Give Thanks in Everything

November 4, 2013 in Bible - NT - 1 Thessalonians, Meditations, Thankfulness
1 Thessalonians 5:18 (NKJV)
18 In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
Paul summons us to be a thankful people, a people who readily acknowledge and praise God for His kindnesses to us. We are to give thanks, Paul declares, “in everything.” We are to give thanks when enduring trials and when experiencing blessings – in everything we are to give thanks.
So today as we enter into our new facility, a facility that we can properly call our own, it is a time for much thankfulness and gratitude. Since the planting of our congregation in March of 2006, we have rented various places in and around Coeur d’Alene. Many of us remember with smiles or with knots in our stomachs the various places God has led us over the years: the Silver Lake Motel, the Songbird Theatre, the Iva Lee Dance Hall, the Lake City Senior Center, the Seventh Day Adventist Church. Each of these facilities served us well and enabled us to gather weekly to worship the Lord together and praise Him for His kindness to us.
And here we are now in a facility that we can call our own. If we are to give thanks “in everything” then surely we are to give thanks when God sends manifest blessings upon us as He has done today. God is good and has been good to Trinity Church.
Paul’s command is directed not only to us corporately but also to each of us individually. In everything we are to give thanks, all the more so in times of deliverance and mercy. So this morning we join our voices in giving thanks for God’s mercy to the Dixons this week in their car accident. But we are to give thanks not only in deliverance but in everything. One of the lessons which our Heavenly Father wants to teach us is to give thanks not because what we are experiencing is necessarily pleasant but because we know that our Father has promised to use this thing, pleasant or unpleasant, for our good and for His glory. And so in everything we are to give thanks.

But often we don’t give thanks in everything. Sometimes we grumble and complain rather than give thanks; often we take our blessings for granted rather than thanking God for them. So reminded of this call, this call to give thanks in everything, let us confess our ingratitude to the Lord and ask him to forgive us and teach us to give thanks. As you are able, let us kneel together as we confess.

Steady Plodding and Ordinary Time

October 28, 2013 in Bible - NT - Luke, Church Calendar, Church History, Liturgy, Meditations
Luke 13:18–19 (NKJV)
18 Then He said, “What is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it? 19 It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and put in his garden; and it grew and became a large tree, and the birds of the air nested in its branches.”
As 21st century Americans who profess the Christian faith, we can often be tempted to muddle our Christianity with our Americanness. This temptation to mistake our broader culture for Christian piety is not unique to us, but the particular ways in which our culture influences us are unique. One way our American culture affects our conception of Christianity is our love affair with that which is spontaneous or new or different. We tend to grow tired of, what we call, the “same old thing” and have a hankering for some new fad to bring life back into our Christian walk.
But what Jesus articulates for us in his parables of the kingdom is that the way the Holy Spirit works both in our individual lives and in the life of His Church is better pictured by the growth of a tree than the lighting of a sparkler. Sparklers, of course, are fun and exciting – they burn bright and shed their fire on all around them. But sparklers soon burn out while trees, planted and taking root, slowly grow over time; growing almost imperceptibly, soaking up the nutrients in the soil and increasingly displaying the glory of their Creator.
This steady, slow, natural growth is the way Christ typically works in the lives of His disciples. Normal Christian growth involves long periods of steady plodding – plodding that brings prosperity but plodding nonetheless. Steady plodding. Few sprints; mainly marathons. A long obedience in the same direction.
You may not know, but the last five months in the Church Year are called “ordinary time.” It is a time of year when there are no special feasts and celebrations; we’re in the time of the Spirit’s work in the Church. After the pouring out of the Spirit at Pentecost, the Spirit began working in the Church, gradually transforming the people of God into the image of Christ. Hence the color of this period is green, a color of growth.
One thing that you may have noticed, if you’ve been here a while, is that for these last five months we have used the same greeting, the same words of confession, and the same version of the Creed. For five months. Why have we done this? There’s no biblical requirement that we do so. We could have changed them weekly, monthly, periodically – as we have done in the past. God has left these things to the wisdom of church officers. So why have we kept the Call to Worship, the Confession, and the Creed the same? To highlight that the course of our Christian lives is only occasionally interrupted by unusual acts and works of God. More typically God works in our lives through steady plodding, slow growth, gradual transformation – through what theologians have called the ordinary means of grace: the preaching of the Word and the administration of the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
Very soon we’re coming upon changes – moving to a new building, entering a new church year when Advent arrives and we’ll have a different Call to Worship, a different Confession, a different Creed. Before we change, I wanted to draw to your attention the fact that for these last five months these have been the same. Perhaps you noticed; perhaps you’ve wondered if this is ever going to change. And perhaps you’ve thought the same thing about periods in your own life and spiritual development. And the message of Jesus is that He is at work growing His kingdom and even growing you.

