Jesus Will Return

 

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered on Sunday, the 25th of June, 2023, at Pilgrim Reformed Church.  Our YouTube streaming channel is: 

https://www.youtube.com/@pilgrimreformedchurch1992/streams.]

This morning we’re going to finish up with the Apostle Peter’s two letters to the early church.  Peter has mostly written words of encouragement to those Christians that were scattered out over the known world, and to us today.  He shared with them, and us, that our hope is in Christ, that He is the reason for our hope, the foundation of our hope.

The Apostle cautioned us not to return to our old, sinful ways, but instead to strive to live a holy life, to be more righteous in God’s eyes.  He reminded us that we were chosen by God to be the living stones of His Son’s church, with Jesus Himself as the Cornerstone.

He gave us testimony into the three Persons of God and exhorted us to be virtuous, to practice self-control, and to patiently endure all that we are faced with.  And he warned us that false prophets, false teachers and preachers, still abound even to this day, spreading their lies, deceiving good people, leading to their eternal doom.

So I think we can see that Peter’s letters are a mix of flowers and thorns.  He offers great encouragement, followed by dire warnings.  But if we consider his audience, this is exactly what they needed - encouragement to stay the course coupled with warnings about the dangers ahead.

And as he closes his final letter, Peter stays true to form.  Here, though, he looks into the future not for additional warnings, but to a wonderful day yet to come.  Please listen and follow along to the 3rd and final chapter of Peter’s 2nd letter to the early church, and I’ll be reading from the Contemporary English Version of our Holy Bible this morning…

1 My dear friends, this is the second letter I have written to encourage you to do some honest thinking. I don't want you to forget 2 what God's prophets said would happen. You must never forget what the holy prophets taught in the past. And you must remember what the apostles told you our Lord and Savior has commanded us to do.

3  But first you must realize that in the last days some people won't think about anything except their own selfish desires. They will make fun of you 4 and say, “Didn't your Lord promise to come back? Yet the first leaders have already died, and the world hasn't changed a bit.”

5  They will say this because they want to forget that long ago the heavens and the earth were made at God's command. The earth came out of water and was made from water. 6  Later it was destroyed by the waters of a mighty flood. 7 But God has commanded the present heavens and earth to remain until the day of judgment. Then they will be set on fire, and ungodly people will be destroyed.

8  Dear friends, don't forget that for the Lord one day is the same as 1,000 years, and 1,000 years is the same as one day. 9 The Lord isn't slow about keeping His promises, as some people think He is. In fact, God is patient, because He wants everyone to turn from sin and no one to be lost.

10  The day of the Lord's return will surprise us like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a loud noise, and the heat will melt the whole universe. Then the earth and everything on it will go up in flames.

11 Everything will be destroyed. So you should serve and honor God by the way you live. 12 You should look forward to the day when God judges everyone, and you should eagerly desire for that day to come. On that day the heavens will be destroyed by fire, and everything else will melt in the heat. 13  But God has promised us a new heaven and a new earth, where justice will rule. We are really looking forward to this!

14 My friends, while you are waiting, you should make certain the Lord finds you pure, spotless, and living at peace. 15 Don't forget that the Lord is patient because He wants people to be saved. This is also what our dear friend Paul said when he wrote you with the wisdom God had given him. 16 Paul talks about these same things in all his letters, but part of what he says is hard to understand. Some ignorant and unsteady people even destroy themselves by twisting what he said. They do the same thing with other Scriptures too.

17 My dear friends, you have been warned ahead of time! So don't let the errors of evil people lead you down the wrong path and make you lose your balance. 18 Let the gift of undeserved grace and the understanding that come from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ help you keep on growing. Praise Jesus now and forever! Amen.

--2 Peter 3 (CEV)

Let us pray…  Almighty God, we know You are patient.  You hold Your wrath in check, giving everyone the chance to turn from their sin and accept Jesus as Lord so that none might be lost.  Thank You, Father, for showing so much love and mercy for Your misbehaving creation.  Sadly, though, Father, not everyone believes.  Many have hearts of stone and will not repent.  Many refuse to believe.  Please, Father, help us help the lost.  Please guide us in ways to reach out to the unbelieving world and show them Jesus by how we live and act.  And please help us resist the temptation to return to our old life.  Please shield us, Father, from those who serve Satan and spread his deceitful lies.  Remind us of what we have been taught about salvation through Jesus and our need for righteous living.  And Father, please keep us strong in our faith, of one mind and one purpose in our love, worship, and service, and healthy and safe in the days ahead.

Speak to us now, Father, that we might hear Your voice through Your Spirit within us and better understand the message You have for us this day.  Please help us see the red flags Your Spirit raises before we fall into the devil’s trap.  Help us remember that our Lord will return for us, so we must remain washed clean of our sin by the blood of the Spotless Lamb.  This we pray in the precious name of Your Son, Christ Jesus our Lord.   Amen.

July is just around the corner, and it also happens to be Family Reunion Month.  So I thought I'd push the calendar just a bit with this little story, told by some unknown narrator:

My entire family has come from various parts of the country to a family reunion during the holidays. On a Saturday, we headed to a local museum and outdoor park for the day.

About midday, my niece, age six, is playing with our various children while the adults sit and talk. A few minutes later, she proudly comes to us and says that she has gotten the family reunion photo done.

We are confused and try to understand what is going on. We press her for more information, as we are worried that some stranger was taking photos of random six-year-old girls.

However, it turns out that, when she was out of our direct view, another family had been taking a professional family reunion photo and had accidentally included her in it, thinking she was a member of their families.

I have always imagined, somewhere in America, there is a set of grandparents and siblings trying to figure out which of their families this random, not actually related, six-year-old belongs to.

There’s an expression used today known as “photo bombing”.  It’s when one person sneaks into another person’s photograph.  Like if we were out at an event somewhere and I was going to take a picture of Erin and Chad and Steve came and stood behind them smiling and waving.

That little girl was photo bombing some other family’s reunion pictures.  And I can just imagine the puzzlement that family must have felt later on as they looked through all the photos from that day.  “Now, who does this little girl belong to?  Is she Blanche’s granddaughter???”

Well, there’s one family reunion where everyone will belong, and everyone will know each other, because it will be one big family!  I’m talking about the family of God made up of all who believe in His Son Jesus, and the great reunion we will someday have when Jesus comes again to take His church home.  Little girls, old men…  we’ll all become new again and be welcomed with open arms.  And we’ll know one another as children of God.

We all know how often the Apostle Paul was arrested and held prisoner, usually beaten in the process.  Well, Peter was not spared a similar fate.  He was placed under house arrest as the Roman Emperor Nero waged a reign of persecution against the church.  He wrote his first letter while imprisoned in Rome.  And he was martyred, executed by the Roman authorities, shortly after writing this second.

Peter must have foreseen this, for in the 1st chapter of this letter he wrote that “the laying aside of my earthly dwelling is imminent”.  We can hear the urgency in his voice, the need to share extremely important information with us while he still drew breath.  Peter wants… no, Peter needs us to understand that our Lord Jesus will return!  There will be naysayers and scoffers who will ridicule us for our belief, asking when will this magnificent event occur, why hasn’t it happened yet, if we are disobeying this God you speak of, why hasn’t He already done something about it?

Thanks to Peter, we can answer those questions.  When?  Well, we don’t know, and we’re not supposed to.  Jesus has promised to come like a thief in the night, not to steal anything, but to come unannounced and by surprise.  If we knew when He is coming, we could do anything we want, live as sinfully as we pleased, and then repent at the last moment and be spared.  No, He wants us to live righteously, waiting patiently for Him to come and take us home.

Why is God still holding His hand of wrath, rather than melting the whole universe down as He said He would?  Because God is patient.  He loves His creation and wants all people to be saved, so He gives us every possible chance to turn from our sin and seek His face.

But God’s patience will someday run out and the Day of Judgment will be upon the earth and all its inhabitants.  Everything will be destroyed.  The heavens will go up in flames and everything else will melt in the heat, all to be replaced by a new heaven and a new earth where justice will rule forever.

So Peter warns us not to be led astray by wicked people who serve Satan.  And he reminds us of the Apostle Paul’s words along the same lines as these, backing up his writings with another authoritative reference.  “You have been warned ahead of time!”, Peter exclaims.  “So don’t fall victim to deceitful lies.”

But along with all the warnings are words of encouragement for the believer.  The evil ones who persecuted us and lied to us and tried to rob us of our faith will finally get the punishment they deserve.  We will be avenged.  They may have gotten away with their wickedness in this life, but they’ll pay the price in the next.

For the believer, though, a new home awaits, our home with Jesus, where true justice will prevail and rule for all eternity.  Jesus spoke of this new home and his words were recorded by the Apostle John in the 14th chapter of his Gospel account, verses 1 through 3…

1 Jesus said to his disciples, “Don't be worried! You have faith in God, so have faith in Me. 2 There are many rooms in My Father's house. I wouldn't tell you this, unless it was true. I am going there to prepare a place for each of you. 3 After I have done this, I will come back and take you with Me. Then we will be together.”

