As we close our sermon series through Matthew with the Great Commission today, I’d like to share this acronym from William Hendriksen at the end of His mammoth commentary on Matthew’s Gospel:
R: ight to heaven has been secured (Rom. 8:1).
E: arthly house is to be exchanged for the heavenly (II Cor. 5:1).
S: ins are forgiven (Rom. 4:25).
U: nion with the church above has begun (Eph. 3:14).
R: equests are being heard and answered (Eph. 3:20).
R: edeemer has triumphed; hence, so shall we triumph (John 16:33).
E: nergies are being constantly replenished (Phil. 4:12, 13).
C: hrist is living evermore to intercede for us (Heb. 7:25).
T: rials are understood and attended to (Heb. 4:15).
I: mmortality (glorious) is guaranteed (John 14:19).
As we return to the Gospel of Matthew we take it up at the grave of Jesus. And we find He is risen from the dead as the firstfruits of our resurrection. Thus we celebrate today, as every Lord’s Day, the resurrection of Christ. Each Lord’s day is Easter Sunday!
I’d like to share two things with you as we prepare to celebrate the resurrection.
First, see these pictures of some of our flowers at the manse. They are called “The Crown of Thorns”. Notice how huge are the thorns and remember Christ wore such a crown on the cross. Appreciate His agony of soul and body to pay for your sins.
But then see the stone rolled away and Christ having left the tomb as the sign that you have been forgiven your debt before God and are free to go! out of hell and into heaven!
So I also want to share with you the “Easter Song” as I have so often enjoyed by these two artists:
You are set free indeed by the Son! Go quickly and tell His disciples! And fall at His feet and worship Him along the way.
Recently we took comfort together in a sermon on Psalm 46:10: Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. We learned here that the way to have peace of heart and mind in this raging world is to know that God is on His throne.
We also saw that the Hebrew word for “to be still” means to slacken one’s tight grip. We considered the common phrase, “Cut me some slack”, which comes from docking ships and means “loosen the rope”. If the rope is too tight, there is no room to relieve or readjust. And leaving slack allows the boat to float with changing tides without having its balance upset.
I have since meditated on this meaning of “be still” through a few of life’s little applications that I thought would help further illustrate the idea of relaxing in God by loosening our slack.
First, to my great frustration I normally go through a mound of dental floss on the bathroom counter at each flossing as the string repeatedly snaps every few teeth. Experimenting with a “looser” hold did the trick. Cutting some slack now keeps the floss from being continuously cut amidst my tight bite. Much more pleasant, including for my wife who no longer has to endure a series of “ugghhh!” before we go to sleep.
Second, as you know, we needed to have the church’s sound system fixed again. After moving things around to work the problem last time, we decided to add a movable shelf on rails to the pulpit to more easily access some components. This opened up a shelf to get the main amplifier off the floor; but as we reattached its cables to its back, one of them was not quite long enough and so a tight stretch to reconnect—and as we feared, we learned its inner wire severed while we plugged it back in. So we had to have the sound guy come out to repair it for us. While he did, I asked him to splice in more slack (extra cord) in case we ever needed to move it around again; that way, we’d be able to keep it loose and readjust without breaking it next time. He did so. And its relaxing to know we have room to adapt again if needed. And the outdoor speakers are now working once more so we can ring the “bell” into the community and enjoy hearing Psalms sung as we gather for open air worship.
Third, while I and the boys were watering the backyard gardens, I needed more hose to get around the corner of the house and water the far lot. There was enough hose unwound already, but it gets stuck and the excess on the other side needed to be brought over so that I could pull the slack and smoothly advance. Without doing that, it’s impossible to proceed. Once waiting for some extra slack instead of tugging and straining the work became easy.
These examples are rather elementary but they show us how to “be still” before God: loosening our hold and sinking into God’s hands with more room to breathe and move.
Remember, peace is not the absence of problems but the resolved awareness of the mighty and reassuring presence of Christ. And submitting to it by giving up some slack.
So I ask you again as I did at the end of that sermon: Are you not feeling quite right? Are you uptight? Tense? Beloved, Be Still (loosen some slack so you relax) Knowing God.
