacking someone else.  That’s what happens when we’re self-righteous, right?  We’re saying that we are the ones who are virtuous, we are the ones who are holy, we are the ones who have it all together, and the rest of you don’t.  The rest of you need to take a lesson from us, because we’re so great.

            That’s a misuse of righteousness.  That’s trying to use our righteousness as a weapon.  And when we do that, we’re not being righteous or virtuous at all.

            So, we wear the breastplate of righteousness for our protection.  But protection from what?  Protection from an attack, obviously.   But whose attacks?

            Well, remember what we talked about last week.  The Apostle Paul, who wrote the letter to the Ephesians, told us we are to put on the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, and all the rest of the armor of God “so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.  For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

            If we remember that, we’ll be able to resist the temptation to be self-righteous.  Because the fact is, it does not matter whether we’re better than anyone else.  I mean, I don’t think God looks at us that way anyway.  God does not compare us to each other and say this one is better than that one and that one is worse than this one.  God looks at us in comparison to Himself, and of course we all fall far, far short in that comparison.  And so, God looks at each one of us and sees the same thing, a sinner in need of forgiveness and salvation.

            But even if we could be better than someone else, it would not matter.  It would not do us any good.  Because, as Christians, other people are not our enemy.  Our battle is not with them.  Our battle is against the devil’s schemes.  Our battle is against the powers of the dark world and the spiritual forces of evil.

            Now, in writing that other people are not our enemy, the Apostle Paul was not being naive.  Paul knew full well what people could do to him.  Paul was constantly in trouble with both the religious authorities and the governmental authorities.  He was thrown in prison more than once.  He ultimately was killed because of his faith in Jesus.

            But Paul’s main concern was not with life on earth.  Paul’s main concern was with eternal life.  And that’s what all this armor of God is supposed to protect us against--the attacks on our eternal life.  The attempts of the spiritual forces of evil to turn us away from God.

            The breastplate of righteousness does that.  Being morally right, being virtuous, will protect us from the spiritual forces of evil.

            How does it do that?  Well, how can we be morally right?  How can we be virtuous?  By following Jesus Christ.  By doing the things Jesus told us to do.  Loving God.  Loving our neighbors.  Loving our enemies.  Praying for those who persecute us.  Teaching others to do those same things.  Going and making disciples of Jesus Christ.  If we do those things, we will be morally right and virtuous.  And we will be protected by the breastplate of righteousness.

            You put it that way, and in a way it sounds kind of simple.  And in a way, it is simple.  It’s simple, but it’s not easy.  Loving God sounds easy--probably all of us would say we love God.  But if we truly love God, we need to show that by doing all those other things Jesus told us to do, those things I just went through.  And that’s the part that’s not easy.

            Loving our neighbors, for example.  Some of our neighbors are easy to love.  There are some of our neighbors we have no problem loving.  But there are other neighbors who are a little harder to love, right?  In fact, some of our neighbors are a lot harder to love.  And it’s not necessarily because they’re bad people or anything.  It can be, but it may not be.  

Have you ever had someone just kind of rub you the wrong way?  There’s just something about them, you know?  They mean well, they’re not bad people, but--you just don’t like having to deal with them.  And neighbors like that are just hard to love.  But we need to try.  If we’re serious about putting on that breastplate of righteousness, we need to try.

And what about loving our enemies?  Boy, that’s one our whole country is struggling with right now.  When you listen to our national discussion right now, you don’t hear a whole lot of love.  You hear a lot of anger.  You hear a lot of frustration.  You hear, sometimes, outright hate.  And you hear, many times, a refusal to even listen to anyone who has a different opinion.  Loving our enemies does not seem to have a lot of support from society right now.  But it’s still what Jesus told us to do.  And if we love God, if we want to really have that breastplate of righteousness, we’ll make our best effort to do it.

We could go through all those things we mentioned that same way.  Praying for those who persecute us, making disciples of Jesus Christ, teaching others to follow the teachings of Jesus--those are all hard things for us to do.  But if we love God, if we truly want to wear that breastplate of righteousness, we need to make our best effort to do it.

We need that breastplate of righteousness, because again, remember who we’re fighting against.  Other people are not our enemy.  Our enemy is the powers of the dark world.  Our enemy is the spiritual forces of evil.  That’s who’s trying to attack us.  And the only way we can defend ourselves against those powers and forces is with God’s virtue.  The only way we can defend ourselves is with the morality that comes from God.  Our own virtue and morality will not be enough to protect us.  But God’s virtue and morality will.  And again, they may or may not protect us in our human lives on earth.  But they will protect our salvation and eternal life.