--John 14:1-3 (CEV)

There’s the promise: “I will come back and take you with Me.”  Jesus promises He will come back for us, His church, no matter how far we may be scattered apart.  We don’t know when this will happen, but Paul tells us what it will look like when our Lord returns.  Hear what Paul wrote in his 1st letter to the Thessalonians, chapter 4 verses 16 and 17…

16  With a loud command and with the shout of the chief angel and a blast of God's trumpet, the Lord will return from heaven. Then those who had faith in Christ before they died will be raised to life. 17 Next, all of us who are still alive will be taken up into the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the sky. From that time on we will all be with the Lord forever.

--1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 (CEV)

That’s the great family reunion I spoke of earlier, when all who have died before us are raised again to life, and they and those who are still alive are taken up into the clouds together, to be with Jesus forever.  This is what we have to look forward to.  This is what we are saved for.

Family, Jesus will return.  Don’t pay any attention to anyone who says otherwise.  Satan, through the wicked people who so willingly do his bidding, will try to convince us that not only will Jesus not return, but that neither Jesus nor God even exist in the first place!

We have been warned.  We have been taught the truth.  Now it’s up to us to stay true, to maintain our belief, to keep maturing and growing in our faith.  We have been given underserved grace and the understanding that comes from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Let us thank Him and praise Him and give Him all the glory.  And let us share the warning and the truth, that Jesus will return, so that others might be saved.

In the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord, the one true Son of God.  Come, Lord Jesus, come.  Amen.

Let us pray…  Almighty God, thank You for the undeserved grace You show us.  Even though we are disobedient children, You love us so much that You keep giving us the chance to turn from our sinful ways and do what is right.  You sent Your Son to offer us salvation, and He died to this earthly life to wash us clean of our sin.  Some sweet day, You will send Him back to earth again, this time to judge all of creation.  Father, thank You for giving us the faith to believe in Jesus as Your Christ, even as others mock us for our faith.  Forgive them, please Father.  Please help us see through their lies and deceitful ways.  And please help us not be afraid to reach out to them, showing them Your love, so that they may be saved by Your mercy and grace.  And Father, please shield us from Satan as he attacks our faith and tries to pull us away from You.  Help us be better servants, glorifying You in all we do so that the world can see You in us, through our deeds, in how we live.  And help us remain strong, faithful, and true to You in all things, no matter what the world throws at us or holds out before us.

Please hear us now, Father, as we pause for just a moment to speak to You through Your Spirit within us, promising to be more obedient to Your commands, and seeking Your help to do so…

Lord Jesus, You came once to save us if we would just listen and believe.  You will come again, this time to judge us whether we listen or not.  Thank You, Lord, for giving of Yourself that we might be saved.  By Your blood we are washed clean to stand before God at our last.  And because we listened and believed, we will spend eternity with You and our heavenly Father.  No greater reward could a person ever ask for or receive.  Please, Jesus, help us be more obedient children.  Help us grow and mature in our faith by following Your example and Your word.  Shield our minds and our hearts from the world’s lies and empty promises.  Guide us around the clever ploys and snares, all the temptations the devil uses to entrap us.

And Jesus, please help us be faithful and true to You, putting all our trust in You, all our hope in You.  Please heal the hurts that separate and divide us one from another.  Help us keep our focus on the things of heaven and the needs of others rather than on anything this life might offer.  This we pray in Your blessed name, Christ Jesus our Lord and our Savior.  Amen.

The Prodigal's Father

 

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered on Father's Day, Sunday, the 18h of June, 2023, at Pilgrim Reformed Church.  Our YouTube streaming channel is: 

https://www.youtube.com/@pilgrimreformedchurch1992/streams.]

When the Pharisees and scribes complained that Jesus associated with tax collectors and sinners, He used the parable of the lost sheep and the parable of the lost coin to explain how important it is for even one sinner to repent.  Then He told them the parable of the prodigal son as a further example.

This is also sometimes referred to as the parable of the lost son, for the young man had certainly gone astray.  But the New English Translation has a different name for this story, one much more meaningful to us today, and one I feel better reflects the message to us.  The NET titles this passage, “The Parable of the Compassionate Father”.  For while the son and the wasteful lifestyle he first pursued and then repented from forms the basis of the story, the father is the real hero, showing compassion for his son, forgiving him and welcoming him home.

So let’s see how all this transpired, according to the Apostle Luke’s research and interviews of those who heard it told that day.  Please listen and follow along as I read from chapter 15 of Luke’s Gospel account, verses 11 through 32, and I’ll be reading from the New English Translation of our Holy Bible…

11 Then Jesus said, “A man had two sons. 12 The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the estate that will belong to me.’ So he divided his assets between them. 13 After a few days, the younger son gathered together all he had and left on a journey to a distant country, and there he squandered his wealth with a wild lifestyle. 14 Then after he had spent everything, a severe famine took place in that country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and worked for one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He was longing to eat the carob pods the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. 17 But when he came to his senses he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired workers have food enough to spare, but here I am dying from hunger! 18 I will get up and go to my father and say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired workers.”’ 20 So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still a long way from home his father saw him, and his heart went out to him; he ran and hugged his son and kissed him. 21 Then his son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 But the father said to his slaves, ‘Hurry! Bring the best robe, and put it on him! Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet! 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it! Let us eat and celebrate, 24 because this son of mine was dead, and is alive again — he was lost and is found!’ So they began to celebrate.

25 “Now his older son was in the field. As he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the slaves and asked what was happening. 27 The slave replied, ‘Your brother has returned, and your father has killed the fattened calf because he got his son back safe and sound.’ 28 But the older son became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and appealed to him, 29 but he answered his father, ‘Look! These many years I have worked like a slave for you, and I never disobeyed your commands. Yet you never gave me even a goat so that I could celebrate with my friends! 30 But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your assets with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’ 31 Then the father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and everything that belongs to me is yours. 32 It was appropriate to celebrate and be glad, for your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost and is found.’”

--Luke 15:11-32 (NET)

Let us pray…  Almighty God, You sent Your Son Jesus to offer us salvation, and He held out open arms to all people, inviting us in.  Thank You, Father, for being so gracious and compassionate toward us.  And thank You for forgiving and forgetting our sin through Your Christ Jesus.  Too many people, though, questioned Him while He still walked among us.  They refused to accept Him for what He was.  This was especially true among the religious leaders of the day, who swayed others against Him, too.  Sadly, all this is still true today, even among our religious and government leaders.  Please, Father, help these people see the truth.  Please have Your Holy Spirit work a little harder on them that their hearts might be softened.  And please help us and give us the right words to say if we have the opportunity to talk to them.  Please shield us, Father, from those who serve Satan by spreading his lies and making empty promises, and who attack the basic family unit itself.  Remind us of our creation and Your grand design.  And Father, please keep us strong in our faith, of one mind and one purpose in our love, worship, and service, and healthy and safe in the days ahead.

Speak to us now, Father, that we might hear Your voice through Your Spirit within us and better understand the message You have for us this day.  Please help all of us understand the importance and great impact of a father in his child’s life.  Help us remain steadfast in our relationships with one another, that we might glorify You.  This we pray in the precious name of Your Son, Christ Jesus our Lord.   Amen.

I've used this little illustration before, and I'm sure I'll use it again because I love it so much, it touches me so deeply:

There's a Spanish story of a father and son who had become estranged.  The son ran away, and the father set off to find him.  He searched for months to no avail.  Finally, in a last desperate effort to find him, the father put an ad in a Madrid newspaper.  The ad read: “Dear Paco, meet me in front of this newspaper office at noon on Saturday.  All is forgiven.  I love you.  Your Father.”  On Saturday at noon, 800 Paco’s turned out at that office, looking for forgiveness and love from their fathers.

Can’t you just see that picture?  Hundreds of men crowded together in an already crowded capital city, blocking the street, looking all around, searching… longing to find the face of the one who still loves them, who is willing to forgive them for their rebellious ways.  Can you see the anticipation, the desperation, on their faces as their gaze flashes from one person to the next.  And they all seek the same man – their father.

Family, there are so many people in this world today who are lost.  Many are searching for that one person who loves them no matter what, who will forgive anything they’ve done.  But they don’t know where to look.  They don’t even know who to look for.

We believers don’t have to look.  We’ve already found Him.  We have the very best Father, who loves us, who forgives us of our disobedience toward Him.  And all because we accepted His one true Son as our Lord.  We need to show others the way to our Father in heaven, before it is too late for them.