I see an interesting connection of wisdom with something I read in Malcolm Gladwell’s book, The Tipping Point, along with a small section of the Westminster Larger Catechism’s (WLC) teaching on duties required in the Sixth Commandment, “Thou Shalt Not Kill” (Exodus 20:13). Here’s what the WLC 135 includes as required positively from the negative command:
“ … a sober use of meat, drink, physick, sleep, labour, and recreations …”
Why is such required in the commandment to not take the life of someone else? Because there is wisdom in recognizing how strain on our physical state of being can cause us to be in danger of impulsive reactions that could, in extreme moments, endanger the life of another. We all understand we are more irritable when we have gone too long without eating (or eating properly) or getting proper rest. Sometimes the best thing we can do for the good of others is to take a nap (my children have learned this about me!). Notice also how important it is to recreate (encouraging me as we prepare to take a long-needed mountain-lake cabin vacation).
Here’s the connection with Mr. Gladwell’s book. The environmental factors we find ourselves in (and which we often should look to moderate) can have a significant impact on how we or others behave ourselves (well or badly). In his sections on “The Power of Context”, having cited historical and psychological case studies, Mr. Gladwell shares:
“Epidemics are sensitive to the conditions of the times and places in which they occur … The impetus to engage in a certain kind of behavior is not coming from a certain kind of person but from a feature of the environment … there are instances where you can take normal people from good schools and happy families and good neighborhoods and powerfully affect their behavior merely by changing the immediate details of their situation.”
We are not here teaching bare behaviorism. But the truth is, we are human and weak and limited. He continues,
“Character is more like a bundle of habits and tendencies and interests, loosely bound together and dependent, at certain times, on circumstance and context. The reason that most of us seem to have a consistent character is that most of us are really good at controlling our environment … small changes in context can be just as important in tipping epidemics … a number of relatively minor changes in our external environment can have a dramatic effect on how we behave and who we are.”
What’s the point I want to share with you this evening? The same as the WLC section noted above. We are responsible to do the best we can to control our environments in our home, church, and state for the best possible outcomes. Instead of complaining about ourselves and others, how about we proactively seek ways to support one another to improve their situations where we recognize their weaknesses? Set yourself and others up for success by how you try and provide a helpful environment that avoids surprises and stress with things like appropriate and adequate diet, medical support, sleep, work, and play.
So much of how we can do good and handle challenges is by seeking to maximize opportunities and minimize difficulties for ourselves and others. We don’t need to test ourselves in the extreme — in fact, we should avoid it. And this can help us understand ourselves and others and be forgiving and patient when we consider life phases of dramatic circumstances. And it can help us try and set up the best situations to help one another shine our brightest. Especially for those who are in higher responsibility, thinking ahead for how to create environments that tend toward tipping to pinnacle points rather than being tipped over beyond our natural limits is a wise consideration.
In two sermons last year I quoted from a renowned graduation speech by Navy SEAL Admiral William H. McRraven entitled, “How to Change the World”. I originally learned about this message last year while listening to a message by a boy in speech and debate club in which my girls participate. I’d like to share excerpts of it with you along with some Scriptures that come to mind.
1. Make Your Bed Every Morning. “If you make your bed every morning you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride, and it will encourage you to do another task and another and another. By the end of the day, that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed. Making your bed will also reinforce the fact that little things in life matter. If you can’t do the little things right, you will never do the big things right … If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed.
Psalm 92:1-2 says, It is a good thing to give thanks unto the LORD, and to sing praises unto thy name, O most High: To shew forth thy lovingkindness in the morning … And Psalm 63:1 reads, O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee …
2.Find Someone to Help You Paddle. “During SEAL training, the students are all broken down into boat crews. Every day your boat crew forms up on the beach and is instructed to get through the surf zone and paddle several miles down the coast. In the winter, the surf off San Diego can get to be eight-to-ten-feet high. And it is exceedingly difficult to paddle through the plunging surf unless everyone digs in … Everyone must exert equal effort or the boat will turn against the wave and be unceremoniously dumped back on the beach. For the boat to make it to its destination everyone must paddle. You can’t change the world alone. You will need some help … If you want to change the world find someone to help you paddle.”
