Ecclesiastes 1:14

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Our verse for today is Ecclesiastes one verse 14, which says,

I have seen all things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind. (Ecclesiastes 1:14)

I read a story the other day about a man who had always dreamed of hiking through the Grand Canyon, so he saved up money. He got himself in shape. He bought that ticket to Arizona, and off he went. He began his hike. It was a three day hike, going from the top of the Grand Canyon, down into the bottom and up through the top. It was a challenging hike, but he was ready to do it.

Day one of the hike went well. Everything went exactly as he had planned. Then day two there was a challenge. You see, there had been a torrential rain storm that had washed out the trail that he had planned on taking, and suddenly he found himself lost. Very lost. He spent days out in the desert, and after time began to pass, he began to have hallucinations. Began to see mirages. He would see what looked to be rescuers coming to rescue him. See helicopters in the sky that were not there. He saw a table set with the most delicious food. But of course, none of it was there.

Thankfully, a few days later he was rescued and he was taken to the hospital and quickly released. He went home and his family had prepared a beautiful meal for him. It was almost like Thanksgiving time all over again. As he sat there and looked at the food, he thought to himself, man, I really wish I could go back to the desert and eat that food that I saw there.

That would be absurd. That food that he saw in the desert wasn’t real food. It wasn’t tangible. It couldn’t help him or give him life. But the food here on the table was exactly what he needed. It was life giving. It was real.

That seems like an odd example, but that’s kind of what this text here in Ecclesiastes is talking about. When it talks about things under the sun being meaningless. Meaningless is an interesting word. A lot of translations use the word smoke. Well, what does that mean? That everything is smoke? We stop and think about it, smoke looks like something that is there, something that is tangible, something you can reach out and grab. But when you try to grab it, it’s gone. It slips between your fingers. It’s not really there. And that’s how a lot of things in life are. They seem to be important, but when we try to cling to them, there’s really nothing to cling to. But so often we’re tempted to try to cling to those things, whether it be money or happiness or wealth. These things that seem important, these things that seem as if they can give us life and everything we need when we cling to them, they let us down. They slip between our fingers.

The author of Ecclesiastes knows that there is something better. There is something that we can cling to, something that like that real food is life giving and that is Christ. We cling to Christ and Him crucified, and that is real, and that’s tangible. And not only is it not smoke that slides through our fingers, but it’s a foundation. The Bible tells us a firm foundation on which we can stand and be built up. What a beautiful thing we have in Christ. So life isn’t meaningless, but life is temporary. It’s fleeting. And in Christ we have meaning and eternal life. Amen.

Job 29:25-27

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There have to have been few people who have suffered in life as much as the Bible describes Job. Job had it all. He was massively wealthy. He had all sorts of livestock. He had an army of servants, and God had even blessed him with a massive family. Yet in one day, Job lost it all. Raiders had come, murdered his servants and stole away his livestock. And a great wind overtook his children’s house, killing them all. Satan had even caused painful sores to come all over Job’s body, all with the intent purpose of making him curse God.

Now, the majority of the Book of Job is the conversation between him and his friends, who are trying to get him to confess to some great sin. You see, in their mind, they expect righteous people to be rewarded by God and wicked people to suffer. And so if Job was suffering so much, it must have been that he had done something truly awful and needed to repent of it. The problem was, Job didn’t fit the bill. Job acknowledged he was a sinner, as other men are, but he had never done so great a sin as to cause all of this. He had no great sin to confess. So what was going on?

A lot of times the Book of Job is used as a discussion platform for the issue of theodicy. How does a righteous God deal with evil in the world? And while it certainly does touch on that subject, ultimately the book concludes that we can’t really know. Job never knew about the conversation between God and Satan in chapter one. And us limited creatures cannot fully understand our limitless creator. But another important theme in the book is dealing with how we are righteous before God. And this is where one of my all time favorite Bible passages comes in. When Job speaks in chapter 19, verses 25 through 27.