Let’s look a little more closely at our scripture passage, trying to see the scene as those people gathered around Jesus that day would have envisioned it.  Now we first need to realize that our Lord’s audience would have been mostly, if not all, Jews.  There may have been a few Gentiles scattered around - we don’t know - but it was mainly the Pharisees and scribes and the disciples and others who followed Jesus at that time.

After the younger son blew through his early inheritance, he was forced to work very common labor just to afford something to eat.  To a Jew, being sent into the fields to feed pigs would be an insult, since pigs were seen as unclean by them.  So the Jews listening to the story could relate to just how far this wayward son had fallen.

Eventually the prodigal came to his senses, swallowed his pride, tucked his tail between his legs, and headed home.  When he humbly utters the words, "Father, I have sinned", he shows a penitent attitude, shows that he was indeed lost but is looking for his way back home.

I can’t help but wonder how many people, how many men, would have responded to the boy something like this: “You danged fool idiot!  I tried to warn you.  But noooooo, you knew so much more than me.  And here you come, with your hat in hand, looking for another free lunch.  Boy, will you ever learn!??!”  Seems to me that I got a few well-deserved lectures like that in my younger days.

But that isn’t what happened here, is it.  The father ran out to meet the boy with open arms, not only welcoming him back home but ordering his household staff to prepare a feast to celebrate his return.  From the father’s perspective, his son had been lost but now was found, had been dead but was alive again.

The older son wasn’t quite so happy about all this.  He had stayed behind to work the farm and help his father.  He had asked for nothing extra, and nothing had been given, not even a barbequed goat for a little party with friends.  All this fuss for his wasteful brother angered him and he confronted his father about it.

But again the father was extremely gracious, explaining how all his possessions, everything he had, also belonged to the older son.  And he encouraged his son to rejoice with him at his brother’s return, for he was no longer lost.

Many see the prodigal son as the central character in this story, this parable.  But I see him as the example.  Through him we can see rashness and foolishness and a huge mistake made, followed by a humble, repentant attitude.

No, to me, the major figure of this parable is the father who forgives his son and welcomes him home.  And this forgiving father represents God, our heavenly Father, and His compassionate response when we humbly come to Him, admitting we have sinned against Him and are not worthy to be His child.  But there stands God, always ready with out-stretched arms to welcome the sinner who comes back to Him.  The father shows total acceptance of bringing the prodigal back into the family, just as God fully receives the repentant sinner back into His family.

There’s one other character in the story.  The older son can be seen as the Pharisees and scribes, complaining about the treatment the younger son, the sinner, receives, questioning the father's wisdom.  He has to be reminded that the prodigal is his brother, and part of the family, who was lost but now is found.

So if the compassionate father is God, and the older son stands for the religious leaders of the day, have you figured out who the prodigal represents in this little tale?  We are the prodigal, we who at some point disobeyed God, we who went off on our own, turning our backs on our heavenly Father, we who came back and were shown undeserved love and grace.

Not all fathers are good dads – some never even stayed with their children - and not all good Dads are fathers, still, I would venture to say that most of us here had good fathers.  They took care of us, provided for our needs, taught us how to ride a bike and other important life lessons.

Those of us who are fathers know it’s not all that easy a job, and it carries a ton of responsibility if you try to do it right.  But no matter how good we are at being a loving, providing father, we will never be as good as our Father God.  He’s the best Dad ever!  He took us on when we were nothing but brats.  He adopted us when He didn’t have to.  And He gives us everything we need, and then piles more on so that we can enjoy this life.

Listen to what the Apostle James, the brother of Jesus, has to say about a very generous Father as I read from the 1st chapter of his letter to the early church, verses 16 through 18…

16 Do not be led astray, my dear brothers and sisters. 17 All generous giving and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or the slightest hint of change. 18 By His sovereign plan He gave us birth through the message of truth, that we would be a kind of firstfruits of all He created.

--James 1:16-18 (NET)

Every perfect gift comes from God.  You know, we try hard to come up with just the right gift for someone, don’t we, no matter the occasion.  Whatever we end up giving, though, is actually imperfect – it won’t last, it will eventually wear out or fall apart or go hopelessly out of style.

But God gives perfect gifts, just what we need when we need it, eternal gifts, including salvation.  Just as God is perfect, with no variation in His manner or love, nor the slightest hint of change in His plan or His word.  He gave us birth, not only into this life, but also into our new life, through the message of truth, the Gospel message.

Family, God is good… all the time.  And all the time… God is good.  Let us thank Him and praise Him and give Him all the glory.  That’s all He wants from His beloved children on Father’s Day.

In the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord, the Son of our heavenly Father.  Amen.

Let us pray…  Almighty God, thank You for our earthly fathers.  You gave us the institution of the family unit so that we would have a good safe environment to grow up in.  And good fathers model themselves after You, seeing to our needs, teaching us the ways of life, helping us grow into responsible adults.  Sadly, not all families are safe, or whole.  There are many fathers who refuse to be a part of their child’s life.  Forgive them, please Father.  Please help all fathers be more like You.  And especially please help and uphold those mothers who also have to stand as fathers for their children.  Please forgive us when we shirk our duties.  Forgive us those times, Father, when we could do more, but don’t.  And Father, please shield us from the elements of this world and our society that attack our faith and try to pull us away from You.  Help us be better servants, glorifying You in all we do so that the world can see You in us, through our deeds, in how we live.  And help us remain strong, faithful, and true to You in all things, no matter what the world throws at us or holds out before us.

Please hear us now, Father, as we pause for just a moment to speak to You through Your Spirit within us, promising to be more obedient to Your commands, and seeking Your help to do so…

Lord Jesus, You taught us that when we accepted You as our Lord, God adopted us into His holy family.  He calls us His own and wants us to call Him Father, to think of Him as our Daddy, that more personal, more endearing term.  Thank You, Lord, for showing us just how much God loves us.  Please help us be more obedient children.  Help us grow and mature in our faith by following Your example and Your word.  Shield our minds and our hearts from the world’s lies and empties promises.  Guide us around the clever ploys and snares, all the temptations the devil uses to entrap us.

And Jesus, please help us be faithful and true to You, putting all our trust in You, all our hope in You.  Please heal the hurts that separate and divide us one from another.  Help us keep our focus on the things of heaven and the needs of others rather than on anything this life might offer.  This we pray in Your blessed name, Christ Jesus our Lord and our Savior.  Amen.

Do Not Be Fooled

 

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered on Sunday, the 11h of June, 2023, at Pilgrim Reformed Church.  Our YouTube streaming channel is: 

https://www.youtube.com/@pilgrimreformedchurch1992/streams.]

Family, today we’re going to finish with the Apostle Peter’s two letters to the early church.  The Christian church was established at Pentecost, shortly after Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension back into heaven.  Peter wrote his first letter when the church was only about 33 years old, and his second three years later, in 66 AD.

Thanks to the Apostle Paul’s missionary trips, and to all the apostles sharing the Gospel everywhere they went, the church quickly spread throughout the known world, all around the Mediterranean region.  These Christians were both Jewish converts and Gentiles who came to believe after hearing the Good News from the apostles.

The church experienced rapid growth and expansion, but it was also scattered all around because of persecution.  The early church suffered at the hands of the Romans and the Jews who refused to accept Jesus as the Messiah, as well as from the Pagans in the lands where they came to live.  So the believers scattered and then met in hiding.  Peter offered them reassurance, reminding them of God’s love and grace.  In fact, the main theme of his first letter is the grace of God in the life of a believer.  His second letter, though, turns to a more serious and spiritually deadly topic.

So we’re going to close out Peter’s second letter by listening to the stern alarm he raises.  We all need to pay close attention to this, because what he warns us about is happening all around us in the world today.  Just to jog your memory, Peter closed the 1st chapter of this 2nd letter by talking about the prophets of the holy Scriptures, those holy men who spoke the word of God for God.

Please listen and follow along as I read from the 2nd and closing chapter of Peter’s 2nd letter, from the Modern English Version of our Holy Bible…

1 But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. 2 And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. 3 And in their greed they will exploit you with deceptive words. Their judgment, made long ago, does not linger, and their destruction does not slumber.

4 For if God did not spare the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness to be kept for judgment; 5 and if He did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6 and if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, making them an example to those afterward who would live ungodly lives; 7 and if He delivered righteous Lot, who was distressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked 8 (for that righteous man lived among them, and what he saw and heard of their lawless deeds tormented his righteous soul day after day); 9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the Day of Judgment, 10 especially those who walk after the flesh in pursuit of unclean desires, and despise authority.

They are presumptuous and arrogant, and are not afraid to slander the angelic beings. 11 Whereas angels, who are greater in power and might, do not bring slanderous accusations against them before the Lord. 12 But these people are like irrational animals, born to be captured and destroyed. They speak evil of the things that they do not understand, and in their corruption they will be destroyed.

