Following Jesus Son of God …

(Matthew 26:59 GW) The chief priests and the whole council were searching for false testimony to use against Jesus in order to execute him.

This stood out in my daily reading. The religious overseers, the ones entrusted with the stewardship of the things of God, were not seeking truth or righteousness, but false testimony to support their cause against the Messiah.

What went wrong?

Now before we caricature these folks as evil-meanies and despicable dunderheads, let’s examine the story for a moment. These people were the honorable, upstanding community leaders. Part of our problem when reading the Bible is that we often miss where we would be “in the story” if we lived back then. We are always the hero, not the villain, the good guy, not the bad guy.

We wouldn’t have been so stupid and stubborn as to cling to our religion instead of embracing Christ. Or would we have? The majority of those in the crowd yelled crucify him. The majority weren’t in on the secret meetings and judgments but they also didn’t question what surely most of them knew in their hearts must be wrong. They had seen this man, heard him teach in the temple, listened as spoke with heaven’s authority, watched him heal their sick and cast demons out of the tormented among them.

But they went along with the waves of accusation anyway.  To not go along might mean the loss of everything.  And after all, these were their spiritual leaders, their counselors and preachers, their pillars of the community.  No, these men would embrace the Messiah, not spit on him and hit him with their fists and mock and ridicule him.  These men wouldn’t hire riff-raff to lie in their religious courts.

There’s no way that their spiritual leaders would be so far off base as to kill the Son of God!

Or is there?

Just what extremes will a man or a woman go to if someone dares mess with their religion anyway?

(Psalms 37:4 NKJV) Delight yourself also in the LORD, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.

So what are the desires of my heart? What does this text mean?

I had for some time accepted the company line that the closer I drew to God that he would change the desires of my heart, thus he would then be able to fulfill these desires.

But some time back another idea came into the picture. Being created in God’s image I believe we all have certain desires deep within in us that are in line with the character and will of God because he is the designer. When we delight ourselves in God, these good desires begin to be fulfilled.

What might some of these be? Significance, meaning, love, creativity, belonging, purpose. . .

With the rebellion described in Genesis 3, our means of fulfilling the desires were perverted. Adam and Eve were convinced that total fulfillment was being withheld from them by God. So they took matter in their own hands and set out toward self-fulfillment with the guidance of the serpent.

They set in motion the pattern to find fulfillment outside of God’s care and instruction. So we may give ourselves in sexual relationships to feel loved. A person might sacrifice everything in his life for a career that gives him meaning. Many people do drugs because that is the only world in which they find meaning and significance. Drugs are their hope. And we don’t understand the problem. We say, “How can they do drugs and ruin their lives?” But that may be the only realm in which they can touch these desires of the heart. Is it wrong and sinful and stupid and self-destructive? Duh! But it is all they have.

Why have so many people been able to overcome their addiction and destructive lifestyle? Because they reconnected with their original purpose to enjoy God and delight in him. They come to a saving relationship with Jesus Christ and their life has more meaning than they ever imagined. Their world of significance now matches God’s “world” of eternal significance.

Why do we abuse credit cards? Because we are discontent. The desires of our hearts are not being fulfilled. New furniture is a temporary fix, as is a new car or home or a new relationship. . .all are dead-ends. We buy things and do things that seem to touch meaning and significance and reality, but the trail always ends in disillusionment.

This is why we need to have a better understanding of the glory of God. Because that is the only “end of the trail” that doesn’t disappoint. And that is why when we delight ourselves in the Lord that our heart desires are fulfilled. They aren’t changed. God just changes our watering hole, where we go to get a drink of life. All of the things that matter deep within us find their fulfillment in God.

I also believe that this is part of the freedom that Christ refers to in John 8.32. The truth allows us to live in the light of God’s forever. We are freed from our illegitimate attempts to live life. We are freed from the constraints of sending the bucket down the well by our own means. We are freed from the “drugs” of self-fulfillment.

I don’t have to buy this to feel significant or find meaning. I don’t have to violate my conscience to remain accepted in my social group. I can live free before the glory of God. Do I want to be accepted by my peers? Yes. But am I no longer a prisoner to my fear of rejection because God himself has fulfilled by heart’s desire to be accepted. That is why they could face being burned or hanged or sawed in to. Because they were “in a zone.” They were living in the fear, the reverence, of God. Their lives had the light of God’s glory illuminating every dark crevice.

They weren’t alone. You are not alone. I am not alone. The only way that desire to not be alone is completely filled is in God. I believe this text teaches us that having our delight in him brings us into this truth in our daily lives.

But in all of this, I am not talking about a mere knowledge of these things, but living them out. Live this truth. Delight yourself in God. Live your life like God is there. Here is an example Christ gives in sharing with the needy.

But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you (Matthew 6:3-4 ESV).

Don’t try to fulfill your heart’s desire for significance by giving so people notice. Keep it between you and God, a secret between you and your invisible Friend, who happens to be the Creator and Redeemer of the world.

When you are having an interpersonal struggle with someone, and maybe they withdraw their love. Don’t take your wounds to the gossip circuit. Go to the secret place where you can share intimately with the King of the universe.

Give up the illegitimate means to find life and fulfillment. Delight yourself and God and he will touch you in the deep places of your soul. Delight ourselves in God and get a glimpse of what God intended in the first place and what he will one day bring about fully in his children.