For I know that my Redeemer lives,
And He shall stand at last on the earth;
And after my skin is destroyed, this I know,
That in my flesh I shall see God,
Whom I shall see for myself,
And my eyes shall behold, and not another.
How my heart faints within me! (Job 29:25-27)

This passage is important for us today. Far too often we may think that if we live a good enough life, if we’re righteous, then God will reward us. And this may be the theology of Job’s friends, but that’s not what Job is looking at here. Instead, he points to his Redeemer, the one who frees him from the bonds of sin, the one who makes him righteous. And that Redeemer for Job is the same one for us, Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Jesus came into this world to free us from sin. He did this by leading a perfect life, far more righteous than Job could ever hope of achieving. What’s more, he went to the cross to die for us. There he placed all our sin upon himself. He even faced the abandonment of God, suffering far more than Job ever did. And yet it was for Job’s sake that Jesus died. And it’s for your sake, too, that Jesus died.

Because of what Christ has done on the cross we are justified from our sin. Jesus not only died for us. But on Easter Sunday he rose again from the dead. Showing us that those who have faith in him will also rise from the dead and follow after their Savior. This is the hope that Job was looking for. This is what caused his heart to faint. The great reveal of his Redeemer. And that’s the hope that we can have, too. In the midst of the hardships we face in this life, we know that God is still with us because we don’t look in ourselves to be justified. But rather it is God who makes us righteous. We look for it in Christ so that on the last day, when we are raised up from the dead, we can have the joy of Job, knowing that our Redeemer lives.

Romans 3:20, 1 Corinthians 6:11

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Why even try? Why even try to really live out what Jesus says? You know, in the Sermon on the Mount, some of the things he says, they just seem impossible. Why even try? I don’t know if any of us would say that out loud, but I get this sense that subtly sometimes we think that. I mean, after all, God’s Word says that none of us will be declared righteous by following the law. (Romans 3:20) We’re all going to sin, so why even try?

Do you ever think that? Do you ever feel that? And does it ever turn into almost an excuse to just go ahead and sin? Because, well, I’m a sinner anyways. If we ever feel that way, if we ever think, why even try? Scripture does speak to that for us and it gives us some reasons to try to live. No, we do not justify ourselves at all. But Scripture does tell us that we are justified, that we have been changed.

In 1 Corinthians chapter six, verse 11, it says,

And some of you were those types of people.

So talking about all these different sinful behaviors,

but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and by the power of the spirit. (1 Corinthians 6:11)

Jesus lived the life we were meant to live, laid it down, and died on a cross. On that cross, he took the justice for everything you and I have ever done wrong. He paid for that. And when he rose again, he rose to give us a new life. And when you were brought to faith in Christ, you were connected to his death and resurrection. You have been made new. When you were baptized into Christ, you were washed clean. You have a new identity now before God, you were that other person, but now you are someone different and that affects how you live.

I remember when I was in fifth grade, I was dating, however that works in fifth grade, a girl, and I also at the time that I was dating her, I thought it was really cool to use a lot of profanity at school. Not a good idea. Well, I broke up with her and her way of getting back at me was looking up our number in the phone book. She called my pastor dad and said, Pastor Abrahamson, Nate is using bad language at school. And my dad came out, I was shooting hoops in the driveway, and he told me about the phone call and he goes, Nathaniel, is that who you are? Is that who you are? And then he just went back in the house and I stood there. I was like, shouldn’t I be in more trouble right now?

But that question rang in my mind throughout the rest of my school days. It still rings in my mind where I look at different things and I go, okay, is that who I am? Is that who I am in Christ? And if it’s not, why would I do it? Why would I go that direction? See, we don’t try in order to get ourselves right with God, we want to live out our faith because we are right with God. Because that’s who we are now. And not only is that who we are now, but we have the power of the Spirit working in us, and we have fruits of the spirit that do come out. And sometimes in some ways we do get to embrace, we do take hold of who we are in Christ. And whenever we don’t, whenever we don’t, we look back to the cross and we’re assured that we’re forgiven.