Reminded that Jesus’ work in our lives is often gradual, like the growth of a tree, we are alerted that often our hankering for something spontaneous or new or different is not an impulse of our Christian faith but our Americanness. And this reminds us that we need to confess our fickleness to the Lord and ask Him to enable us to practice a long obedience in the same direction. So let us kneel as we confess our sins together.

Without Grumbling and Disputing

October 14, 2013 in Bible - NT - Philippians, Covenantal Living, Meditations, Thankfulness
Philippians 2:14–16 (NKJV)
14 Do all things without complaining and disputing, 15 that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, 16 holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain.
This week the students in the homeschool cooperative are memorizing Philippians 2:14 and the verse has proved so convicting for me in the past week that I thought I would share the blessing. As we move into our new facility, there will be numerous occasions for us to implement the command which Paul gives us – to do all things without complaining and disputing. So I thought it would be good to consider Paul’s admonition.
First, let us understand what Paul commands. He commands us to do all things  without complaining and disputing. Note that Paul gives us no exceptions. All things – whether we’re laboring at home or at school or at church or at work or wherever, we are to do all these things without complaining and disputing. In other words, we are to do the things we’re asked to do without complaining about the work or arguing with the one who has given us the work.
Second, let us note the difficulty of what Paul commands. We live in a fallen world, a world in which we continue to experience sickness, decay, disappointment, fear, and frustration. We live in a world in which parents, elders, employers, and magistrates make what seem to us, and what sometimes are, unreasonable demands. Yet Paul commands us to do all things without complaining and disputing. Does this not seem impossible?
Third, note the rationale for Paul’s command: that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world. As we learn to do all things without complaining and disputing, we are learning to imitate our Lord Jesus Christ – he who was and is perfect man, blameless and harmless. And as we imitate Him, we will be the light of the world, the instruments whom the Lord will use to bring others to know Him and to worship Him in the world.
So as we move into the new building, God is providing us with an opportunity to shine as lights in the world. As we move into this building and receive it with thanksgiving, rejoicing even in the things we aren’t excited about, we’ll show the world what it is like to serve our Heavenly Father. The new building is not as beautiful nor as large and accommodating as this facility – shall we give thanks? The new building still needs some work, there are things we haven’t been able to afford yet – shall we give thanks? Many of you haven’t seen the new building since some changes have been made – you might be tempted to ask, “Why’d they do that? Change that? Spend money on that?” – shall you instead give thanks? This is our calling and our privilege as children of God. To manifest our trust in God by being thankful.

That which applies to this new building, applies to every area of our life. And the difficulty of Paul’s command reminds us how often in ourselves we fall short and how much we need the grace and forgiveness of God. So reminded of this, let us confess our sin to the Lord, seek his forgiveness, and ask him for grace to do all things without complaining and disputing. Let us kneel as we confess our sin to the Lord.