13 They shall receive the wages of unrighteousness. They count it a pleasure to carouse in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes who revel in their own deception while they carouse together with you. 14 They have eyes full of adultery that cannot cease from sin. They entice unstable souls. Their hearts are trained in greed. They are cursed children! 15 They have forsaken the right way and have gone astray. They follow the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of wickedness, 16 but who was rebuked for his iniquity. The mute donkey speaking with a man’s voice constrained the madness of the prophet.

17 These men are wells without water and clouds that are carried by a storm, for whom the gloom of darkness has been reserved forever. 18 For when they speak arrogant words of vanity, they entice by the lusts of the flesh and by depravity those who barely escaped from those who live in error. 19 Although they promise them freedom, they themselves are slaves of corruption, for by that which a man is overcome, to this he is enslaved. 20 For if after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. 21 For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than to have known it and then turn back from the holy commandment that was delivered to them. 22 But it has happened to them according to the true proverb, “The dog returns to his own vomit,” and “the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mud.”

--2 Peter 2 (MEV)

Let us pray…  Almighty God, Your word, spoken by Your prophets, saved for us in our Bibles by holy men and women… Your word is the truth, the only truth.  Your word is eternal and unchanging.  But Father, there are people out there who will say Your word is subject to our interpretation, that it must change with modern times.  There are preachers and teachers who lead believers and potential believers astray.  Thank You, God, for giving us the truth in Your word.  And thank You for giving us the faith to believe in Jesus, Your ultimate Word.  Father, please help us recognize lies when we hear them.  Help us discern the truth in a sea of untruths.  Shield us from those who serve Satan by spreading his lies and making a mockery of the truth, even while calling on the name of Jesus.  Remind us of Peter’s warning and keep us safe and secure in our belief and our knowledge of Your word.  And Father, please keep us strong in our faith, of one mind and one purpose in our love, worship, and service, and healthy and safe in the days ahead.

Speak to us now, Father, that we might hear Your voice through Your Spirit within us and better understand the message You have for us this day.  Please have Your Spirit warn us when an untruth is being presented to us as truth.  Help us remain steadfast in our faith, that we might better serve You.  This we pray in the precious name of Your Son, Christ Jesus our Lord.   Amen.

Back in 1980, a Reader's Digest article noted that, "If you're planning to vacation in Zambia, beware of the street-corner ‘emerald vendors’.  And if you're driving, be prepared for some confusion in the streets, owing to stolen traffic lights.”  These two warnings were related.  The traffic light thieves were smashing the light lenses and selling the green glass chips to unsuspecting tourists who thought they were getting bargain-basement emeralds.

And then in 1991, Bits & Pieces magazine reported that, “Once, when a stubborn disputer seemed unconvinced, Abraham Lincoln said, ‘Well, let's see, how many legs has a cow?’  ‘Four, of course,’ came the reply disgustedly.  ‘That's right,’ agreed Lincoln.  ‘Now suppose you call the cow's tail a leg; how many legs would the cow have?’  ‘Why, five, of course,’ was the confident reply.  ‘Now, that's where you're wrong,’ said Lincoln.  ‘Calling a cow's tail a leg doesn't make it a leg.’”

We can be so easily deceived, especially if we want something bad enough.  Our greed and our pride overcome our good sense and rational thinking.  Calling a cow's tail a leg doesn't make it a leg, no more than calling broken chips of a traffic light rare gems make them rare gems.  Not unless that's what we want them to be.  We’re all too willing to believe what we hear when it’s what we want to hear.

So Peter closed the 1st chapter of his 2nd letter saying, “For no prophecy at any time was produced by the will of man, but holy men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.” (2 Peter 1:21 (MEV))  And then opened the 2nd chapter with, “But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.”  (2 Peter 2:1 (MEV))

The destruction Peter speaks of is not necessarily delivered in this life, but definitely in the next.  Swift destruction simply means the deceivers are condemning themselves quickly with their deceptions.  And for our benefit, to warn us, Peter points out that there are still false prophets among us, even today.

One very troubling point he doesn’t mention is that not only are these false teachers condemning themselves, but they are leading other people to their own condemnation!  There are people who are gullible enough to believe anything a person of some important sounding authority will tell them.  And there are those who will readily accept anything that matches up with what they believe is correct and true, regardless of the actual truth.

There’s a modern saying that too many people fail to heed:  If it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn’t.  When they don’t listen to that sage advice, they fall victim to the predator hiding behind the smile and fancy title.  If they’re lucky, they’ll only lose their money, and not their spot in heaven. 

Peter goes on to assure us that these false teachers and preachers, these people who spew their own brand of religion, who claim to speak for God but turn His words to their own purposes, they will not escape judgment.  For God did not spare even the angels who sinned against Him, who He cast into hell until the Day of Judgment.  Nor did He spare the ancient world that He washed clean by the great flood, except for Noah, the righteous man, and his family.  The entire cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and all who dwelt in them, destroying them by fire from heaven, except for Lot – another righteous man - and his children.

If God would perform these mighty acts to punish the wicked and keep them bound in punishment until the day of reckoning, then these ungodly false prophets will also be held for eternal death and condemnation.  These will receive the wages of their unrighteousness.  The worldly pleasures they now get from their deceit and lustful living will vanish in a heartbeat when they face judgment from God and suffer forever in the lake of fire.

Peter uses a very colorful phrase to describe these people: wells without water.  What good is a well if it has no water?  Can it serve a purpose for anything more than anguish and disappointment?

Compare that to Jesus.  Remember the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well?  Jesus said, “I am the Living Water.  All who come to Me will never thirst again.”  An endless supply, or a well without water… which would you rather have?

But then Peter closes out this chapter and his letter with a dire warning.  These false prophets are doomed by their own words and actions.  And the people they sway with their clever lies may be eternally doomed too.  

Even believers, even those who know Jesus as the Christ, our Lord and Savior, even they can be condemned if they allow these liars to turn them away from Christ Jesus and back to the ways of the world.  If we know the truth, but then turn our back on it and accept the false doctrines because they just sound better to us or make more sense to us, then it will be worse for us than if we’d never known Jesus in the first place.

We must not return to our sinful ways once we have been washed clean of our sin by the precious blood of Jesus!  The Apostle Paul confirms this in the 6th chapter of his Letter to the Romans, in verses 1 through 14, when he says…

1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may increase? 2 God forbid! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? 3 Do you not know that we who were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him by baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

5 For if we have been united with Him in the likeness of His death, so shall we also be united with Him in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old man has been crucified with Him, so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we should no longer be slaves to sin. 7 For the one who has died is freed from sin.

8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death has no further dominion over Him. 10 For the death He died, He died to sin once for all, but the life He lives, He lives to God.

11 Likewise, you also consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. 13 Do not yield your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but yield yourselves to God, as those who are alive from the dead, and your bodies to God as instruments of righteousness. 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the law, but under grace.

--Romans 6:1-14 (MEV)

There are false teachers and preachers that will try to convince us that good is evil and evil good.  We see this every day, don’t we, on our TVs, in the movies and magazines?  Some have even gone so far as to call Christianity a fringe extremist group, labeling Christians as domestic terrorists.

There are many who will try to get us to serve them instead of God.  They don't care about us, only themselves.  The only concern they have for us is in what we can do for them.

We must not let them fool us.  We must not follow them down the road to perdition, to destruction, to eternal doom.  For we have been washed clean by the blood of Jesus.  And we must not return to our old sinful life and become soiled again, for then the dirt will not wash off.

Be wary, be cautious, do not be fooled.  In the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord, the Living Water, our only salvation.  Amen.

Let us pray…  Almighty God, thank You for breathing Your truth into holy men and women who saved Your word for us in our Bible.  Your word is true, infallible, unchanging, eternal.  There are some who will try to convince us that You didn’t really mean what You said, or that what You said only applies to a time long ago, that we must look at things in a more modern way now, reinterpreting what You told us.  Please help us recognize these false prophets, who claim to speak for You but certainly don’t.  Help us see through their cleverly devised plans and schemes, for they have nothing good for us.  They follow only their own agenda.  Please forgive us when we are fooled by them, start listening to them, or even give them credit for having a valid argument against Your word.  We know better, for we know Jesus.  But Father, we are sinners and sometimes we just get swept away by the flood of fast talking and reasonable sounding lies.  Forgive us those times, please Father.  Shield us from the false preachers.  Help us be better servants, glorifying You in all we do so that the world can see You in us, through our deeds, in how we live.  And help us remain strong, faithful, and true to You in all things, no matter what the world throws at us or holds out before us.

Please hear us now, Father, as we pause for just a moment to speak to You through Your Spirit within us, promising to be more obedient to Your commands, and seeking Your help to do so…

Lord Jesus, You allowed Your own precious blood to be spilled that we might be washed clean of our sin and reconciled with God.  Thank You, Lord, for making so great a sacrifice on our behalf!  Please help us stay clean.  Help us discern the truth from the lies that others try to pass off on us.  Shield our minds and our hearts from words of deceit and untrue promises.  