See, that’s the thing. It’s like when you clean a room in your house, that’s when you realize just how dirty it is, right? When you try to take hold of your faith, that’s when you realize just how much you do need Jesus. And every time you realize that you have sinned and fallen short, you are assured you are forgiven. You are right with him. And now you can go forward and live out, begin to live out more and more who you are now in Christ. Live out who you are.

Philippians 1:21-22,24-25 2:5-8

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There’s this tension that we live in as Christians where we know that our future with Christ, that heaven, that the resurrection is going to be better and we look forward to that day. But then the tension arises with how do we then see today? Because doesn’t God want us to embrace today? Well, yeah. But then what about how we need to be focused on eternity? How do we grapple with the two of those things? How do we understand that?

Well, the apostle Paul actually talks about this in the book of Philippians. In the first chapter of Philippians, he talks about this, the struggle, because life is really challenging for him at the time. And he can really see. And it’s really clear to him how being with Jesus is going to be better. But then he also talks about what’s in front of him here with this life. And he says in verse 21 of chapter one of Philippians,

Yes, for me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. (Philippians 1:21)

I think for me from that statement, the easier part to understand is to die is gain, Because with that statement, we have this assurance that because Jesus died for our sins and rose again, we’re right with God and we have the hope of being with Jesus where there’s no more sin, no more pain, no more suffering, no more death. We can see how that’s game. That’s better. But what does it mean to say that to live is Christ? What is that about? Well, if you go ahead to chapter two of Philippians, there’s something there that’s really helpful. Paul says,

Indeed, let this attitude be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Though he was by nature God, he did not consider equality with God as a prize to be displayed, but he emptied himself by taking the nature of a servant. When he was born in human likeness, and his appearance was like that of any other man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:5-8)

What does that all mean? Well, the Son of God could have stayed in the comforts of heaven, but he and his Father had a plan to rescue us. And so God the Son took on human flesh and lived in this world, and laid down his life because he had a job to do. Because in obedience to His father and love for us, he came to live and to die and to rise again for us. He came for us. So instead of holding on to the comforts of heaven, he embraced the difficulties of this world because he had a special job to do. That’s what it means to live as Christ. Heaven will be better. Paradise with Jesus will be better. But God has us here because he has a job for us to do.

If you go back to chapter one, Paul, after saying, for me to live as Christ and to die is gain, he goes on to say,

But if I am to go on living in the flesh, that will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet which should I prefer? I do not know. But, it is more necessary for your sake that I remain in the flesh. And since I am convinced of this, I know that I will remain and will continue with all of you, for your progress and joy in the faith. (Philippians 1:22,24-25)

Paul recognized that God had some work for him to do, and I want you to hear this clearly today, especially to if you’ve ever struggled with thoughts of maybe my life should just come to an end. Or if you ever know anyone who wrestles with those sort of thoughts. That right now God has said, okay, if you’re going to ask the question, what’s better for me to be here right now in this place or to be in heaven? You know what God’s answer is in this moment? It’s better for you to be here. Otherwise you would already be in heaven. That means you must have something pretty important to do. Pretty significant.

Now, we often we forget that and we get focused on ourselves. But whenever that happens, whenever we realize that we have been focused on ourselves, whenever we realize our sin and how we have not been who God has called us to be, how we have turned away from God. Whenever the Holy Spirit convicts us of that, we can turn back to the cross, turn back to the one who came for us. Jesus came for you, died for you, rose again for you, so that heaven, yes, will be gained. It will be gained And now, today, in the meantime, to live is Christ. For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.