One day he will wipe away the last tear from your face.

Adam and Eve set the human race on the downward spiral of fulfilling our heart’s desires by stepping away from God’s kind instruction. Not until we come to a saving relationship with God through Jesus Christ and subsequently delight ourselves in God will we once again find that wonderful contentment and fulfillment of Eden before the fall.

Yeah, so what!  You’re not perfect either.

So I cringed when I realized our missionary speaker was going to preach this morning.  I mean, nothing against missionaries or anything, but have you heard them preach?  All you can hope for is that they will weave plenty of interesting anecdotes into the message and not preach long.  Oh, Lord. . .let’s see How do I word this?  God, please bless this your servant this morning, and while we are on the topic, please help him to end on time.  Nothing worse than long and boring.

Okay, so moving past the humor even if you didn’t recognize it as such.

What a God-honoring job our missionary speaker did this morning.  Attaboy, Mike.

An honest, thoughtful approach to the word of God results in the Spirit of God speaking to his people.  It’s not rocket science.  You don’t have to be Mr. Personality.  Just bow before God and do your best to let God speak through you.  Don’t spin the words for your favorite cause or agenda.  Don’t try to be witty and intelligent.  Don’t be cute.  Just let the words course through your life and as much as is possible, accurately proclaim those words.

It doesn’t happen near enough in our pulpits, not nearly often enough.  And it doesn’t seem to matter fundamental, liberal and in-between.  A barrage of Bible verse does not mean you are communicating God’s word.  The best moral cause doesn’t merit displacing God’s message to his people as honestly read and learned from the pages of Holy Scripture.

Not enough bowing before God going on; not enough humility.  Not enough courage; not enough faith.

Not enough listening to God before speaking for him.

Too much of us.

But we were blessed this morning with a message from God.  And from a missionary for goodness sake!

Thanks, Mike.

Do you know who said that?

Lots of people, but specifically I am speaking of the one and only lion fighting, bear ‘rastling, David shepherd-boy king (1 Samuel 17.34-35). In my read-through-the-Bible time, I found this the other morning.

(Psalms 56:3 ESV) When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.

The great warrior king was afraid at times. Don’t breeze over this too quickly.

We have somewhere to go when we are afraid, a place of trust in God, our refuge and strength.

Beginning lyrics to a new song:

When I am afraid, I run to you for refuge,

When I am alone, I find a Friend,

When I disappoint you, I fall down in confession,

When I am so weak, I am so strong.

Maybe if you are ancient like me, you will remember the Old Spice “slap-in-the-face” commercial. I believe someone comes up to the guy and slaps some Old Spice aftershave on him, and he replies, “Thanks, I needed that.”

(Proverbs 27:5 NKJV) Open rebuke is better than love carefully concealed.

(Proverbs 27:6 NKJV) Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.

So why don’t we slap each other more?  Why aren’t we more “faithful” in our relationships?

I think it is because we don’t love each other the way we should. We would rather be nice than loving. It is easier and there isn’t near the mess to clean up. We don’t understand the benefits of honesty with each other.

And we are sometimes afraid that the other person may pick the rock up and throw it back at our glass house, or the pot may be calling the kettle black.

So let’s just play it safe and clean and stay out of each other’s lives.

Whoa, dude. I oughta’ slap you for that!

I don’t know what your workplace is like.

I have a pretty good job most of the time. It doesn’t pay a lot, but we keep the bills paid. This is the second time I have worked for this company. The first time I was a good employee. When I returned to them 12 years ago, I determined that I would be an excellent employee. I have lived up to this most of the time.

And, no, I’m not talking about the kiss-the-boss’s-butt, suck-up, work to be noticed attitude. Yuk!

But I continue to be surprised at the opposition from coworkers if a person tries to excel on the job, go the extra mile, give all you’ve got, 110 percent and other appropriate cliches. . .

The guys I work with are pretty decent. We normally get along pretty well. But I sometimes I am actually ridiculed for doing my job well. To some being paid hourly means to do as little as possible in that hour and still hold your job.

I actually enjoy working hard and performing at the highest level I can and trying to improve.

I actually had a truck driver complain to me because we had filled in an area between two stockpiles and this had blocked his way.

The Problem: He had to put his cheeseburger down to back the truck out.

Dang!

He was doing pretty well up to that point, the guest speaker I mean.

He had for a number of weeks filled in admirably, making a real effort to communicate God’s message from the Bible.  Nothing spectacular, but it doesn’t have to be, just let God speak.

Until the “Is Adam in heaven?” message.

Why do we do this?

He began by stating that biblically we could not know or prove whether Adam was in heaven or not.  So why in the world would we spend our time that Sunday morning examining the issue?

This behavior and reasoning comes from our intellect-based or knowledge-based paradigm of the Bible, an approach to the Bible that satisfies and tickles our intellectual curiosity without our having to give over control to God.

God gives us the words to live so we can follow Jesus now.

That’s what I thought as I sat there at the rescue mission looking at all the hungry men, women and children.  Maybe not where they wanted to be but I was awed at God’s provision.

Jesus was feeding them.  Maybe not the miracle of loaves and fishes, but still something to cause me to bow before and praise my Father in heaven.

A good solid meal provided by the mission but ultimately, providentially provided by God himself.

That’s how I saw it Tuesday evening.  A gracious and loving Provider giving daily bread to his human creation.

And I must worship you, O my God!