And Jesus, please help us be faithful and true to You, putting all our trust in You, all our hope in You.  Please heal the hurts that separate and divide us one from another.  Help us keep our focus on the things of heaven and the needs of others rather than on anything this life might offer.  This we pray in Your blessed name, Christ Jesus our Lord and our Savior.  Amen.

Three In One

 

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered on Trinity Sunday, the 4th of June, 2023, at Pilgrim Reformed Church.  Our YouTube streaming channel is: 

https://www.youtube.com/@pilgrimreformedchurch1992/streams.]

Family, today is Trinity Sunday.  This is a joyous day on our Christian Calendar when we celebrate the three Persons of God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  All three are God, and all three have existed forever, since before time began and will continue long after time ends.

A lot of people have trouble grasping this concept, even Christians.  But I think it helps to think about our own situations in life, and how we can easily be three – or more – persons in one.  For example, I am a father, I am a son, and I am a pastor.  Each “role”, each “person”, has different responsibilities, different duties, different priorities.

Now granted, my role as “son” pretty much ended once I got my parents’ estate all settled, but I will always be Ray and Yvonne’s baby boy Richard.  And my role as “father” isn’t anywhere near as complex and confusing as it used to be, but I still am one, and I have a ton of birthday and Christmas and Father’s Day cards to prove it.  And then there’s the pastor, called by God, confirmed to that calling by you, my Pilgrim family, where I do my best to minister to you and the greater community.

I do wear other hats and have other responsibilities in the community, as most of us do, but most of us can easily find three roles we fill, with each being a little different from one another.

So today we celebrate the three Persons of God.  At the same time, I also want to continue our look at Peter’s letters to the early church.  The Book of the Acts of the Apostles, written by our good physician Luke, provides us with information on the early church, how it was formed, how it spread, how its belief system matured.  But the letters written by those Apostles to the churches that were spread all over the known world, these give us great insight into the thinking of the people, and of our Lord’s disciples, in these early days.  These form the basis for our own beliefs today, our own views into Jesus and our heavenly Father and His most Holy Spirit.  Case in point: The opening to Peter’s 2nd letter to the far-flung early church provides us with evidence of the three Persons of God.

So please listen and follow along as I read from chapter 1 of Peter’s 2nd letter, from the Modern English Version of our Holy Bible…

1 Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ,

To those who have received a faith as precious as ours through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.

2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

3 His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who has called us by His own glory and excellence, 4 by which He has given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, so that through these things you might become partakers of the divine nature and escape the corruption that is in the world through lust.

5 For this reason make every effort to add virtue to your faith; and to your virtue, knowledge; 6 and to your knowledge, self-control; and to your self-control, patient endurance; and to your patient endurance, godliness; 7 and to your godliness, brotherly kindness; and to your brotherly kindness, love. 8 For if these things reside in you and abound, they ensure that you will neither be useless nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But the one who lacks these things is blind and shortsighted because he has forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.

10 Therefore, brothers, diligently make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never stumble. 11 For in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly provided for you.

12 Therefore I will not be negligent to always remind you of these things, though you know them and are established in the truth that is present with you. 13 I consider it right, as long as I live in this body, to stir you up by reminding you, 14 knowing that soon I will take off this body, even as our Lord Jesus Christ has shown me. 15 And I will also be diligent to make sure that after my death you will always remember these things.

16 For we have not followed cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. 17 For He received honor and glory from God the Father when a voice came to Him from the majestic glory, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” 18 And we ourselves heard this voice, which came from heaven, when we were with Him on the holy mountain.

19 And we have a more reliable word of prophecy, which you would do well to follow, as to a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts. 20 But know this first of all, that no prophecy of the Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation. 21 For no prophecy at any time was produced by the will of man, but holy men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

--2 Peter 1 (MEV)

Let us pray…  Almighty God, today we celebrate Your three Persons.  You are our heavenly Father, watching over us, protecting us, providing for our needs.  You are our Christ, our Lord Jesus who allowed Yourself to be sacrificed so that we could be washed clean of our sin by Your blood.  And You are the most Holy Spirit, living within us, our ever-present Guide and Companion.  Thank You, God, for choosing us to believe in Jesus, for adopting us into Your family, for giving us Your Holy Spirit.  Sadly, though, Father, we don’t always behave like good children.  We can be stubborn, disobedient little brats at times.  Please forgive us our lapses, Father, those times when we just can’t seem to stop ourselves from doing or saying something we know will displease You.  Forgive us when we inadvertently open the door to Satan and let him rule over us, even if for only a few minutes.  Remind us that we are Yours, bought at a great price.  And Father, please protect us from Satan, who deceives us and tries to pull us 

away from You.  Please shield us from those who are so willing to follow his commands.  Free us from his traps and temptations.  Please keep us strong in our faith, of one mind and one purpose in our love, worship, and service, and healthy and safe in the days ahead.

Speak to us now, Father, that we might hear Your voice through Your Spirit within us and better understand the message You have for us this day.  Please have Your Spirit show us how to be more virtuous, more righteous in Your eyes.  Help us grow and mature in our faith, that we might become partakers of Your divine nature and escape the corruption in this world.  This we pray in the precious name of Your Son, Christ Jesus our Lord.   Amen.

In our belief system here at Pilgrim, and many other churches, we call that third Person of God the Holy Spirit.  Evangelist Francis Chan calls Him the forgotten God.  Some folks still use the older term.

I love this little story from Reader's Digest and have used it before, and will probably use it again sometime.  It points out how cultural differences play a huge role in our view of things, even religious things.  The unknown author writes:

While our friends from India traveled around California on business, they left their 11 year-old daughter with us.  Curious about my going to church one Sunday morning, she decided to come along.  When we returned home, my husband asked her what she thought of the service. 

“I don't understand why the West Coast isn't included too,” she replied.  When we inquired what she meant, she added, “You know, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the whole East Coast.”

“Whole east coast” – “Holy Ghost”.  While that is a humorous little misunderstanding, it does show how cultural differences can have an impact in perception and in practice.  The child was from India, where Christianity is not very well known or practiced, and even shunned by many.  She may never have been told of the one true God, let alone His three Persons.  To me, it is tragic to think that a person may not ever hear the Gospel message just because of where they were born and raised.

This is why it is so important that we help spread the Good News to all the earth, in any way we can.  We can’t assume, even in this age of instant communications, that every person on earth has had the opportunity to learn about God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  We need to spread the Gospel everywhere we can, and not just the whole East Coast.

In our scripture reading, Peter opens his 2nd letter much as he did the 1st: by introducing himself as an apostle of Jesus and then recognizing the intended recipients of the letter.  Of course, we Christians are all recipients of his letters, we who have received that precious faith through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.

Now in this opening chapter, Peter tells us all about the things our Father God and Jesus have done for us, but I said he gives us evidence of all three Persons.  Where is the Holy Spirit, you may ask.  As is usually the case, the Holy Spirit is there in the background, doing His job quietly, without a lot of fanfare, often times not even mentioned by name.  We can see His hand in verses 5 through 8 - shoring up our faith, helping us be more virtuous, adding to our knowledge of Jesus, giving us more self-control, patience, and endurance so that we might be more godly in our behavior, kinder toward one another, more loving of all.  He resides within us, ensuring we will be neither useless nor unfruitful in the knowledge of Christ Jesus or in our service to our Lord.  And then, in the very last verse of our reading, Peter mentions the Spirit by name, acknowledging His role in the making of all prophecy, moving holy men to speak for God.  Prophesy is just that – speaking for God.  And that is what the Holy Spirit does within us.  He speaks to us for God, and He speaks to God for us.

And notice that Peter cautions that no prophecy in our scripture, nothing God said in our Bible, is subject to our interpretation.  What God said through the prophets is true and as stated.  There are many people, especially today, who call themselves teachers and preachers, who will try to tell you that what God said is not really what He meant.  Paul warned us about this, that people will hire preachers that will only tell them what they want to hear.  They’ll put their own spin on God’s word, twisting it around to fit their own agenda.  The Holy Spirit moved all the authors in our Bible to speak and record what God said and what God meant.  Don’t let anyone else fool you.

Peter also mentions something we’ve talked about a good bit recently, when God spoke from heaven at Jesus’ transfiguration and said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”  Here, Peter is giving witness to what he saw and heard there on the mountainside.

The other time that God the Father spoke to us about Jesus His Son came as the Holy Spirit descended upon Him and filled Him when Jesus rose from the waters of the River Jordan after being baptized by John.  Listen to how the Apostle Matthew recorded this in verses 13 through 17 of the 3rd chapter of his Gospel account…

13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. 14 But John prohibited Him, saying, “I need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?”