The reason righteousness is a breastplate is that righteousness is never supposed to be used as a weapon.  Righteousness cannot be used to attack someone else--if it is, it becomes self-righteousness, and self-righteousness is never good or helpful.  Righteousness is purely defensive--the way we protect ourselves from the attacks the powers and forces of evil throw at us.  And with God’s virtue and morality, we will have all the protection we need.

Be Still

You know, every time I think the world has gotten about as crazy as it can, it gets a little crazier.  First we had the economy shut down because of the corona virus.  Then we had the terrible killing of George Floyd.  Then, we had the riots in the aftermath of that killing.  Then, we had a group in Seattle take over part of the town and declare itself separate from the United States.  Then, we had people try to force Paw Patrol off the air and take a gun away from Elmer Fudd.  And then, just to put a cherry on top of everything, we had to start arguing about the patch on the Gettysburg police uniform again.

You hear all this, and you just shake your head.  Or at least, I do.  I wonder if the whole world has gone crazy, or if it’s just me.  I wonder if I should be trying to do something about all this, or at least saying something about it.  But I don’t know what I could do about it, and I really can’t think of anything I could say that would be helpful.  Besides, I don’t hear a great clamor from the public demanding to know what Jeff Adel thinks about all this, and I really can’t think of any reason why there should be such a clamor.  So, I was pretty much at a loss, and was feeling kind of helpless.

But then all of a sudden, as I was thinking about all this, I thought of Exodus 14:14.  Now, I’ll admit I didn’t realize it was Exodus 14:14.  I had to look that up.  But I remembered what it says.  It says, “The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”

Think about the context in which the Bible says this.  The people of Israel are on the run from Egypt.  They had been there as slaves, God had put a series of plagues on Egypt, and the Pharaoh had finally let them go.  But now, the Pharaoh has decided he wants the people of Israel back as slaves.  He’s sent the Egyptian army after them.  Israel did not have an army.  They did not have any weapons with which to fight.  The people of Israel think they’re done for.  They tell Moses it would’ve been better for them to just have stayed in Egypt, to have stayed as slaves, than to be killed by the Egyptian army in the desert.

Moses answers them by saying they have nothing to worry about.  They don’t have to fight.  God will fight for them.  And then, of course, Moses uses God’s power to part the Red Sea, leads the people of Israel across, and the Red Sea closes back up around the Egyptian army, destroying it.

And so, as I thought about the current situation, I thought, I don’t have to feel at a loss.  I don’t have to feel helpless.  God is going to handle this situation, just like God handled things for the people of Israel and just like God has handled things since before the beginning of time.  In fact, God is already handling it.  We may not see it.  We may not know what God is doing or what God is going to do.  But God already has it handled.  God will fight these things for us.  We need only to be still.

Now, in being still, that does not necessarily mean we sit back and do nothing.  It means we don’t panic, we keep plugging away, and we keep doing the best we can.  Do the best we can to love God and stay faithful to God.  Do our best to love our neighbors.  Do our best to be there for each other.  Do our best to treat others and we would like them to treat us.  Do our best to go and make disciples of Jesus Christ.  Do our best, knowing that God is taking care of things and that things are going to work out the way they’re supposed to, in God’s way and at God’s time.

So, if you feel like the world has gone crazy, know that God is still in control.  God will fight for us.  In fact, God is already fighting for us.  And God will prevail.  All we need to is what it says in Psalm 46:10:  “Be still, and know that I am God.”

Rejoice In Faith

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday morning, June 14, 2020.  The Bible verses used are Philippians 1:12-26.

            The Apostle Paul led quite a life.  He started out as a radical Pharisee, out to persecute Christians wherever he could.  Then he had his dramatic conversion, on the road to Damascus, where he met Jesus Christ.  Eventually, he became one of the leaders of the early church, traveling far and wide to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ.

            If you’ve ever thought that becoming a Christian should mean that you have an easy, carefree life, looking at the life of Paul should make you get rid of that idea.  When Paul was a Pharisee, he had the respect of all the top people in society.  When he became a Christian, he became one of their main targets.  And at the time he’s writing the letter to the church at Philippi, he has been arrested for telling people about Jesus.  As he himself says, he is “in chains for Christ.”

            Think about that.  Paul has done nothing wrong.  All he’s done is tell people that Jesus is the Savior.  And for that, he’s in prison.  He’s in chains.