James 4:13-15

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Hi, I’m Pastor Marcus Nelson at Saint Paul’s North Mankato and the Beacon campus ministry. One question that we get a lot with our college students is, how do I know what I should do with my life? What is the Lord’s will for me? So over these next few devotions, I want to just take a little bit of a look at that and we’ll start in James chapter four.

So James talks about this a little bit starting in verse 13 as he says,

Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” (James 4:13-15)

So as we just start by thinking about this concept of what is, what is the Lord’s will, how should we make our plans? First, God’s word says, know yourself, remember who you are and check your attitude about that too. Because he says you don’t even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while. It seems like as people were making their plans, they were saying something that at face value doesn’t seem like there’s anything wrong with it. We’re making our plans. We’re going to spend a year here, we’re going to have our business, we’re going to make money. Nothing wrong with that, except that it seems like they are just leaving God out of the equation.

Do you ever find yourself doing that too? Just functionally living as a secular humanist, thinking that you are the be all and end all and that it’s your plans and really, really is God all that involved at all? Well, God wants us to check our hearts and think about that and remember that he is the one who guides all things in this world, and that we should go to him with our plans. And remember, if it’s the Lord’s will, we’ll do this or that.

As we make decisions, as we seek to follow God’s will. We have a Savior who has done this perfectly in our place. Jesus came and he looked at people, and the Bible says that he saw them, and he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. He went and he rescued and saved and helped them physically and ultimately took their sins and our sins to the cross.

So we remember who we are. We’re a mist. We’re just here for a little while. We are not God himself, so there’s no reason for us to act like that. But who is God? Well, he’s our Lord and Savior, who looks at us, who are just here for a little while, a little insignificant mist. And what is God’s will for us? Well, here’s one aspect of it God wants all people to be saved. God our Savior wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. He wants you not just to be this little mist that disappears far apart from him, but to be with him forever and ever.

So in some future devotions, we’ll look at what is the will of God. But for now, we check our attitude and remember who our Lord is.

Psalm 32:8

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One of the most distinctive experiences from my visit to Hyderabad, India, was the chaotic traffic. Hyderabad is a city of about 10 million people, densely packed, and the traffic is unreal. In many places, it’s one big traffic jam. There is no coherence, no unified direction. It’s every man for himself. Cars are cutting each other off. All you hear is cars honking at one another. It’s tough to even make sense of what’s going on.

That’s a pretty good picture of life in this world sometimes. It can be a chaotic mess. People are scrambling to push past one another, to climb over one another, to get ahead in life. We’re stressed at home. We’re stressed at work. Tragedy strikes. It’s tough to make sense of what’s even going on sometimes. And that’s why Jesus came to this world. So that we might have peace in the chaotic traffic and mess of life.

He was born as one of us in this chaotic world 2000 years ago. But he never fell into the traps of the chaos. He never scrambled to get ahead of others. He lived a perfect life of loving service toward all those around him living in perfect peace with all those around him, even to the point of giving up his life on the cross. So that through faith in him, you might have peace in the midst of the chaos of this world so that you might know you are forgiven. So that you might have the way opened up to you, to heaven.

He is the way, the truth and the life. He continues to guide us on that way as he carries us to the heavenly home that he won for us as he shines his word on our path. We read in Psalm 32, verse eight.

I will make you wise. I will instruct you in the way that you should go. I will guide you, keeping my eye on you. (Psalm 32:8)

Through his word, he guides us through the chaotic mess of this life to the perfect pastures of peace waiting for us in heaven. Praise be to the one who is the way, the truth and the life. Praise be to the one who gives us peace in the chaos of this world. May this peace be yours as his word shines a light on your path as he leads you to your heavenly home. Amen.

Psalm 46:10

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The other day, I was driving home after running some errands with my six year old son, and he noticed that I missed taking the turn off that I would normally take to get home. And immediately he started freaking out at me. “You’re going the wrong way, Dad. Oh, you got to turn around. What are you doing? Don’t you know where you’re going?” He was being a backseat driver.