15 But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he permitted Him.

16 And when Jesus was baptized, He came up immediately out of the water. And suddenly the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending on Him like a dove. 17 And a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

--Matthew 3:13-17 (MEV)

Now in our scripture reading, Peter instructs us on how to grow and mature in our faith.  He gives us a progression that we should strive to attain to, encouraging us to be diligent to make our calling and our election by God sure and firm.  God has called us to be His, to be holy, and He has chosen us to believe in Christ Jesus, so we need to be sure to keep our faith strong, so that we do not stumble, to keep our door to heaven open.

It won’t be easy.  There will be problems and pitfalls along the way.  Back in his 1st letter, in verses 12 through 16 of chapter 4, Peter says…

12 Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you. 13 Instead, be very glad — for these trials make you partners with Christ in His suffering, so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing His glory when it is revealed to all the world.

14 If you are insulted because you bear the name of Christ, you will be blessed, for the glory of God, which is His Spirit, rests upon you. On their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified. 15 If you suffer, however, it must not be for murder, stealing, making trouble, or prying into other people’s affairs. 16 But it is no shame to suffer for being a Christian. Praise God for the privilege of being called by His name!

--1 Peter 4:12-16 (NLT)

Even here, as he’s warning us about what could very well happen to us, Peter still encourages us to keep our faith strong by invoking the three Persons of God.  “If you are insulted because you bear the name of Christ, you will be blessed, for the glory of God, which is His Spirit, rests upon you.”  God’s glory is His Holy Spirit, who dwells within us because Jesus the Son asked God to send Him to us.  And through the Holy Spirit’s guidance, we can glorify God and help bring the lost to Jesus, if we’ll just listen and obey the Spirit.

There’s one last point I’d like to make in our celebration of God’s three Persons.  And this comes from the words our Lord Jesus spoke right before He left this earth to return to His Father in heaven.  Matthew recorded these words, in the 28th chapter of his Gospel account, the second part of verse 18 through verse 20…

18b “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

--Matthew 28:18b-20 (MEV)

This is our assignment, our mission in this life, to go into the world making disciples.  We are to baptize them with water, anointing them in the names of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.  And then the Holy Spirit can baptize them with fire.  In this we show our love: helping the lost learn about Jesus so that the Holy Spirit can work on their hearts, granting them salvation by the grace of our merciful Father.

Family, we are truly blessed by our three in One.  Let us indeed celebrate the Holy Trinity, today and every day.  In the blessed name of God our heavenly Father, of Christ Jesus His Son and our Lord, and of His most Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Let us pray…  Almighty God, thank You choosing us to believe in Your Son Jesus, Your Christ sent to save us from ourselves.  Thank You for sending Your own Spirit to live within us, filling all the holes in our life.  Thank You for being a loving Father.  Please help us be more holy in Your eyes.  Help us constantly strive to mature in our faith and our service.  Please forgive us when we displease You.  Forgive us those times when we hesitate to do what we know we should do, and those times when the things we should do are left undone.  Please, loving Father, help us be better servants.  Help us always glorify You so that the world can see You in us, through our deeds, in how we live.  And help us remain strong, faithful, and true to You in all things, no matter what the world throws at us or holds out before us.

Please hear us now, Father, as we pause for just a moment to speak to You through Your Spirit within us, promising to be more obedient to Your commands, and seeking Your help to do so…

Lord Jesus, You are God’s only Son, conceived by God’s Holy Spirit though born of a woman, just like we were born.  God’s Spirit lives within us and guides us and sometimes we can feel Him and hear Him.  But it is You, dear Jesus, that we know and love best of all.  You washed us clean with Your own precious blood, spilled just so that we might be reconciled with God.  You showed us how to live by how You lived, and how to love by how You loved.  And You had our Father send His Spirit to live in us.  Thank You, Jesus, for such wonderful gifts.  Thank You for doing it all just for our benefit.  Please help us bring others to You.  Send some lost soul to us that we can tell the sweet, sweet story to, the story of Your love.

And Jesus, please help us be faithful and true to You, putting all our trust in You, all our hope in You.  Please heal the hurts that separate and divide us one from another.  Help us keep our focus on the things of heaven and the needs of others rather than on anything this life might offer.  This we pray in Your blessed name, Christ Jesus our Lord and our Savior.  Amen.

Living Stones

 

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered on Pentecost Sunday, the 28th of May, 2023, at Pilgrim Reformed Church.  Our YouTube streaming channel is: 

https://www.youtube.com/@pilgrimreformedchurch1992/streams.]

Family, last week we listened as the Apostle Peter encouraged us to be holy because God is holy, and God chose us to be holy.  We also looked at a few ways we live a more holy life, be more righteous in God’s eyes.

And then Peter ended chapter 1 of his 1st letter by telling us that we have been born again.  We were not born to a life that will quickly end like this one, but to a new life that will last forever, a new life that comes from the eternal, living word of God.  Peter quotes the great prophet Isaiah, relating that we mortals are like grass that withers.  Our beauty is like the flower’s, that always fades away.  But the word of God remains forever, His promises are for all eternity, and from His eternal word comes our Good News, our Gospel message of salvation.

So continuing from last week and staying with Peter's 1st letter, we move into the 2nd chapter.  Here, the Apostle gives us a little more insight into just what God chose us to do.  Or maybe it’s why we were chosen to be holy.  I think Peter was practicing speaking in parables here.

Please listen and follow along as Peter tells us to be a living stone just like Jesus, as we continue with the 1st 10 verses of the 2nd chapter of the Apostle’s 1st letter, and I’ll be reading from the New English Translation of our Holy Bible this morning…

1 So get rid of all evil and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. 2 And yearn like newborn infants for pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up to salvation, 3 if you have experienced the Lord’s kindness.

4 So as you come to Him, a living stone rejected by men but chosen and precious in God’s sight, 5 you yourselves, as living stones, are built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood and to offer spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For it says in scripture, “Look, I lay in Zion a stone, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and whoever believes in Him will never be put to shame.” 7 So you who believe see His value, but for those who do not believe, the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone, 8 and a stumbling-stone and a rock to trip over. They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. 9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of His own, so that you may proclaim the virtues of the one who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. 10 You once were not a people, but now you are God’s people. You were shown no mercy, but now you have received mercy.

--1 Peter 2:1-10 (NET)

Let us pray…  Father God, thank You for choosing us to believe in Your Son.  Thank You for choosing us to be Your children.  Thank You, Father, for choosing us to be holy, just as You are holy.  Sadly, though, Father, we don’t always feel very holy.  There are just too many times when we know we have failed You, when we have willfully disobeyed You, when we have let the world get the best of us.  Please forgive us our lapses, Father, these times of insecurity and hopelessness that weaken our faith.  Forgive us when we open the door and let Satan stick his nose into our lives.  Remind us that we are Yours, bought at a great price, adopted into Your holy family.  And Father, please protect us from Satan, who deceives us and tries to pull us away from You.  Please shield us from those who are so willing to follow his commands.  Please keep us strong in our faith, of one mind and one purpose in our love, worship, and service, and healthy and safe in the days ahead.

Speak to us now, Father, that we might hear Your voice through Your Spirit within us and better understand the message You have for us this day.  Please direct Your Spirit to show us more clearly the path of righteousness.  Help us avoid the stumbling blocks along the way.  And help us be living stones in Your glorious spiritual house.  This we pray in the precious name of Your Son, Christ Jesus our Lord.   Amen.

The Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy is going to fall.  Scientists travel yearly to the site to measure the building's slow descent.  They report that the 179-foot tower tilts about one-twentieth of an inch a year, and was approximately 16-1/2 feet out of plumb in 2022.  Someday, the 850-year old tower will have crossed the line and leaned too far, and will collapse onto the nearby ristorante, where all those scientists now gather to discuss their findings.

Quite significantly, the word "pisa" means "marshy land," which gives some clue as to why the tower began to lean even before it was completed.  Also, its foundation is only 10 feet deep!

I’m reminded of the words to the hymn, “on Christ the Solid Rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand”.  We could insert “marshy land” for “sinking sand”.  But this little story also begs us to ask the question of ourselves:  How deep is our foundation?  How strong is our faith?  Are we truly committed to obeying Jesus, or just giving Him lip service.

There’s more to believing in Jesus than just acknowledging His existence, and even more than believing Him to be the Son of God.  The devil knows Jesus all too well.  And our Bible recounts a number of instances where Jesus encountered a demon, an evil spirit, and the demon knew Jesus to be God’s Son.  Does that mean they were saved?  No, of course not!

We have to accept Him as our Master and do what He tells us to do.  God built a mighty, unshakeable structure and set His own Son as the foundation, the cornerstone.  Let’s add ourselves as living stones, deeply rooted in Jesus, acceptable in God’s eyes.

