This blog is a follow-up from this past Sunday’s message on biblical wisdom. The main point of this past Sunday was that we as Christians need to make sure that we act according to biblical wisdom.  Biblical wisdom considers not only the immediate consequences of our words and actions. But it also considers how an action today could affect me or my loved ones down the road.  The key thought I want to express here is for us to remember Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 5:20, “So we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us.  We implore you in Christ’s stead: Be reconciled to God.”  As a Christian we have a mission, that is to make disciples of Jesus of all nations.  We are His representatives to the world.  Therefore, we must give careful consideration to how we live, what we say, and especially in today’s digital world, what we post.

We live in a social media age.  Most everyone has at least one social media account.  Social media can be a good thing.  However, it can also be a very dangerous thing or a destructive thing. Because of our social media age, people feel free to write and post whatever they want, think, or feel in the moment.  Because you are behind a computer screen, you don’t have to be concerned with the tone of your message or how someone may react to your message.  Unfortunately, very little thought is put into most social media posts or the potential ramifications of your posts.  Most people don’t realize that employers or potential future employers look at your social media pages.  People don’t realize that employers make decisions every day to not hire or to hire someone based on their social media accounts.  Your social media activity can even be causation for termination at your job if you reflect poorly upon your employer.  So wisdom here would ask a few questions.  First, what is right or wrong about my post according to God?  Second, will my post honor God or turn people off from God?  Finally, how could this post cause problems in the future for me or those closest to me?  Simply put, think before you post!  If you are angry or fired up about something, write it all out on your social media timeline, and before you hit post, delete it all.  Or if you are going to send an angry e-mail to someone, write it all out, and before you hit send, delete the message.  You will feel better for having gotten all your thoughts out, but without the negative consequences and future ramifications of a lack of knowledge and understanding.  Plus it is a great way for God to reveal what is truly in your heart, so you can confess your sin and ask Him for help in overcoming your sinful thoughts, words, and attitudes.

Remember, everything you say, do, or post reflects not only on you as a person, but it also reflects on the God you say you love.  Let’s make sure that we represent Jesus in a biblically faithful way whether in person or on social media.

As a pastor, I routinely preach how we are to love God more than anyone and anything else in our life, and how that will call us to also love others.  One proof that we love God the way we should is that we will love others enough to share the Gospel with them.  I routinely preach how there is no greater need that a person has than their need for salvation.  I stand behind all of those statements, because they are biblical statements.  However, today was a reminder that it is easier to preach ten sermons than it is to live just one sermon out.  James 1:22 says, “Be a doer of the word and not a hearer only, deceiving yourselves.”  Romans 12:19-21 says, “Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to God’s wrath, for it is written: Vengeance is Mine, I will repay, says the Lord.  Therefore if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in doing so you will heap coals of fire on his head.  Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”  I admit that I have preached on those verses multiple times throughout my ministry.  Yet, today was a rough reminder that I have such a long way to go because it is easier to preach ten sermons than it is to live just one sermon out.  I could make a lot of excuses, I could tell others all that occurred and many would be on my side. However, the bottom line is that God was not glorified in how I handled a situation. I  have to admit that just typing that last sentence out brought such a heavy weight crashing down on me.  Yet, there is no one to blame but me.

I believe those called into leadership are held to a higher standard by God.  I believe we are called to live to those standards that we routinely preach about.  However, today reminded me that although I am a child of God who has been saved by His grace, inside of me is a sin nature at war with the Holy Spirit of God who lives in me.  Today, I am reminded of the apostle Paul’s predicament when he said, “the things I shouldn’t do, those are the things I do; and the things that I should do, those are the things that I don’t do.  O wretched man that I am, who can save me from this?”