God Gave Wine

October 7, 2013 in Bible - NT - 2 Timothy, Bible - OT - Psalms, Covenantal Living, Law and Gospel, Meditations, Mosaic Law
Psalm 104:14–15 (NKJV)
14 [God] causes the grass to grow for the cattle, And vegetation for the service of man, That he may bring forth food from the earth, 15 And wine that makes glad the heart of man, Oil to make his face shine, And bread which strengthens man’s heart.
As we anticipate moving soon to our new facility, I’d like to take a momentary break from our meditations on the Ten Commandments to prepare for our move. We have rented from the good folks here at the Seventh Day Adventist Church for almost three years. In an effort to respect the convictions of our brethren, we have refrained from the use of wine in communion. But when we move into our new building, we’ll be resuming the use of wine and wanted to give a brief defense. After all, some of you joined us while here at the SDA building and may not even know that we use wine in communion. So in the interest of no surprises I wanted to address the issue.
It is always a temptation for us as the people of God to substitute our own wisdom for the wisdom which God has given in His Word. We can be tempted either to permit things that God has forbidden or to forbid things that God has permitted. It was in the midst of addressing this latter temptation, the temptation to forbid things that God has permitted, that Paul writes in 1 Timothy 4:4-5:
For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.
Paul reminds us that God has fashioned and molded the world and that we are to receive the things that he has given with gratitude and thanksgiving. So notice the psalmist doing what Paul articulates:
[God] causes the grass to grow for the cattle, And vegetation for the service of man, That he may bring forth food from the earth, And wine that makes glad the heart of man, Oil to make his face shine, And bread which strengthens man’s heart.
Within the American church, there has been a strong impulse to edit out the first half of verse 15 and eliminate the psalmist’s praise of “wine that makes glad the heart of man.” Vegetation – yes! Oil – yes! Bread – yes! But wine? We’re not so sure. Grape juice yes; but wine?
Our reticence often stems from the frequent abuse of alcohol – and make no mistake that the abuse of alcohol, drunkenness, is a sin. Paul commands us, “Do not be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit.” But the same Scriptures that identify drunkenness as a sin also identify wine itself as a gift from God – a gift to gladden the heart of man.
Jesus testified to the blessing of wine at the wedding of Cana when he turned the water into wine and brought joy to the bridegroom and the bride. And it is wine that Jesus drank with his disciples on the night he was betrayed – and so it is wine that we will use when we are at liberty to do so in our own building.
So why is it that we often create these extra strictures and forbid things that God permits in His Word? One reason is our persistent temptation to identify the cause of our sinfulness in something outside of us. If alcohol is the problem, then my heart is not the problem, my desires are not the problem, my love for someone and something more than God Himself is not the problem.

But the Word of God does not let us off so easily. My problem, your problem, is not outside of me or outside of you – our problem is in our hearts. Out of the heart proceeds drunkenness, our abuse of the good gift of wine that God has given. So why does God give us wine in the Supper? He gives us wine to remind us that Jesus died to rescue us from our sinful inclinations and to enable us to use his gifts aright. So reminded of our propensity to twist God’s good gifts and use them for evil, let us kneel and confess our sin to the Lord.

The 3rd Commandment – Taking the Lord’s Name in Vain

September 30, 2013 in Baptism, Bible - OT - Exodus, Covenantal Living, Law and Gospel, Meditations, Mosaic Law, Ten Commandments, Tongue
Exodus 20:7 (NKJV)
7 “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.
Commonly the third commandment is taken as a restriction on profane speech – and while it does have implications for our speech, the commandment is much broader. The third commandment is a stirring warning against hypocrisy.
The word translated “take” in the commandment can also mean to bear or bear up. Shortly after its use in the third commandment, the same word is used to describe the high priest “bearing” the names of the sons of Israel upon his shoulders. In other words, he stood as the representative for the tribes of Israel, taking their sins upon himself in the Day of Atonement and lifting up their prayers on the altar of incense.
To “bear the name” is, therefore, to represent another. So when God warns Israel about “taking” or “bearing” the name of the Lord your God in vain, he is warning them against representing him to the world in a way that is unfaithful and slanderous. Even as a wife takes the name of her husband and can no longer act as though unmarried, so those who take the Name of God are to live in light of that identity. This, of course, has application for one’s speech; but it actually addresses everything – starting from the heart and working its way out to the tongue.
When God chose Abraham and gave him the covenant of circumcision, he marked out Abraham and his descendants as His representatives on earth. It was through Abraham and his offspring that all the families of the earth would be blessed. God chose Abraham, then Isaac, then Jacob and his twelve sons to be His special possession, a people called by His Name and who bore His Name. Israel was the people of God.
In the New Covenant, it is we who have been baptized into Christ who bear the Name of God and whom God now calls to bear His Name in truth. For how are we baptized? We are baptized “into the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” And having been baptized into the Triune Name, having had the Name of God placed upon us, we are to live lives that represent that God to the world. When we fail to represent Him faithfully – either through the worship of other gods, or through unrighteous living, or through the practice of injustice, or through the misuse of our tongues – then we bear His Name in vain.
We also see in our text that God takes this hypocrisy and deceitful bearing of His Name very seriously – He will not hold Him guiltless that takes His Name in vain. Repeatedly in the history of Israel and in the history of the Church, we see God vindicating His Name in the face of the unfaithfulness of those who bear it. And so this is a reminder to us, an admonition to us to fear the Lord and to serve Him sincerely, free from hypocrisy and double-mindedness. We are to represent God faithfully to the world.