In our scripture reading, Peter once again quotes the prophet Isaiah when God spoke through him say, “I lay in Zion a stone, a chosen and precious cornerstone”.  This is Jesus, the Christ.  He is the stone the builders – the Jews – rejected, that is now the cornerstone, a living stone.  He is a stone to trip over, a stumbling block for those who disobey the word, but salvation to those who believe.  And He is precious to God.

Do you remember from previous Sunday discussions that there were two times God spoke from heaven to tell us about Jesus?  The first was at Jesus’ baptism in the River Jordan, and the second was at His transfiguration on the mountainside.

And what did God say both times?  “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”  “My beloved Son, My precious Son.”  God made Jesus the cornerstone in the foundation of His spiritual house, a living cornerstone, and He want us to be living stones alongside Jesus.

Now those two words – “living” and “stone” – don’t seem to go together very well.  A stone, a rock, is an inanimate object.  It isn’t alive by any standards – it doesn’t breathe or eat or drink or react in any way to the world around it.  Yet here we are told to be living stones, just as Christ is the living cornerstone.  We are to be living building blocks in God’s spiritual house, linked together in love and by God’s Holy Spirit, withstanding anything that comes against us.

But we are not intended to just stand still, to be set in place and never move again.  That’s where the “living” part comes in.  And if we are to be as living stones, then we should be willing to make of ourselves living sacrifices, as the Apostle Paul encourages us to do in the 1st two verses of the 12th chapter of his Letter to the Romans…

1 Therefore I exhort you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice — alive, holy, and pleasing to God — which is your reasonable service. 2 Do not be conformed to this present world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may test and approve what is the will of God — what is good and well-pleasing and perfect.

--Romans 12:1-2 (NET)

This is our reasonable service, to put ourselves out there to please God by giving up of our time and efforts and resources.  A living sacrifice is one where we don’t die.  Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice for us, but we’re not being asked to do that, although it certainly may come to it someday.  No, we’re asked to sacrifice what may be precious to us – just as Jesus is precious to God.  And for some, time is our most precious possession.  For us mortals, time is a one way street, and once it’s gone, we can never get it back.

There are other things we can give up in our service to God, but giving up whatever is most precious to us is most pleasing to God.  For whatever we give up in this life, in service to our Lord, we will be much more than compensated for in the next.  The “things” of this world just don’t matter, not really.  Nothing of the world lasts forever.  So we need to get our mindset off the world and onto the things of heaven, doing what is good and well-pleasing and perfect in our Lord’s eyes.

Just so we don’t have to guess and surmise what might constitute sacrifices we can make, Jesus comes right out and gives us some great examples.  Listen to what our Lord told His disciples, including us, as recorded by the Apostle Matthew in the 25th chapter of his Gospel account, verses 31 through 46…

31 “When the Son of Man comes in His glory and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be assembled before Him, and He will separate people one from another like a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on His right and the goats on His left. 34 Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave Me food, I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited Me in, 36 I was naked and you gave Me clothing, I was sick and you took care of Me, I was in prison and you visited Me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You something to drink? 38 When did we see You a stranger and invite You in, or naked and clothe You? 39 When did we see You sick or in prison and visit You?’ 40 And the King will answer them, ‘I tell you the truth, just as you did it for one of the least of these brothers or sisters of Mine, you did it for Me.’

41 “Then He will say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, you accursed, into the eternal fire that has been prepared for the devil and his angels! 42 For I was hungry and you gave Me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me nothing to drink. 43 I was a stranger and you did not receive Me as a guest, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’ 44 Then they too will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not give You whatever You needed?’ 45 Then He will answer them, ‘I tell you the truth, just as you did not do it for one of the least of these, you did not do it for Me.’ 46 And these will depart into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

--Matthew 25:31-46 (NET)

Jesus and God commanded us to love one another.  And these are just a few ways to manifest our love, to give action to our love.

Feed the hungry, and give drink to the thirsty.  We alone cannot feed all the hungry of the world, but we can feed some, and we can support those groups that work hard to fight hunger.  Likewise, we can support those who dig wells in dry lands, and who teach people simple ways to purify water, so that none may thirst.  And of course, we can share the food, our daily bread, that is God’s word and the Living Water that is Jesus with everyone we meet.

Welcome the stranger, and clothe the naked.  There are none more homeless nor naked than the lost, who are not clothed in righteousness, who will never inherit an eternal home in heaven unless they repent and turn to the Lord.

Take care of the sick, and visit those in prison.  There are many kinds of sicknesses, but perhaps the most tragic and ultimately deadly of all is a sickness of spirit.  Helping heal a hurting spirit doesn’t take all that much – a quiet hug, a soft smile, a kind word, a listening ear.  And there are all kinds of prisons, one of the worst being the prison of loneliness.  Too many people out there are prisoners of Satan, stumbling around hopeless and lost.  Tell them about Jesus, who can break their chains and free them.

Family, Jesus is precious in God's sight, and so are we.  We believers are the stones that God uses to build His Son's church, with Jesus as the cornerstone.  To non-believers, Jesus is a stumbling block, a rock to trip over.  But to us, He is our hope, and our Head.

We are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation unto ourselves.  We are His.  So let us teach others all we know about Jesus, for He called us out of the darkness and into His marvelous light.  We are God’s people, saved by His mercy.  Let us be living stones, making living sacrifices in His service.  In the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen.

Let us pray…  Almighty God, thank You choosing us to be living stones in Your spiritual house.  Jesus is precious to You and You made Him the cornerstone.  Upon Him, everything else is built.  Build us into a mighty fortress, Father.  Please help us be more holy in Your eyes.  Help us serve You by giving of ourselves, of our time and resources.  Please forgive us when we watch as opportunities to serve slip by.  Forgive us those times when we hesitate to do what we should.  Forgive us our disobediences.  Please, loving Father, help us be better servants.  Help us be good representatives of You to the world.  And help us remain strong, faithful, and true to You in all things, no matter what the world throws at us or holds out before us.

Please hear us now, Father, as we pause for just a moment to speak to You through Your Spirit within us, promising to be more obedient to Your commands, and seeking Your help to do so… [* pause *]

Lord Jesus, You are our very foundation, the cornerstone upon which all else is built.  We have been chosen by our Father God and gathered around You.  We are the building blocks of Your church, and nothing can tear it down.  Thank You, Jesus, for giving Your all for us.  Thank You for standing at our side at the end of the age.  Please help us as we step out of our comfort zone and do as You commanded us.  Help us teach others all about You, so that more or the lost might be found and saved.  And help us be faithful and true to You, putting all our trust in You, all our hope in You.  

And Jesus, please heal the hurts that separate and divide us one from another.  Help us keep our focus on the things of heaven and the needs of others rather than on anything this life might offer.  This we pray in Your blessed name, Christ Jesus our Lord and our Savior.  Amen.

Live a Holy Life

 

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered on Sunday, the 21st of May, 2023, at Pilgrim Reformed Church.  Our YouTube streaming channel is: 

https://www.youtube.com/@pilgrimreformedchurch1992/streams.]

When we speak of our risen Lord or say that Jesus has risen, we’re usually talking about when Jesus rose from the grave and defeated death by His resurrection.  But remember that just a short time after that remarkable and wonderful event, Jesus rose again.  While His disciples stood around Him, Jesus rose from this earth and ascended into heaven, to sit at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.

Today is the first Sunday after Ascension Day, which was last Thursday, the day when Jesus our Redeemer, alive and in the flesh, went back to heaven.  So when we say our Lord has risen, we can also mean that Jesus still lives, in heaven, after leaving us here to carry on His work for Him.  And someday we too will be raised, from death and into heaven, alive again and in the flesh, to live with Him there.

The Lord is risen!  Praise to the risen Son!  Amen!

The Apostle Peter also mentions our risen Lord, in his letters to the early Christians who had scattered throughout the known world.  I’m returning back to those letters after our break last week to celebrate mothers everywhere.  By the time Peter wrote these letters, Jesus had already both risen from the grave and risen from the earth, now seated comfortably in heaven.

We began this study with Peter assuring us that our only reason for hope is in Jesus, and we left off with him telling us that the message about our Christ was meant only for us, even though the angels wanted to know more about it, too.  Please listen and follow along as Peter explains to us and those early Christians why we should live a holy life, continuing with the 1st chapter of the Apostle’s 1st letter, verses 13 through 25, and I’ll be reading from the New Living Translation of our Holy Bible this morning…

13 So prepare your minds for action and exercise self-control. Put all your hope in the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world. 14 So you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then. 15 But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. 16 For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.”

17 And remember that the heavenly Father to whom you pray has no favorites. He will judge or reward you according to what you do. So you must live in reverent fear of Him during your time here as “temporary residents.” 18 For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value. 19 It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. 20 God chose Him as your ransom long before the world began, but now in these last days He has been revealed for your sake.

21 Through Christ you have come to trust in God. And you have placed your faith and hope in God because He raised Christ from the dead and gave Him great glory.