Have you ever been there?  Do you understand what I’m feeling?  I think most Christians have been at some time or another.  In those difficult moments, when it is obvious that you chose to allow your sin nature to win out over the new nature given to us by Christ, what are we to do?  I will tell you what we can’t do.  We can’t wallow in it, because that is what satan wants us to do.  He is the author of shame and guilt, not God.  So then, what do we do?  I think the first thing we need to do is allow this to remind us of our need for Jesus.  If we could remember everything, perfectly obey in everything ,and behave perfectly in everything, then Jesus would have died in vain.  There would have been no point in Jesus’ death, if we could be good enough.  But God knew we could never be good enough.  He knew that even on days when we are obedient to Him and His Word that there is still sin in our lives.  That is the reason that Jesus came to die on the cross.  He who was good enough to appease God’s wrath died in the place of those who could never be good enough.  Allow this truth to wash over you, and allow you to praise God for His grace.  It doesn’t mean that we have a license to sin.  When we sin, our hearts should break over our sin, because God’s heart breaks over our sin.  Yet, we need to remember that where sin did abound, grace much more abounds we are told in Romans 5.  Second, we need to confess our sin.  To confess means to agree with God that what we said, did, or thought was wrong.  We don’t need to try and sweep it under the rug, or pretend that it didn’t happen.  We need to own it, confess it, and then seek God’s help to learn from it and grow from it.  That’s the final thing, we need to repent.  To repent means to turn around, to go the other way.  We can never repent apart from God and His help.  Repentance is something that the Holy Spirit does in our heart and in our lives.  So we need to cry out to Jesus for help.

It’s ok to feel guilt over our sin, we should feel it in fact. However, we can’t live there.  We must look to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.  We must confess our sin, forsake it, and seek God’s help to grow from it. Days like today make me appreciate God’s amazing grace that saved a wretch like me.  But it also gives me hope, that if God can save someone like me, then He can certainly save you.  You simply need to admit your sin and surrender to His grace.  If you aren’t sure how to or you want to, please reach out to us here at Westlake Baptist.  We would love the privilege of telling you how you can have the greatest relationship anyone could ever have.  You can reach us at westlakebc@gmail.com.  Thank you Jesus for saving a sinner such as me!

Pastor Justin

A few years ago my oldest son took up the game of chess.  He played on his elementary school team.  To help him practice between days that they met for official practice, I would play him in a game of chess.  He certainly got better over time, and even on one occasion he beat me because he finally listened to his old man.  The one thing I noticed about him was that he would already have a move ready in his mind.  It didn’t matter that I hadn’t made my move yet. He was ready, or so he thought.  Many of the times when he would lose to me, it wasn’t because I was a superior player.  Before he started playing chess, I had never played the game myself.  The primary difference between the two of us was that I would try to take my time and think not only about the move I was going to make, but also I would try to think two to three moves ahead.  Andrew on the other hand, just wanted to make his move.  There were multiple times that as soon as I would make my move, he would immediately make his and say “your move dad.”  The time that he beat me, he took his time, surveyed the board, saw what he wanted to do, and even tried to think through how I would play my moves.  I would like to say that that occurred shortly after we started playing, but to the best of my recollection, it took about three or four months.  I would always plead with him to slow down, take his time, and think through what he was doing.  I got to thinking about this story when I read through a familiar Bible story the other day.

The Bible story is found in Matthew 19.  It is about a young man who came to Jesus.  The young man wanted to know how he could be saved.  After Jesus and this young man had a conversation, Jesus got to the heart of the issue.  This young man thought he could do something to earn his way into heaven.  He was convinced that he had followed the Mosaic Law and treated others the way he should have.  Then Jesus drops this bomb on him, “If you will be perfect (complete in your faith), go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow Me” (Mt. 19:21).  Jesus had a two-fold reason for His answer.  First, He wanted to show this young man that he didn’t really love others as much as he thought he did.  Second, Jesus wanted to reveal to this young man who his god really was.  Jesus’ declaration of giving it all away and following Him was meant to show that this young man loved his stuff more than he loved the Savior.  But this isn’t even the thought that ran through my mind at the time.  What was running through my mind was how Jesus handled the situation.  It is clear that Jesus loved this young man.  He stopped, had a conversation with him, corrected some faulty theology the young man had, and even told him how he could be saved.  But what we don’t see is Jesus bargaining with this young man.  He told him what he needed to do in order to be saved, and then left it right there.  Jesus essentially looked at this young man and said “your move.”

Jesus does the same for you and I today.  He isn’t going to bargain with us, He isn’t going to beat us over the head in order for us to surrender to His grace that we might be saved.  He is going to tell us what we need to know and what we need to do, and then He is going to leave it right there.  The next move is our response to Jesus and His grace.  Jesus has told us how to be saved, and He has told us how to live a life that brings Him glory and is for our good.  If we love Jesus, we will obey Him (John 14:15).  It’s great that we say that we love Jesus.  The question is does our life reflect that?  Jesus has given us all we need to know, so it’s our move.  We will move closer to Him through loving obedience, or will we move further from Him?