Of course, I knew there was some road construction down that regular way that we would take home, so I wanted to avoid that. But he wouldn’t listen to me as I was trying to reassure him. “No, I know where I’m going. Don’t worry. Be patient.” He was still upset and trying to get me to turn around and go back until the very moment we pulled into the driveway coming from the other direction. My son was being a backseat driver.

Do you know anyone who’s a backseat driver? Have you ever been a backseat driver? The thing is, we can, of course, at times be spiritually backseat drivers. There are times where God takes certain directions in life, maybe he knows about some road construction or other obstacles that he wants to avoid, and yet we wonder what in the world, Lord? Why are you going this way? Sometimes he takes detours, sometimes he takes the scenic route, and there are times where we question why he is taking us in this way. There are times when we are spiritually speaking, backseat drivers and we’re tempted to question God. To question what he’s doing and where he’s going.

How silly that is of us. How preposterous. It’s God. He knows exactly what he’s doing. I want to share with you a verse that I share with myself in these times when I begin to be a backseat driver to God. It’s from Psalm 46 verse ten.

Be still and know that I am God. (Psalm 46:10)

He’s the almighty God. He has everything under control. And on top of that, we know that he loves us. He cares about us. And so we trust that he’s going to be taking us down the right roads. We know that he loves us. He’s proven his love to us by sending us our Savior, Jesus. And there were some detours, seeming detours, that God took Jesus on. Not according to anyone else’s perspective should Jesus have ended up on the cross. And yet this is the plan that God had for his Son. And it was a good plan, the greatest plan. That was the greatest road that could be taken. Because through Jesus death on the cross, our sins have been completely wiped out and forgiven.

God knows what he’s doing. He has always known what he is doing. He has been at work for you throughout your life. He will continue to be at work for you. So please don’t be a backseat driver. Trust God, even in these times and moments where he might take you in a direction in life that you might not think is the right way. You can have confidence. You can, again, according to this verse, be still and know that I am God.

And we pray, Oh, Lord, help us to always place our trust in you. Help us to not be spiritually speaking, backseat drivers. Amen.

God’s peace be with you.

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I’d like to tell you about the first time that I ever had a gun pulled on me. I was a new pastor, kind of freshly minted, and we had been called to a kind of rural community. And it was a bit of a struggle, certainly a big adjustment for my wife and I. One morning we sat down and we prayed that God would just sort of show us that he was in our lives and that we had this support.

Now, that night, we were babysitting for another pastor’s kids. They were having their anniversary. And when we got done, it was about one in the morning. We started driving home and it was pitch black in the middle of dark rural Florida. We were driving along. There was a van not too far in front of us, and then all of a sudden there was a bang sound and the car was airborne. When we landed, I pulled over reasonably quickly, opened up the door, got out, and there was just nothing around. It was just pitch black.

And suddenly, out of the darkness, I saw a man just running full tilt at me. Now, this was seemed like good news to me. I thought maybe he had seen what had happened and was coming to help. He had reached into his pocket and I didn’t see it at the time, but my wife did. She saw that he had just pulled a gun. What I saw was this guy come running straight up to me, run right past me, and then disappear off on the other side of the street into the woods.

So as it turns out, what happened was this man was a kidnaper who had carjacked the car, dragged the woman he had kidnaped into that car, and he had been driving the opposite way down the freeway. Now, the woman had jumped out of the car. When she did that, he lost control, slammed into a utility pole, the cord dropped down in front of my car and broke a little electrified hook, poked up, grabbed on to the bottom of my car and discharged a huge amount of electricity which caused the air conditioning to explode. That’s what caused our car to go airborne.

When the car was pulled over there had been smoke billowing out from underneath the hood. And so when the carjacker came running, he saw my car pulled over, thought that we made for a great mark for a car to take. But he saw the smoke coming out from underneath the hood and decided he could probably find better transportation and ran along.