            And it’s important that we remember what prison was like back then.  Prison is not all that pleasant now, of course, but back then, two thousand years ago it was a lot worse.  The cells were poorly ventilated.  They were either very cold or very hot.  As for the sanitary conditions, well, let’s just say there was no such thing as indoor plumbing.  There was filth, there were rats, there were all kinds of bugs.  You got very little to eat or drink.  And if you were in chains, as Paul says he was, there was nothing you could do about any of that.  In many cases, the Roman government was spared the bother and expense of a trial because people died before they ever went to trial.

            How do you think you’d feel at this point, if you were Paul?  Probably not very good.  You might be angry.  You might be bitter.  You might dwell on the unfairness of it all.  You might wonder why God was letting all these things happen to you.  You might even start to feel like God had abandoned you.  In fact, you might wonder if God was even there at all.

            None of that is how Paul felt.  Paul says that he rejoices!  And he says he will continue to rejoice!  That’s pretty amazing, right?  If I was in Paul’s situation, the last thing I would do is rejoice.  But Paul does.  And he tells us why.

            Here’s the first one:  he says, “because of my chains, most of the brothers and sisters have become confident in the Lord and dare all the more to proclaim the gospel all the more without fear.”

            In other words, Paul is saying that the way he is handling this is an example for others to follow.  Other Christians are watching how Paul handles being arrested and thrown in prison for telling the truth about Jesus.  

            What are they seeing?  They’re seeing a few things.  First, they’re seeing someone who is not going to back down.  No matter what the authorities do to Paul, he’s going to continue to tell everyone he can about Jesus.  No threats, no earthly punishments, no nothing can stop him or even slow him down.  He has no regrets and no second thoughts about telling people about Jesus.  In fact, to the extent he can, he’s still doing it while he’s in prison!  Paul knows that seeing that will help others do it, too.  And that’s something for Paul to rejoice about!

            Second, they’re seeing Paul’s attitude about this.  They’re seeing that he is not angry or bitter.  He is not sitting around whining about how unfair all this is.  He’s not scared and he’s not worried.  He’s confident.  Paul knows he’s doing the right thing.  Paul knows he’s doing what the Lord wants him to do.  And so, whatever happens is what happens.  Paul knows that he has no control over what’s going to happen to him.  But that’s okay.  Paul does have control over what he says and what he does.  And he’s going to remain faithful to God.  He’s going to continue to have faith in Jesus as the Savior, and he’s going to serve the Lord as well as he can for as long as he can.  If they kill him, well, then they kill him.  But he’ll die knowing that he was faithful to God to his last breath.  And he knows other Christians will be inspired by his example.  That’s something for Paul to rejoice about, too!

And that brings us to the other thing Christians were seeing when they saw how Paul handled this.  They saw someone who was not afraid to die for Christ.  Listen to what he says:  “I will continue to rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and God’s provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance.”  And then Paul says this:  “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”

            Paul says, I know I’m going to be taken out of this current situation.  And when I am, it’s going to be a win-win for me,  Because one of two things is going to happen.  They’re going to let me go, and I’m going to live and continue to spread the word about Jesus Christ.  Or, they’re going to kill me, and I’m going to go to heaven and be with the Lord.  The way Paul looks at that, either way, I win!  And so, I can rejoice!

            Now, this is where I’m supposed to say we should look at things this way, too.  We should stay faithful to God no matter what happens, even if it seems unfair.  We should stay positive and keep serving God no matter what happens.  And we should not be afraid even to die, because we know that by our faith and by God’s grace, when we die we’ll go to be with the Lord.  And we should rejoice through all of this, because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

            All that’s true, of course.  But it’s not all that easy to do, is it?  It’s easy to say.  Lots of things are easy to say.  Doing them is entirely different.  When we’re in a tough situation, when things are going against us, when we don’t know what’s going to happen to us, it’s pretty hard to do what Paul did.  It can be pretty hard to say, “I’m going to stay faithful to God and I’m going to stay positive and even if I die I can rejoice about it all, because I’m going to be with the Lord.”

It can be hard.  But it should be our goal.  After all, what Paul did makes perfect sense for a Christian.  We should continue to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ to everyone, no matter what our circumstances are.  We should stay faithful to God, even if that faithfulness gets us into trouble on earth.  We should continue to serve God in every way we can, no matter what others may think and no matter what others may do.  And we should continue to rejoice, even in the face of death, because of God’s promise of salvation and eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ.

Those things that people saw in Paul are the same things we should want people to see in us.  After all, in a town this size, most people know whether we’re Christians or not.  Most people know whether we attend church regularly, whether we claim to have faith in Jesus Christ as the Savior.  Because of that, when people see us, they’re seeing how a Christian behaves.  They’re seeing how a Christian reacts to things.  And especially, people who are not Christians, and who don’t attend church, are seeing that.  And what they see in us will be what their impression of a Christian is.  