One of the ways we do this is by acknowledging that He alone is holy and exalted and free from sin. The way we demonstrate this, publicly and privately, is by routinely confessing our sins and seeking His forgiveness in the Name of Christ. So this morning let us confess our sins – and in particular, the way in which we are tempted to bear the Name of God in vain and fail to represent Him faithfully to the world. Let us kneel together as we confess.

Why Church Hopping Doesn’t Reveal a Love for the Church

September 27, 2013 in Bible - NT - Hebrews, Church History, Coeur d'Alene Issues, Ecclesiology

Coeur d’Alene is full of folks who don’t understand the biblical teaching on the importance and centrality of the church – including the local, visible church. Over the years I’ve met many people who hop from one spot to another and avoid joining a local church and submitting themselves to a specific group of elders. I’ve recently been interacting with some folks on the importance of this issue and thought that I would post some words I wrote for them:


Our conviction, based on Paul’s admonitions to us in Hebrews, is that membership in a local church and submission to a local group of elders is not an option for us as Christians but is required:
  • “Remember those who rule over you, who have spoken the word of God to you, whose faith follow, considering the outcome of their conduct.” (Hebrews 13:7)
  • “Obey those who rule over you, and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you.” (Hebrews 13:17)
In the same way in which I demonstrate my respect for women generally by loving one woman, my wife, in particular, so the way that I show my love for the church universal is by loving one church, my local body, in particular. The man who claims he loves women and that’s why he won’t commit to any one in particular hasn’t learned the meaning of biblical love. Likewise with the church – if we claim to love the universal church the way we manifest that is by committing to a local body not by sampling the goods that each has to offer. This conviction is based on the teachings of Scripture and is the position under which we operate.
For those interested, I’d recommend Joshua Harris’ little book Stop Dating the Church now repackaged as Why Church Matters: Discovering Your Place in the Family of God. Also consider Edmund Clowney’s The Church for a more thorough treatment of the issue.

The Flamingo Moral

September 26, 2013 in Coeur d'Alene Issues, Creation, Education, Evolution, Fabulosities, Politics
Well my cynical side got the better of me when I read the article in the Coeur d’Alene Press today (see here) about bullying alongside the announcement that former president H.W. Bush had witnessed a faux marriage of two women in Maine. So I penned an unsubmitted letter to the editor on the “bullying” issue that is all the rage in our media right now:

In Praise of Bullies
It seems the Coeur d’Alene School District is concerned about the presence of bullying in the schools. But I’ve been thinking that we should be more sympathetic toward bullies – that perhaps we should even praise them.
Now lest you dismiss me as a kook, just consider my argument for a moment. Last night my children and I watched an astounding documentary on the types and habits of eagles. We watched with amazement as a fish eagle swooped down on a flamingo, bore it to the ground, stood on its neck and killed it. Survival of the fittest on display. But then an interesting thing happened – a pair of much larger and stronger golden eagles swooped in and drove off the fish eagle, stealing his kill. It seems the golden eagles hadn’t attended the workshops on bullying offered by the school district.
So here we were watching this documentary on eagles when suddenly the thought struck me – hey, I’m just a distant cousin of the eagle! According to the official curriculum of our government educational system, as a human being I am not fundamentally different than an eagle. I too have evolved from that first bit of protoplasm by random processes and natural selection. I’ve gotten to where I am by natural selection and the survival of the fittest. So why shouldn’t stronger humans simply use their strength to take what weaker humans have obtained? Why not imitate the golden eagles?
After all, consider those golden eagles. Big, majestic, strong: they are clearly the evolutionary superiors of the fish eagles; no fish eagle measures up. And with bullies – maybe it’s the same. They’re usually bigger and stronger – okay maybe the majestic part is missing. But, hey, you can’t have everything in one package.
But if it’s true, as the schools teach our kids, that human beings are simply very sophisticated animals, then why not imitate the golden eagles? After all, the macro-evolutionary myth is used to reinforce various other morals. We’re supposed to care for the planet because she’s given us birth. We’re supposed to treat animals nice because they and we are cut of the same cloth. So why choose just these morals? Why not the “bully moral” as well? Bullying is okay because golden eagles push fish eagles out of the way and eat their flamingos. Perhaps we could call it the flamingo moral to avoid the “b” word. After all, if there is no moral standard that stands over and above our eco-system, then it seems that we should be willing to speak in praise of bullies.