Now, there are so many opportunities that we could have been facing our own demise that day. But it made me think, how many times in life does it occur where you run over the cord and it doesn’t break and you have no idea that God just saved your life three times? That day I could have been killed, that little hook that attached on to the bottom of the car if that had not come detached only about 20 feet away from us, then when I had opened up the door and stepped foot on the ground, I would have been electrocuted and killed.

The accident, which had propelled the car airborne and then caused us to come slamming down. I could have lost control of the vehicle and then killed. The maniac with the gun could have decided that it was worthwhile to kill me and try to take the car, which actually would have gotten him away. I drove the car home that night. It was just the AC that was busted.

So three times that night where I could have been killed, but I wouldn’t have known at all with any of them. If the car had just run over the cord, it hadn’t broken, I’d have gone about my whole night not knowing that God just saved me three times.

We live in a dangerous world. We live in a world that wants to kill us, not just physically. We live in a world that has enmity toward our souls. We live in a world that would like to see us in hell. God’s operation in our lives is extensive, and without Him, we face dangers that we can’t even conceive of. There are so many things hidden from our view because we have a God who loves us so consistently and so persistently that even without our knowledge, he operates.

That night I was saved from some true mortal danger. God goes so much further than that. He has thrown himself between us and destruction eternally. He cares so much about us that the eternal death that we faced, he was willing to face himself instead. Every horror that this world could have thrown at us, Jesus absorbed. Every punishment that we deserved for what we’ve done, Jesus took. The amount of God’s care towards us, the degree to which he was prepared to preserve our lives, took his Son to the cross, where his eternal reward, his eternal life was given to you. Where his empty tomb became a foreshadowing of the eternal life that you have with him.

Knowing that you have the almighty, everlasting, all powerful God working behind the scenes and in front of the scenes inside of your life frees you to live a life of faith, of confidence and of joy.

John 5:1-5

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Sometimes we’re tempted to wonder why God allows us to face adversities and troubles and hardships in life. Sometimes we’re tempted to think that maybe God isn’t here for us. Sometimes we’re tempted to think, as the devil wants us to think, that maybe God has abandoned us. Maybe we’ve done something so bad and so wrong that he’s just let us go off on our own. That he doesn’t care about us anymore.

Henry Ford once had a great quote that is encouraging for us as we face troubles and tribulations in our life. He once said When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it. An airplane takes off against the wind. When airplanes are going down the runway, it’s helpful when there’s a headwind, when the wind is blowing directly at it. It actually allows the airplane to have lift and so it can take off and rise with less speed or even on a shorter runway.

And so it can be for us. I think the same can be said for us. When we face adversity, when we face trouble and hardship in life, when we face challenges, it can actually be a beneficial thing. God can be at work through these things to help us rise up. He lifts us up as these things come our way. This is what the Bible says about this and Romans chapter 5 beginning at verse 1.

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we also have obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand. And we rejoice confidently on the basis of our hope for the glory of God. Not only this, but we also rejoice confidently in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces patient endurance, and patient endurance produces tested character, and tested character produces hope. And hope will not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who was given to us. (John 5:1-5)

That sounds crazy, doesn’t it? That we should rejoice in our sufferings. Glory in our tribulations, how is that possible? Well, it is because God is at work, he’s the one building us up, lifting us up and even strengthening us in spite of these troubles and tribulations that we face as you and I face adversities. God is with us and he is building us up. He hasn’t abandoned us. He hasn’t left us. And so we can be assured that he is at work for our good.

What a beautiful verse we find, especially at the very beginning of that section. We have been justified by faith. And so we have peace with God through Jesus Christ. That’s what gives us confidence whenever we face hardship and trouble and adversity. We have peace with God. Look at what Jesus Christ has done for us, how he lived for us, a holy, perfect life. He earned righteousness that now becomes our own through faith. He took all of our sins. All of those times where where God should have abandoned us. Jesus took our guilt, our crime upon himself, and he paid for it all in full on the cross.