We want them to see in us what people saw in Paul.  We want them to see someone who will not back down, someone who has dedicated their life to Christ and will continue to do so no matter what the consequences may be.  We want them to see someone who, when things go against us, is not angry or bitter or whiny or scared.  We want them to see someone who remains faithful to God and is determined to serve God as long as they can and as well as they can, no matter what may happen.  We want them to see someone who can face even death bravely and with confidence, knowing that when death comes we will have eternal life with the Lord.  We want them to see someone who can rejoice through it all, knowing that God is always with us and that God will see us through.  And we want people to be inspired by our example, just as people were inspired by Paul’s example.

It’s not easy.  But it was not easy for Paul, either.  That’s a mistake we make sometimes.  We read passages like this, and we think, well, it was easy for Paul to feel that way.  After all, he was, well, he was Paul.  He was one of the greatest Christians ever.  

But Paul was just a human being, the way you and I are.  He had all the feelings, all the emotions, all the fears we do.  It had to be very tempting for him to stop preaching so forcefully about Jesus.  It had to be very tempting for him to wonder why God was allowing all these things to happen to him.  It had to be very tempting for him to feel like it was not fair, to get scared, to feel all the things you or I might feel if we were in Paul’s situation.  Being able to rejoice in that situation was not easy for Paul, any more than it would be for you or me.

How did he do it?  Faith.  Paul had complete and total faith in Jesus Christ.  Because of that faith, he was able to keep speaking out for Jesus.  Because of that faith, he did not wonder why God was allowing these things to happen--he knew there had to be a reason, even if he did not know what it was.  And because of that faith, Paul was not scared even in the face of death, because he knew that God would take care of him regardless of whether he lived or died.  In fact, even facing the prospect of death, Paul could rejoice!

            Paul had that much faith.  And that should give us confidence that we can have that much faith, too.  Because, again, Paul was just a human being, the way you and I are.  If Paul, as a mere human being, could have that much faith, then you and I, as mere human beings, can have that much faith, too.

            Jesus told us to spread the gospel and make disciples, just as surely as he told Paul to do that.  Let’s never back down from that, no matter what the circumstances are.  Let’s stay faithful to God, no matter what may happen.  And let’s rejoice, no matter what may happen to us.  Because God will always be there for us, all the way through this life and into the next one.

The Belt of Truth

This is the message given in the Sunday night service in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on June 7, 2020.  The Bible verses used are Ephesians 6:10-18.

            The world is a strange place these days.  It’s changed an awful lot, and it’s changed really quickly.  Four months ago hardly anyone had heard of the coronavirus--now everyone has.  Four months ago the idea that schools and churches would be closed for months, that the economy would be shutdown, that there’d be no professional, college, or even high school sports--that would’ve been unthinkable.  People would’ve looked at you like you were crazy if you had said that was going to happen.

            And look at how much it’s changed in the last two weeks.  Two weeks ago no one had heard of George Floyd outside of his family and friends.  Now, just about everyone in the world knows who he was and how he died.  His death and the things done in its aftermath--again, two weeks ago, who would’ve thought that all this was going to happen?

            When the world changes so much and so fast, it can leave our heads spinning.  We look for something solid to hold onto, and sometimes it just does not seem to be there.  We feel helpless.  We feel like we’re being pushed and pulled in all directions by forces we cannot see or deal with.

            So, we say, “Well, I’ll leave it in God’s hands.”  And there’s nothing wrong with that, of course.  In fact, it’s a good idea to put things in God’s hands.  After all, what better hands could there be?  But sometimes, we say that with kind of a shrug of the shoulders.  We say it as a last resort.  We leave it in God’s hands because we don’t know anything else we can do.

            But as Christians, we are not helpless.  God has not abandoned us to the whims of the world.  God has given us all kinds of power.  We have, as the Apostle Paul puts it, “the full armor of God.”

            The first thing to note about that is that Paul tells us that “our struggle is not against flesh and blood”.  The armor of God is not aimed at other people.  The struggle is “against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”  That’s who the armor of God is protecting us against.  We put on this armor of God, Paul says, so that “when the day of evil comes, [we] may be able to stand our ground.”

            As Christians, we need to be able to stand our ground against the forces of evil.  So, we’re going to look at what this armor of God consists of.  And the first thing it consists of, Paul tells us, is the “belt of truth”, buckled around the waist.

            Have you ever wondered why the truth is referred to as a belt?  I don’t know if I have.  I just thought of it as kind of a clever phrase.  