Ecclesiastes 4:11-12 reminds us of the importance of the communion of the saints: … if two lie together, then they have heat: but how can one be warm alone? And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
3.Measure a Person by the Size of Their Heart.“The best boat crew we had was made up of the little guys, the ‘Munchkin Crew’ we called them. No one was over five foot five … They out-paddled, out-ran, and out-swam all the other boat crews … The big men in the other boat crews would always make good-natured fun of the tiny little flippers the Munchkins put on their tiny little feet prior to every swim … but somehow these little guys … always had the last laugh swimming faster and reaching the shore long before the rest of us … Seal training was a great equalizer: nothing mattered but your will to succeed … If you want to change the world, measure a person by the size of their heart not by the size of their flippers.
Goliath mocked and threatened young David. And then David cut the giant’s head off and delivered the Israelites from the Philistines in the strength of the Lord. (1 Samuel 17) And David was said to be a man after God’s own heart. (Acts 13:22).
4. Keep Moving Forward [through failure]. “Several times a week the instructors would line up the class and do a uniform inspection. It was exceptionally thorough … but it seemed that no matter how much effort you put into [it] … it just wasn’t good enough. The instructors would find something wrong … there were many a student who just couldn’t accept the fact that all their efforts were in vain, that no matter how hard they tried to get the uniform right they went unappreciated. Those students didn’t make it through training. Those students didn’t understand the purpose of the drill. You were never going to succeed. You were never going to have a perfect uniform. The instructors weren’t going to allow it. Sometimes no matter how well you prepare or how well you perform … you still [fail] … it’s just the way life is sometimes. If you want to change the world get over being a [perfectionist] and keep moving forward.
Proverbs 24:16 reassures us that … a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again …
5. Don’t Be Afraid of the Circuses. “Every day during training you were challenged with multiple physical events … something designed to test your mettle. Every event had standards … if you failed to meet … those standards your name was posted on a list and at the end of the day those on the list were invited to a circus … two hours of additional calisthenics designed to wear you down, to break your spirit, to force you to quit … But an interesting thing happened to those that were constantly on the list. Over time those students … got stronger and stronger. The pain of the circuses built inner strength and physical resiliency. Life is full with circuses. You will fail … likely … often … It will be painful. It will be discouraging. At times it will test you to your very core. But if you want to change the world don’t be afraid of the circuses.”
James 1:2-4 instructs us, My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
6. Sometimes You Have to Slide Down the Obstacles Head-first. “At least twice a week the trainees were required to run the obstacle course … twenty-five obstacles … The most challenging obstacle was the ‘Slide for Life’. It had a three-level, thirty-foot tower at one end and a one-level tower at the other. In between was a two-hundred foot-long rope. You had to climb the three-tiered tower and once at the top you grabbed the rope, swung underneath the rope, and pulled yourself hand-over-hand until you got to the other end. The record for the obstacle course had stood for years … seemed unbeatable … until one day a student decided to go down the Slide for Life headfirst … It was a dangerous move, seemingly foolish and fraught with risk. Failure could mean injury and being dropped from the course … instead of several minutes [on the Slide for Life] it only took him half that time and by the end of the course he had broken the record. If you want to change the world sometimes you have to slide down the obstacles head-first.”
The Levites had to step into the Jordon River before God parted the waters for all to walk across and into the Promised Land (Joshua 3:13ff). Impetuous Peter experienced walking on water with Jesus (Matthew 4:28ff); and he jumped off the boat to swim back and greet the Savior after the resurrection (John 21:7).
7. Don’t Back Down from the Sharks. “During the land warfare phase of training, the students are flown out to San Clemente Island which lies off the coast of San Diego … the waters … are a breeding ground for the Great White Sharks. To pass … there are a series of long swims that must be completed. One is the night swim. Before the swim the instructors joyfully brief the students on all the species of sharks that inhabit the waters … But you are also taught that if a shark begins to circle your position, stand your ground do not swim away. Do not act afraid. And if a shark hungry for a midnight snack darts towards you then summon up all your strength and punch him in the snout and he will turn and swim away. There are a lot of sharks in the world. If you hope to complete the swim you will have to deal with them. So if you want to change the world don’t back down from the sharks.”