Our Lord Jesus also rose from the dead. And that gives us the assurance that he is victorious and that we have peace with God. So next time you face trouble or adversity or hardship in your life, you can trust that God is going to be at work through those things to lift you up, to help you rise above it. He will be there at work through those things for your good, and you can be assured of that because of the peace that you have with God through his Son, Jesus. And let’s pray.

Thank you, Lord, for the great peace that we have with you through our Savior Jesus, and we know that you are with us and for us, even as we face trouble and adversity. Amen.

God’s peace be with you.

John 6:63

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I recently heard about some date seeds that had been found in the Holy Land that were planted and date palms grew from them. Now, that’s not surprising, but what is surprising is that the seeds that were planted that then grew into trees were over 2000 years old. They were discovered by archeologists. And no one thought that these seeds that were so old had any life left in them that they could grow. And then eventually, as they are even now today, producing fruit of their own.

The fun thing is that those seeds were found in caves in Qumran, in the same caves that the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. There’s a neat parallel there that here in this ancient old seed that no one thought there was any life in it, yet something marvelous could grow and produce fruit. Same thing goes for those scrolls that were found in that same cave. God’s Word, it’s living. It’s active, even though it’s old, even though there might be skeptics out there and so-called experts who say there’s no life left in these things at all. When planted, that seed of God’s Word has the power to grow into something beautiful and produce fruit.

Jesus said this himself in John chapter 6. He said,

The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. (John 6:63)

When God’s Word is planted into the heart of a person, God gives life, and he causes that Word to grow and to so that it might even produce fruit. that Word of life is the Word about our Savior Jesus and what he has done for us. How he has lived for us, lived a perfect life for us. How he went to the cross to pay for everyone since including your sins and mine. How he’s also risen from the dead.

What a glorious Word of life this is that God has, and yes, it’s old. Many people think that there can’t be life left in it, and yet God shows us differently. We look around and we see how how God’s Word when planted in people’s hearts, it has grown. And it’s even today producing amazing fruit. We see the fruits of God’s people being produced. And again, this is because of that seed of God’s Word, how precious that seed is to us. That’s something that we want to continually have planted in our hearts.

And we pray, Heavenly Father, we thank you for planting the seed of your Word, and that is powerful, that has life, for planting that seed into our hearts and causing it to grow. Keep it always alive and growing. Help us to produce fruit that is good and pleasing to you. Heavenly Father, we pray this in Jesus name. Amen. God’s peace be with you.

1 Timothy 6:6-8

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Our reading today is from 1 Timothy Chapter 6 verses 6 through 8,

But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. (1 Timothy 6:6-8)

The day that my mom passed away, I had just come back to my family’s house from the hospital. Earlier that day, my mom had spent a little bit of time wondering where she got a piece of Tupperware that was sitting on the counter. Someone had brought her some food at one point, and this Tupperware was sitting there and she couldn’t remember who it belonged to. And so she kept asking my father and he didn’t know either. Well, later on that day, my mom had a heart attack and ended up dying very unexpectedly. And that night, coming back from the hospital, my eyes were all still full of tears. I came into the kitchen door and I looked on the counter and here was this stupid piece of Tupperware. This piece of plastic sitting there. And part of me wanted to just take it and throw it across the room.

But I started thinking to myself, think of the things in my life that can demand my time and attention that really, in the end, are so meaningless. Now, my mother was a wonderful Christian woman who loved her Savior and loved God’s Word. That very night that she passed away, we had a nice family devotion. But at the same time, that piece of Tupperware to me made me think about how easy it is for me to let the stuff that we have in this life and the things that we can get be so important to us and sometimes consume our time.