Pastor Justin

As usual, I wasn’t able to highlight everything in the text in the sermon yesterday.  That is one of the amazing aspects of God’s Word, you never run out of glorious truths to mine from it.  One that I wanted to hit a little more than I did yesterday was the phrase, “and the desire of all nations shall come” in Haggai 2:7.  As with several other phrases and verses, this particular phrase has been at times difficult to rightly interpret.  There are two specific ways that this phrase has been interpreted.  Lord willing, we will understand it and rightly interpret that phrase here.  Before we discuss the two views, it is worth noting that a phrase or a verse cannot properly be understood apart from its context.  Each phrase or each verse is part of a larger context in that particular chapter and that particular book of the Bible.  It is also part of a larger narrative of Scripture, namely God’s plan to save those who trust Him.  Therefore, we want to look at this phrase within the larger Gospel story as well as the larger context of the book of Haggai.

The first way some interpret this phrase is that it is speaking of actual treasure being brought into the Temple.  In direct support of this is the following verse where God says, “The silver is mind, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of hosts.”  While this may be possible, I believe there are a few reasons to argue against this interpretation.  While God is specifically talking to Israel in the book of Haggai, God is also revealing His future plans for the rest of the world.  The other reason that I would argue against this interpretation is the larger theme of verse 2 and the Gospel story of the whole Bible seem to point to a person, not possessions.  Which leads to the second possible interpretation.

The second way the phrase “the desire of all nations shall come” can be understood is that it is referencing Jesus.  The first argument in support of this is the fact that the word “desire” is singular.  Second would be the fact that the end of the verse says “shall come.”  Inanimate objects to do come to people, rather people go and get them.  Looking at the larger narrative of the Gospel story we can use two other verses to support a Messianic interpretation of this phrase.  First is Malachi 3:1 which says, “Behold, I will send My messenger, and He shall prepared the way before Me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His Temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, He shall come, saith the Lord of hosts.”  This verse is speaking of two specific, separate people.  The first part of the verse that talks about a messenger being sent to prepare the way, is the forerunner of the Messiah.  The New Testament reveals this to be John the Baptist.  We see this in Matthew 3:1-3 which says, “In those days came John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, ‘Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’  For this he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias (Isaiah), saying, ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make His paths straight.'”  The second person that Malachi 3:1 is talking about is identified in the text.  It is speaking of the Lord who is Jesus.  It says that He will suddenly come to His Temple.  That is important because Haggai chapter 2 is speaking of the Temple.  Another verse that supports a Messianic interpretation is Genesis 49:10 which says, “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto Him shall the gathering of the people be.”  This verse shows us that the ultimate ruler will come to Israel and rule from Israel.  Specifically this will happen in the Temple.  It says that this ruler will be known as “Shiloh” which means peace.  If we look at Haggai 2:9 it says that God will “in this place (the Temple) give peace.”  Therefore, the one who comes to the Temple to rule and reign will be the One that God uses to bring peace to the world.  This can only speak of the Messiah, because money surely doesn’t bring peace to this world.

Therefore, it is my understanding that the “desire of all nations” is a Messianic title.  That is, it is referring to Jesus.  Applying this interpretation we see that Jesus has already partially fulfilled this promise when as a little boy, and even during His ministry He went into the Temple.  Literally, at those moments the glory of the Lord was in that place, because as John the Baptist said in John 1:14, “And the Word (John the apostle’s title for Jesus) was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”  So while it was partially fulfilled in Jesus’s ministry, the ultimate fulfillment will be when Jesus comes in power and glory at the end of the age to set up His messianic kingdom on earth as given in Revelation 20.  The Temple during Jesus’ earthly ministry was the site of many showdowns between Jesus and the religious leaders.  However, when He returns to the earth the Temple will be the source of peace, because the Prince of Peace will have returned.  This is why God says that “glory of the latter will be greater than of the former.” What an amazing promise for us that while this life is full of turmoil, trials, and troubles; there is  coming a day when Jesus will bring peace to earth.  And the even better news is that you can experience some of that peace now.  We can experience that peace by surrendering to God’s grace in faith that Jesus died on the cross and on the third day rose from dead.  He did this to pay for our sins, and He is the only was that we can be saved.  When we come into a relationship with Jesus based on these facts, Jesus gives us His peace to know that whatever happens to us in this life, our eternal life is secured by His blood.  There is nothing that can take that peace away from us!

Do you have that peace?  The peace with God that only comes from God?  If not, would you like to have it?  If so, reach out to us at westlakebc@gmail.com.  We would love to tell you how you can experience God’s peace and presence today, tomorrow, and forever.

Pastor Justin