But when you think about it, it makes a lot of sense that the truth would be a belt.  After all, what does a belt do?  It holds things together, right?  In ancient times, the belt was what held a scabbard in place, and a scabbard is what held your sword.  In other words, if you did not have a belt, you would not have anything with which to defend yourself.

That’s what the truth does for us.  The truth holds everything together.  The truth provides us with a defense against the dark world and the spiritual forces of evil.  When we know the truth, we can defend ourselves against those things.

The world does not always value truth these days.  In fact, quite often, we’re told that there is no such thing as truth.  Or, we’re told that there are multiple truths, that my truth can be different from your truth.  We’re told that something that is not actually true can still “reflect the truth”, that it can be accurate even though it’s false.  We’re told that it’s okay to make stuff up or even just outright lie about things as long as those things are in service to some “larger truth”.

But truth is incredibly important to God.  Jesus says it over and over in the gospels.  Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life.”  Jesus said, “Whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.”  Jesus said that whoever accepted the word of Jesus “has certified that God is truthful”.  Jesus said, “God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”  

The Apostle Paul wrote about the importance of truth.  He wrote, “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness.”  He tells us those people, “exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator.”  By doing so, Paul says that “although they claimed to be wise, they were fools.”

Paul has more to say about the truth.  He says that God’s judgment is based on truth.  He says that Christ became a servant of the Jews on behalf of God’s truth.  He says that “by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.”  He says that we are saved, “through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth.”  He says we should do our best to present ourselves to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.”

So again, the truth is incredibly important to God.  But what truth?  I mean, yes, truth is truth.  I’m not denying that.  But two plus two equals four is truth.  I am sixty-one years old is truth.  I wore a tie this morning is truth.  But none of those truths will get us into heaven.  And none of those truths will defend us against the dark world and the spiritual forces of evil, either. 

So when we talk about the importance of truth, what are we really talking about?  We’re talking about the truth of God, as given to us through the teaching of Jesus Christ.  Jesus said this:  “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.  Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

The way we know the truth is to follow the teachings of Jesus.  Love God.  Love others.  Love even our enemies.  Forgive those who have wronged us.  Treat others, not as they actually treat us, but as we would like them to treat us.  Put away our selfish wants and desires.  Live in a way that brings honor and glory to God.  Tell others about Jesus, so they can come to have faith and be saved.

When we follow the teachings of Jesus, we live our lives in truth.  And when we live our lives in truth, that truth will defend us against the forces of evil.

When evil tells us to turn away from God, our response is to love God.  When evil tries to divide us and separate us, our response is to love everyone.  When evil tries to tell us it’s us against them, our response is to love even our enemies.  When evil tells us to hold a grudge, to get revenge, to get even with people, our response is to forgive them.  When evil tells that someone has treated us poorly and we should respond the same way, our response is to be kind to them, because that’s how we’d like to be treated.  When evil tells us to look out for number one and make sure we get ours, our response is to give generously and selflessly, not just of our money but of our time and of our love.  When evil tells us that whatever we want to do is okay, our response is to live in a way that brings glory and honor to God.  When evil tells us it’s okay to believe in any God or no God, that all roads lead to heaven, that all that matters is that you’re a nice person, our response is to tell people about the Savior, Jesus Christ.

That’s living in truth.  That’s using the truth to defend ourselves against the forces of evil.  When we live in that truth, the forces of evil cannot touch us.  

Now, don’t misunderstand that.  It is certainly true that when we live in the truth, there will be consequences on earth.  And sometimes those consequences will not be easy.  Jesus never hid that, and we should not hide it, either.  There will be times when people will take advantage of us.  There will be times when people mistake our love and our forgiveness as weakness.  There will be times when we give and, instead of getting a thank you, we’ll get a demand for more.  There will be times when people make fun of us and criticize us for living in a way that brings honor and glory to God.  There will be times when people call us narrow-minded and judgmental for saying that the road to heaven runs through faith in Jesus Christ and there is no other path.  Jesus never said the life of a Christian would be easy while we’re on earth.  You and I need to live in that truth, too.

But it’s still true that when we live in the truth, the forces of evil cannot touch us.  They may be able to touch us on earth.  But they cannot touch us in eternity.  When we live in the truth, we can be confident that we will have salvation and eternal life.  No matter how powerful the forces of evil may appear, they cannot touch us there.

“Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist.”  When we have God’s truth, we can stand firm.  God’s truth holds everything together.  It’s our defense against the forces of evil.  When we have God’s truth, we have the protection of God.