In the text in front of us. God would have us develop a heavenly perspective, a heavenly way of looking at all of the things he gives us in this life and how we use those things, as well as the time that we have in life. So God would have us, as believers in Christ, view our lives from the perspective of eternity. There are a lot of important things for us to do in life, especially as parents, when our children are little. There’s so many things that can demand our time and attention, and it all matters in some way, shape, or form. And yet we also recognize that up and above all of those things of earthly life are the most important matters. That of our spiritual lives and making sure that we love our Savior and take time for his Word.

If your child’s batting average means more to you than making sure that they know who their Savior is, maybe it’s time to take a little bit different look and perspective on our lives. Years ago when I was serving a church, there was a man in the neighborhood who had a beautiful yard, gorgeous shrubs and flowers, and he was out there working on it all the time. I happen to know his wife and it frustrated her that he never wanted to go to church. And I used to think I wonder what it will be like for him on Judgment Day, talking to God about how he used his life and his time and the blessings God had given him. Maybe trying to impress God with his shrubs, trying to impress God with his flowers.

Think how meaningless everything is going to seem on that final day if we don’t really have faith in our hearts and Christ Jesus. Saint Paul talks about what God has prepared for us through the work of his Son. Our Lord Jesus Christ came into this world not to give us better things in this life, although there are great blessings being a Christian in this life, but to get us out of this life, to get us out of our graves, ultimately to the perfect home that he has won for us in heaven. And what a blessing that he’s given us the gift of faith. That through faith in Christ who forgives even our materialism inside of us, this wonderful faith that we have will take us someday, on Judgment Day, through the gates of heaven to live eternally with our Lord.

So Saint Paul says to us, again, godliness with contentment is great gain. May God teach us to be content with the blessings we have in this life and to always view them from the eternal life he’s given us freely through our Savior. Amen.

Philippians 4:12-13

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I grew up in a small town in Southern California, and when I was a kid, I had a paper route and I would go and I would deliver papers on my route to some people who must have been multimillionaires living in huge mansions. And then just a block or two away, I would go and deliver papers to people who were in extreme poverty, living in shacks.

It was interesting because you’d think that those who had a lot would be happier than those who had very little, but that’s not what I saw. In some cases I saw people across the board, whether they had a lot or had very little, they were very unhappy, they were very uncontent. Sometimes it was the other way around, people who had a lot and people who had very little, they were very happy and content. This made a big impact on me growing up because it helped me realize that earthly possessions does not necessarily mean that we’re going to be happy or content.

St. Paul, he talks about contentment and he talks about it in an amazing place. He was sitting in prison and he didn’t know what was in store for his future. He might be let go. He might be put to death. He was sitting in chains. And yet in the letter that he wrote to his friends at the church in Phillipi, he talks about contentment and how even though he was in these terrible situations, he still had contentment. Share with you from Philippians, Chapter 4, verses 12 and 13, St. Paul says,

I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength. (Philippians 4:12-13)

If you or I were sitting in prison, would we be very content or happy? Probably not. We would be anxious. We would be worried about things, but not St. Paul because he found his strength in his savior. He [Jesus] is the one that gave Paul contentment, even in any situation that he faced, and that’s the confidence that comes through here in these verses that he writes to the Philippians.

And that can also be the source of contentment for us in our lives, whether we have a lot or whether we have very little. What we do have is precious. God has given us his love and the assurance that heaven belongs to us. God has given us a promise that we have an eternal future in heaven with him that gives us the ability to persevere through anything in this life, even if it means that we have very little because we know that we have great things in store.

Our Lord Jesus came into this world. He lived for us in our place. He had very little. And yet he was content. He was content even to go to the cross. And there he suffered and died to pay for our sins. And that’s what gives us contentment here and now. Because we know that heaven belongs to us.

We thank you, Lord, for coming into our world and for winning for us our salvation, opening the gates of heaven to us. Let this always be the source of our contentment here in this life. No matter what we have or what we have not, help us to be heavenly minded and help us to rejoice always in the fact that we have salvation from you. We pray this in your name, amen.

God’s peace be with you.