Human Rights and Wrongs

September 25, 2013 in Coeur d'Alene Issues, Homosexuality, King Jesus, Law and Gospel, Politics, Sexuality, Ten Commandments

I submitted a My Turn article to the Coeur d’Alene Press yesterday in response to Tony Stewart’s article in the paper last week. My article was published today and is available online here. It is imperative both for the good of our city and the preservation of our integrity, to speak clearly and frankly about the issue of homosexuality and the attempt by the LGBT community to co-opt the language of human rights to sanction their perversion.

If you think that my questions about pedophilia, incest, bestiality, etc. are unnecessary, then please consult the excellent article in The New American by Selwyn Duke. It is entitled, “The Slippery Slope to Pedophilia.” He hits the nail on the head. May God have mercy upon our nation and turn us from our folly and from the trajectory on which we are currently headed. I tried to outline that trajectory in my sermon last Sunday entitled, “Saving the World from Suicide.” It should be up on the website soon.

For those who prefer, my article is printed below.
______________

During this local political season, it is important that our communication with one another be characterized by a firm allegiance to honesty, integrity, and truth. As a local pastor, I decry sins of the tongue – slander, gossip, lies, outbursts of wrath, false accusations – all dishonor our Creator and defame others who are made in the image of God. It is my desire to speak the truth in love.
To that end I wish to address the misleading way in which the agenda of the lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, and transgendered (LGBT) community has been linked by some, including Mayoral candidate Steve Widmeyer and homosexual activist Tony Stewart, to the idea of human rights. We need to preserve the “human rights” of those in the LGBT community and not discriminate against them.
It is important that members of our community understand that this linking of the ordinance with human rights is false and destructive. First, it is false. The ordinance is not about the preservation of human rights but about the public sanctioning of immoral and destructive sexual behaviors. Our forefathers never taught that “human rights” include the “right” to do what is wrong. And this ordinance is not about the preservation of human rights but human wrongs. It is the equivalent of passing a law forbidding discrimination against thieves and adulterers – granting public protections to those who engage in particular immoral actions.
Second, it is destructive. It leaves human rights in the hands of human beings. The founders of our great nation were careful to maintain that our rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness were given to us by the Creator, not by any human agency, whether a vote of the people or a decision of the king. Governments are created to protect and preserve these rights; but the rights exist independent of any government. On this matter, Mr. Stewart is exactly right: every decision of the majority is subject to the moral law.
So where do we find the moral law? Clearly Mr. Stewart believes in it; he appeals to our “moral compass” to oppose discrimination against those in the LGBT community. So how does he identify what is moral or immoral? Shall we soon find him defending the “right” of citizens to practice polygamy, bestiality, incest, or pedophilia? Perhaps murder, rape, thievery? No doubt he opposes such things. But on what basis? Public opinion? Then he undermines his claim that these things exist independent of government decisions and leaves us in the hands of the people. The Creator? Then he needs to explain how we understand and know the mind of the Creator. And if we can only know the mind of God through individual human opinion then we’re back to our first dilemma – we have to take a vote. Vox populi, vox dei: the voice of the people is the voice of God. And in that case whatever the people decide becomes “moral” – it becomes two wolves and a sheep trying to decide what to eat. It leaves us in the hands of the people.
Christianity resolves this dilemma by appealing to an objective moral standard that stands over and above every human society – Christian or non-Christian. We know what is good and right and honorable through the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. Here God has revealed the moral law – it is summarized in the Ten Commandments and lived out in the life of Jesus Christ. And this law clearly identifies the LGBT lifestyles as perverse and destructive both individually and societally. This law leaves us not in the hands of human beings but in the hands of God. As historian Arnold J. Toynbee remarked, “Sooner or later, man has always had to decide whether he worships his own power or the power of God.” There is no third option.
Contrary to Mr. Stewart’s claim, love and discrimination always go hand in hand. It is the father who loves his daughter who teaches her to discriminate among suitors. It is the mother who loves her son who teaches him to discriminate and choose his friends carefully. It is Jesus who loves the poor who discriminated against the moneychangers and overthrew their tables (see Matthew 21:12-17).
And so I would urge the citizens of our community to use proper discrimination as you approach the polls. Always defend human rights while ardently opposing human wrongs. “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people” (Proverbs 14:34).
Pastor Stuart Bryan

Trinity Church