22 You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth, so now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters. Love each other deeply with all your heart.

23 For you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God. 24 As the Scriptures say,

“People are like grass;

their beauty is like a flower in the field.

The grass withers and the flower fades.

25     But the word of the Lord remains forever.”

And that word is the Good News that was preached to you.

--1 Peter 1:13-25 (NLT)

Let us pray…  Father God, thank You for giving the message of Your Christ Jesus to the prophets of old.  Thank You for reserving that message just for us poor sinners.  Your word remains forever, unchanged and living.  You have given new birth, new life, to those of us who believe in Jesus as Your Son, Your Christ, and accept Him as our Lord.  Thank You, Father, for the wonderful gifts You bestow on us.  Thank You for the Gospel that has been preached to us.  Sadly, though, Father, there are still too many times when we are anything but holy.  Our acts, our inaction, our words, our thoughts, the feelings of our hearts too often betray our profession of faith and displease You and disappoint You greatly.  Please forgive us these lapses, Father.  Forgive us when we don’t put all our trust in You, putting too much trust in human wisdom instead.  Remind us that You are still in control, no matter what it may look like in the world around us.  And Father, please protect us from Satan, who deceives us in his attempts to pull us away from You.  Please shield us from those who are so willing to follow his commands.  Please keep us strong in our faith, of one mind and one purpose in our love, worship, and service, and healthy and safe in the days ahead.

Speak to us now, Father, that we might hear Your voice through Your Spirit within us and better understand the message You have for us this day.  Remind us that we are Yours, bought at a great price.  Help us to live a holy life, just as You and Your Son are holy.  This we pray in the precious name of Christ Jesus, our risen Lord.   Amen.

When we think of living a holy life, do we mentally picture monks in a monastery or nuns in an abbey?  Is it a boring life, filled only with prayer and contemplation?  

Renowned author and lay theologian C. S. Lewis adds, "How little people know who think that holiness is dull.  When one meets the real thing, it is irresistible."  Evangelist D. L. Moody tells us, "A holy life will make the deepest impression.  Lighthouses blow no horns, they just shine."  And then we have the insight given by the 19th-century Scottish theologian John Brown, who noted that, "Holiness does not consist in mystic speculations, enthusiastic fervours, or uncommanded austerities; it consists in thinking as God thinks, and willing as God wills."

Holiness isn’t about living a dull, austere life.  Not at all, or at least it doesn’t have to be.  In fact, if we are living a dull, austere life, then maybe we’re not living a holy life at all, because we’re not out there doing what Jesus commanded us to do.  We’re supposed to shine out into the darkness like a lighthouse, shine with the reflected radiance of God, warning those traveling in the dark of the danger that lies ahead.

Living a holy life is nothing more than thinking as God thinks, and willing as God wills.  He wills us to go into the world spreading the Gospel message, increasing His kingdom across the earth.  Jesus is our best example for holiness.  Look to how He lived, how He acted, and we can see how we should live to be seen as holy in God’s eyes.

Peter opens this morning’s passage by telling us to prepare our minds for action and exercise self-control.  In other words, we should think before we act.  And since speaking is a form of action, we should think before we speak.  We need to carefully, thoughtfully consider any consequences of our actions.  We should ask ourselves, “What would Jesus do, or say, in this situation?”.

We should live as God’s obedient children.  Think about that a second…  As small children growing up, for the most part we obey our parents and do what they tell us to do.  Why?  Because if they’re good parents, they’ll likely punish us in some way for any disobedience and reward us for good and proper behavior.

God is the very best Father.  The punishment He holds out for total disobedience is horribly severe, and the rewards He offers holy behavior are greater than we can even imagine.  And both are everlasting.  So the choice should be simple: be obedient and enjoy His rewards, or be rebellious and reap His punishment.

Living as God’s obedient child means staying holy in His eyes, not slipping back into our old, sinful ways where we are more concerned with satisfying our own desires rather than serving God.  We must be holy in everything we do because God is holy, and we are His.  He will judge each and every person by what we do, or don’t do, in this life, this temporary residence before moving on to our permanent, eternal home.  God paid a great price to save us from sin: the blood of His own Son Jesus.  So we should thank Him by living a holy life as He wills for us.

The author of the letter to the early Hebrew converts echoes Peter’s urgings to live a holy life and he stresses that we can do so by listening to God.  Now we don’t need to go up on a mountainside or look for a burning bush for God to speak to us through.  We can simply be still and pray, waiting silently, patiently for His reply.  He won’t speak into our ears, but into our hearts, through His Holy Spirit.  And we can listen to God’s voice by reading our Bible, His holy word saved through the centuries just for us.

Please listen to what the author of the letter to the Hebrews has to say about living a holy life, as written in chapter 12, verses 14 through 17 and 25 through 29…

14 Work at living in peace with everyone, and work at living a holy life, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord. 15 Look after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God. Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many. 16 Make sure that no one is immoral or godless like Esau, who traded his birthright as the firstborn son for a single meal. 17 You know that afterward, when he wanted his father’s blessing, he was rejected. It was too late for repentance, even though he begged with bitter tears.

25 Be careful that you do not refuse to listen to the One who is speaking. For if the people of Israel did not escape when they refused to listen to Moses, the earthly messenger, we will certainly not escape if we reject the One who speaks to us from heaven! 26 When God spoke from Mount Sinai His voice shook the earth, but now He makes another promise: “Once again I will shake not only the earth but the heavens also.” 27 This means that all of creation will be shaken and removed, so that only unshakable things will remain.

28 Since we are receiving a Kingdom that is unshakable, let us be thankful and please God by worshiping Him with holy fear and awe. 29 For our God is a devouring fire.

--Hebrews 12:14-17, 25-29 (NLT)

Work at living at peace with everyone.  That’s a tough one for us, isn’t it.  We try to get along with other folk, but then someone comes along and sticks a pin in our balloon and we just go ballistic.  God wants us to live peacefully, and He will bless us for doing so, just as Jesus promised when He said, “Blessed are the peacemakers”.

And while we’re working on our peaceful approach to others, we should also be working at living a holy life, just like Peter told us.  But our author gives us the reason why: because those who are not holy will not see the Lord.  Now we need to understand that the word “see” in this text means to see our Lord forever, to live with Him in paradise.  Everyone will physically see the Lord at the end of the age when He stands in judgment of us all, good and bad, but not everyone will enjoy the sight.

Our author continues with ways that we can be holy in our day-to-day life.  As Christians, we can look after each other, encourage and strengthen each other so that we all receive God’s grace.  We must keep watch over how we react to life and the devil’s temptations, letting nothing grow and fester inside us that can strangle our faith.  Here we see the example of Esau, who gave up his birthright to Jacob for nothing more than his favorite meal, and then regretted it once it was too late to repent and gain his father’s blessing.

And then we get to the part about listening to God, who is still speaking to us, even to this day.  He speaks with that still, small voice in our hearts.  He speaks with the thunderous roar of the storm.  He speaks through His Holy Spirit, and He speaks through the words of our Holy Bible.

Listen carefully, for someday soon, the heavens and the earth will be shaken and all of creation removed and replaced.  Only the unshaken will remain, the Kingdom that God has reserved for His children.

Let us obey and worship our God by living a holy life.  In the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen.

Let us pray…  Almighty God, thank You for ransoming our souls at the great price of sacrificing Your Son on man’s cross so that we might be washed clean of our sin by His blood.  How can we truly thank You other than by living a life that is holy in Your eyes?  Like so much else in this life, Father, this is easier said than done.  Thank You for instructions, examples, and encouragement in how to be holy.  Please help us as we strive to do what is right.  Please forgive us when we slip and fail.  Forgive us those times when we act as rebellious children.  Forgive us of our acts of disobedience, when we outright ignore what You’ve told us to do.  Please, loving Father, help us remember that we are Yours and that we owe everything to You.  Help us listen to You and do as You will.  And help us remain strong, faithful, and true to You in all things, no matter what the world throws at us or holds out before us.

Please hear us now, Father, as we pause for just a moment to speak to You through Your Spirit within us, promising to be more obedient to Your commands, and seeking Your help to do so…

Lord Jesus, while You walked this earth, You were the perfect example of an obedient child doing everything our Father willed.  You gave Your all for us, just so that we might be spared eternal death and punishment.  Thank You, Lord Jesus, for showing us how to live a holy life.  Please help us live as You lived.  Help us think as God thinks, and will as God wills.  And help us be faithful and true to You, putting all our trust in You, all our hope in You.  

And Jesus, please heal the hurts that separate and divide us one from another.  Help us remain as obedient children no matter what we go through.  Help us keep our focus on the things of heaven and the needs of others rather than on anything this life might offer.  This we pray in Your blessed name, Christ Jesus our Lord and our Savior.  Amen.