I Like the Way You Think, Abe

Many people have denied any form of spirituality because “it isn’t logical”. To believe in a “higher power”, creation, supernatural activity, life after death…it just defies human logic.

I will agree. Faith has its own logic. And this logic isn’t founded on human sensibility or worldly reasoning. Faith logic is the Holy Spirit empowered reasoning that is based on the character of God and the reliability of His Word.

By God’s grace, He is teaching me how to think faith logically. The poster boy for this is Abraham:

Hebrews 11:17-19 - By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, "Through Isaac shall your offspring be named." He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.

Follow the faith logic here.

God: “Abraham, I am going to fulfill all of my promises to you, and the world, through your son Isaac.”

Abraham: “God is going to fulfill all of His promises to me, and the world, through my son Isaac.”

God: “Now: sacrifice your son to me. Kill him.”

>Pause< Let’s apply some logic.

Worldly logic would say:

-”God lied to me the first time. He never intended to fulfill anything through Isaac. God did not keep His word.”

-”I must have misheard God. Instead of ‘I will fulfill my promises through Isaac’, maybe He said ‘I waffle my prom, ices through eye sick.’ I don‘t even know what that means, my hearing must be going bad, but He surely didn‘t say anything about my son Isaac before if He is telling me to kill him now. My bad.”

-”Maybe he doesn’t want me to literally sacrifice Isaac. Maybe he just wants me to think nice sincere sacrificial thoughts about him. Yeah, it‘s just a metaphorical poetic non-literal hyperbolic, uhm, thing.”

Worldly logic. All wrong.

Faith logic would say:

-”God says He will fulfill His promises through Isaac. God says kill Isaac. How does that makes sense? Oh, I see. God must be able to raise the dead. That’s the only way this makes sense.”

That’s faith logic. If God said it, He’s going to make it happen in a way that only He can. I am going to move forward trusting God to be faithful. Because He is. Always.

God doesn’t need to you to try to figure Him out. He calls you to trust Him. Let’s get in God’s Word and start thinking like Abraham. Faith logic.

p.s. - Needs to go waffle his prom now.

Looking for a Few Shameless People...

Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, 'Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him'; and he will answer from within, 'Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything'? I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs. Luke 11:5-8

I have met a lot of Christians. A. Lot. All over the world. And do you know what is true for 99.7% of all of the ones I have met? A struggle with personal prayer life.

Why is that? I think people sort of adopt this “God is going to do what God is going to do” mentality. Don’t get your hopes up, let’s just keep our prayers in the safe zone: God bless grandma, help me to have a good day. Amen.

I love the above story from Jesus, because it totally destroys our lame prayer mindset. It’s actually a humorous story. A guy shows up at his neighbor’s house, in the middle of the night (keep in mind that midnight in the first century meant nothing was happening except sleep). And what’s the big emergency…? He wanted a snack for his buddy. Three biscuits to munch on is hardly an emergency, hardly worth bothering your neighbor over. If you wake me up asking for a snack, you better run, because I am going to throw it at your head.

But this guy helps his friend out. Why? Because he is a great chum? No, it is because of the asker’s impudence. That’s another word for shamelessness. Uninhibited.

“I don’t care what time it is, I don’t care that you are sleeping, I don’t care that this can wait, I don’t care that it’s not even for me but actually for a guy you don’t even know, I don’t care that your kids are asleep - we need a snack. Come on, help us out. We need it. Please! If you can do it now, that would be helpful. Or we can give you a couple seconds to get it if you…”

“ALL RIGHT! Here’s your stupid bread! Beat it!”

The parable isn’t about the woken up guy, the parable is about the asker. More specifically, the parable is about the shamelessness of the way the guy brought his request.

The point is shocking: Be just as shameless when you bring your requests to God. Jesus goes on to say why: God. Will. Answer. (Grab your Bible and read verses 9-10 - I dare you!)

We are praying as a church Friday night (the 10th). Details are on the home page under “Events”. Join us.

And bring your impudence, oh shameless ones. God told us to! We are going to take his invitation to come boldly.

p.s. - Canned prayers not allowed, especially that “Now I lay me down to sleep…” prayer.

Let's Talk About You Know What

This is a p.s. to this Sunday’s (4/28) message. You can read it before or after, but this is just a word from the Word that I want to share with the church, but will not be including it in my sermon. That happens sometimes. You could preach about 5 more sermons just with the material I have to cut out for Sunday!

As we talk about all things marriage and physical relations (aka “you know what“, aka YKW), one of the ways we can protect our marriages is by guarding our hearts. 