Remember how we’ve seen in Matthew Jesus regularly dealt strongly and directly with the constant circling of the Scribes, Pharisees, Herodians, Sadducees, and lawyers around Him seeking to destroy Him. And consider Jesus’ example in chapter four of both Matthew and Luke with James 4:7 in view: Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
8. Be Your Very Best in the Darkest Moments. “As Navy Seals one of our jobs is to conduct underwater attacks against enemy shipping. We practice this technique extensively … The ship attack mission is where a pair of Seal divers is dropped off outside an enemy harbor and then swims well over two miles under water using nothing but a depth gauge and a compass to get to the target … As you approach the ship which is tied to a pier the light begins to fade … To be successful in your mission you have to swim under the ship and find the keel, the center line and the deepest part of the ship. This is your objective. But the keel is also the darkest part of the ship where you cannot see your hand in front of your face, where the noise from the ship’s machinery is deafening, and where it gets to be easily disorient[ing] and you can fail. Every Seal knows that under the keel at the darkest moment of the mission is the time when you need to be calm, when you must be calm, when you must be composed. When all your tactical skills, your physical power, and your inner strength must be brought to bear. If you want to change the world you must be your very best in the darkest moments.”
Psalm 23:4 can be our regular refrain for relief: Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
9. Start Singing When You’re Up to Your Neck in Mud. “The ninth week of training is referred to as ‘Hell Week’. It is six days of no sleep, constant physical and mental harassment. And one special day at the ‘Mud Flats’ … between San Diego and Tijuana where the water runs off and creates the ‘Tijuana Slews’, a swampy patch of terrain where the mud will engulf you. It is on Wednesday of ‘Hell Week’ that you paddle down to the mud flats and spend the next 15 hours trying to survive the freezing cold, the howling wind, and the incessant pressure to quit from the instructors … As the sun began to set … my training class having committed some egregious infraction of the rules was ordered into the mud. The mud consumed each man till there was nothing visible but our heads. The instructors told us we could leave the mud if only five men would quit … some students were about to give up … eight hours till the sun came up … And then one voice began to echo through the night … raised in song … with great enthusiasm … one voice became two … three … before long everyone was singing … the singing persisted and some how the mud seemed a little warmer and the wind a little tamer and the dawn not so far away. If I have learned anything in my time traveling the world it is the power of hope … One person can change the world by giving people hope. So if you want to change the world start singing when you’re up to your neck in mud.”
Paul and Silas sang Psalms for strength while in prison at midnight and God delivered them (Acts 16:25ff). Further, Romans 5:3-5 reminds us,… we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
10. Never Ring the Bell. “Finally, in SEAL training there is a bell. A brass bell that hangs in the center of the compound for all the students to see. All you have to do to quit is ring the bell. Ring the bell and you no longer have to wake up at five o’clock. Ring the bell and you no longer have to be in the freezing cold swims. Ring the bell and you no longer have to do the runs, the obstacle course, the PT — and you no longer have to endure the hardships of training. All you have to do is ring the bell to get out. If you want to change the world don’t ever, ever ring the bell.”
Beloved, Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. (Ephesians 6:13)
One thingAdmiral McRaven said during his speech’s introduction about his SEAL training in Coronado struck me: “It is six months of being constantly harassed by professionally trained warriors who seek to find the weak of mind and body and eliminate them from ever becoming a Navy Seal.” Does this not bring up the images of Revelation 12, and the warning to heed from Peter?: Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. (1 Peter 5:8-9).
Yet the Admiral added, “But the training also seeks to find those students who can lead in an environment of constant stress, chaos, failure, and hardships.” Beloved, in Christ’s strength let us indeed hold fast and overcome in all things that we can have Paul’s words to be our own in the end: For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. (2 Timothy 4:6-8)
It has been a long time since I’ve done an e-devotion. My apologies for that. I’ve been working on one to share along with an online video which I’ve referenced in several sermons not long ago. But I could use more time, and I just received a timely sermon selection by Martin Luther in an email from brother Mike Delgado that relates to our situation with the coronavirus which I’d like to share instead with you this evening while providing a link to tomorrow’s bulletin and mp3s of Psalms to sing for your reference and preparation (see the end of this email). As we went to online webcasting of our worship services from the manse last week, a reminder that we still have our live 10:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. worship services through a video box tool on our homepage (www.puritanchurch.com); www.sermonaudio.com/puritanchurch; or (a new link I learned of that will open the video large in a new screen for easier viewing): https://www.sermonaudio.com/player/webcast/puritanchurch/; (it also can be listened to on a phone line at 712-432-3410 (dial 2 to select a church and then enter our code: 53205).