Proverbs 4:23 says: Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.

It is sort of an abstract concept. How do I literally guard my heart? Well, he goes on to tell us specifically how to!

First (Proverbs 4:24), put away crooked speech. Lying, deceitful, lustful, angry, sinful… get those words out of your vocabulary. Stop the crass talking about YKW. But let’s hone in on the next 2 verses. Proverbs 4:25 says to let your eyes look directly forward and Proverbs 4:26 says to ponder the path of your feet.

Two words here for you: 1) Watch what you focus on (4:25). My eyes must be on my love and commitment to my own spouse. When you get your eyes off of that, and start looking around, it’s easy to let your heart go astray fantasizing about YKW with another woman. It’s easy to romanticize, ladies, about what it might be like to have a passionate YKW with some other guy. Men tend to be more visually enticed, where woman lean more towards an emotional fixation. Men AND women: Eyes forward! And fix your gaze on what (rather, who) God has provided for you. God meets your needs for YKW with your spouse. Period. Get focused on that.

And 2) Watch where you are going (4:26)! I need to pay attention where I am going. If you are not careful, you can end up on a website you shouldn’t be on (depicting explicit and sinful images of YKW), in a chatroom you have no business entering (talking openly about YKW), or some other compromising situation where temptation to YKW (with someone not named “your spouse“) is pounding down your door. Most sin can be avoided if we sincerely pray, “Lead me not into temptation”, and then follow the Shepherd when He is guiding you away from it. How many tragic stories of life-destroying sin started with, “I was in the wrong place at the wrong time”...?

When it comes to maintaining marital faithfulness, this is advice (no, sorry, it‘s a command from God) you must embrace!

The rest is coming this Sunday! I am doing a whole sermon on YKW. Because it's in the Bible. Because God invented it. Because the church is pretty lame about discussing YKW properly. Pray for me.

p.s. - Let's keep You Know What at You Know Where. You Know How and Sunday, You'll Know Why. (When is up to you and your spouse.)

If You Have Ever Met at Least One Other Person, Read This...

Starting April 21, we will be going through a sermon series from the book of Proverbs: The Joy of Committed Relationships!

Let’s be honest: relationships can be a headache. I mean, who among us hasn’t considered becoming a monk or retreating to the woods to live off the land like a modern day Pioneer? But God has given us all relationships to glorify Him… and to give us joy! How about a word from Him on how that happens? On what that looks like? On how I can not just tolerate, but JOYFULLY LOVE the most important people He has put into my life? Sign me up. We all need it.

Joy is our theme this year, but we are not going after joy; we are going after Jesus, and He gives us HIS joy (John 15:11)!

What does Proverbs and that books teachings on relationships have to do with Jesus? And how does the wisdom Proverbs calls us to in our relationships tie in to Jesus?

The goal of Proverbs isn’t to give cookie-cutter nuggets of good thinking to help us along - it is to help us draw closer to the God who is wisdom! And just as our joy is tied up in Jesus, so is our wisdom.

How so?

Jesus lived wisdom.

During His time on earth, Jesus lived perfect wisdom (Luke 2:40 and Luke 2:52). He grew in it, He lived it, He taught with it. Jesus applied perfect wisdom every moment of every day He walked on earth. Wow.

Jesus is wisdom.

Colossians 2:3 says in Jesus is hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. He didn’t just live it… He IS it!

Jesus is the way of wisdom.

Proverbs constantly contrasts foolishness and wisdom, calling us to choose wisdom. Jesus taught the same, but emphasized that He isn’t just telling us the way - He IS the way! (Matthew 7:24-27, John 14:6)

Jesus supplies wisdom.

It would be easy to go through Proverbs and just say, “OK, got it. I’ll just be wise.” No can do. Wisdom doesn’t come from us. Jesus has to give it to us. (Luke 21:15, James 1:5).

What’s my point? We just finished a series about Jesus called: I AM - The Incomparable Claims of Jesus Christ. And this series on Proverbs and relationships and joy is NOT “OK, let’s talk about something else for a while.” It’s still all about the Person and Work of Jesus, trusting Him for the grace and faith to apply His Word.

I hope you kept the receipt for that tent you bought. We are not retreating from people. We are going to love people. Whether you are married or someday hope to be married, or a parent or someday hope to be a parent, or a friend or someday hope to have friends… God is going to work in you through this series.

Do not miss it. 

p.s. - is not a monk, but has been told by others he should take a vow of silence