Below follows the sermon by the Reformer Martin Luther as shared on the weekly Aquila Report (a website resource I highly recommend to you, and you can sign up for their top ten weekly emails). You can search the sermon to learn of the context that is very much relative to our situation with how to handle the coronavirus as the Church presently (and as Mr. Delgado notes in sharing it with me, it would seem to support our church’s present practice as shared in our letter to you per email that is also still available on our website or direct link here: http://puritanchurch.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Corona-Virus-Letter-to-Church-About-Public-Worship-03.21.2020.pdf).
While I did not notice a selected themed Scripture text for Luther’s sermon, let me remind us of Romans 13:1-10 (last week’s morning message text, see especially verse 9) and the Sixth Commandment: “Thou Shalt Not Kill” (Exodus 20:13; Deuteronomy 5:17).
“Others sin on the right hand. They are much too rash and reckless, tempting God and disregarding everything which might counteract death and the plague. They disdain the use of medicines; they do not avoid places and persons infected by the plague, but lightheartedly make sport of it and wish to prove how independent they are.
They say that it is God’s punishment; if He wants to protect them He can do so without medicines or our carefulness. This is not trusting God but tempting Him. God has created medicines and provided us with intelligence to guard and take good care of the body so that we can live in good health.
If one makes no use of intelligence or medicine when he could do so without detriment to his neighbor, such a person injures his body and must beware lest he become a suicide in God’s eyes. By the same reasoning a person might forego eating and drinking, clothing and shelter, and boldly proclaim his faith that if God wanted to preserve him from starvation and cold, he could do so without food and clothing.
Actually that would be suicide. It is even more shameful for a person to pay no heed to his own body and to fail to protect it against the plague the best he is able, and then to infect and poison others who might have remained alive if he had taken care of his body as he should have.
He is thus responsible before God for his neighbor’s death and is a murderer many times over. Indeed, such people behave as though a house were burning in the city and nobody were trying to put the fire out. Instead they give leeway to the flames so that the whole city is consumed, saying that if God so willed, he could save the city without water to quench the fire.
No, my dear friends, that is no good. Use medicine; take potions which can help you; fumigate the house, yard, and street; shun persons and places wherever your neighbor does not need your presence or has recovered, and act like a man who wants to help put out the burning city.
What else is the epidemic but a fire which instead of consuming wood and straw devours life and body? You ought to think this way:
“Very well, by God’s decree the enemy has sent us poison and deadly offal. Therefore I shall ask God mercifully to protect us. Then I shall fumigate, help purify the air, administer medicine, and take it.
I shall avoid places and persons where my presence is not needed in order not to become contaminated and thus perchance infect and pollute others, and so cause their death as a result of my negligence.
If God should wish to take me, He will surely find me and I have done what He has expected of me and so I am not responsible for either my own death or the death of others.
If my neighbor needs me, however, I shall not avoid place or person but will go freely, as stated above. See, this is such a God-fearing faith because it is neither brash nor foolhardy and does not tempt God.
Moreover, he who has contracted the disease and recovered should keep away from others and not admit them into his presence unless it be necessary.
Though one should aid him in his time of need, as previously pointed out, he in turn should, after his recovery, so act toward others that no one becomes unnecessarily endangered on his account and so cause another’s death. ‘Whoever loves danger,’ says the wise man, ‘will perish by it.’”
Stay safe, beloved. And preserve and protect the lives of others. And let us gather together via tomorrow’s webcast as a covenanted church to worship the Lord on His Holy Day (all who get this e-devotion are most welcome to join us).
Click here to scroll to the
following audio Psalms to play and practice in your family worship for what we
will sing for corporate worship together by our lead from the manse: http://puritanchurch.com/services/psalms/
AM Service:
Psalm 49:1-11, p. 102, Wigton [to tune of “Amazing Grace”]
This reminded me of this cartoon I saw on the wall while visiting Isaac’s doctor recently:
These just seem to go together and invite serious meditation. I’ll let them speak for themselves, and close with this:
