Saturday Strands

Loose strands for our growth:

Ask God for More of God: Lessons for a Better Prayer Life – Matt Smethurst (DG)
The ability to converse with the King of the universe isn’t just an honor — it’s the glorious union of two disparate truths: awe before an infinite being and intimacy with a personal friend. Because we’re made to know a triune God — a merry, generous, hospitable community of persons — prayer is the furthest thing from a sterile concept or boring duty. It’s an invitation into unimaginable joy.

The Soundtrack of Heaven – Tim Challies
God is the master of transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary, the mundane into the miraculous. God is the master of accepting little and multiplying it to much. God is the master of taking our little contributions and making them the great means through which he blesses his people and brings glory to his name. And I am convinced we will one day learn that the soundtrack of heaven is made up of the simplest of sounds that God has joined together into the most stirring of symphonies.

We Need Restorative Rest – Jonathan Noyes (STR)
But we weren’t created to be “on” all the time. Part of the health of a Sabbath is the “ceasing from” so that we might attend to other things that get drowned out by our connection addiction. Entire aspects of our humanity are withering because we’re neglecting them in favor of swiping and scrolling through curated social media pages.

Evil Doesn’t Always Show Up Waving a Flag – Trevin Wax
When we look at evil up close, we hope to walk away with a greater sense of moral clarity, and part of that clarity is the realization we’re all capable of justifying, minimizing, or engaging in evil.

Flashback: The Savior’s Example, Part 2
More often than we think, the people around us are bruised, battered, smoldering, weary, tired, and fragile. We need to follow Jesus’ example and treat one another carefully, with great gentleness that builds up and gives life.

Share the Awe

For God to stay his hand of judgment, to forgive and redeem rebellious sinners like us, would have been, in and of itself, a remarkable display of divine love, but our Lord went even further and made us his children!  We dare not pass quickly over this point; we must ponder it until we share the awe and wonder of the apostle at this truth.
– Ray Van Neste in the ESV Expository Commentary, Volume 12

Out of This World Love

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.
– I John 3:1a

See!  Behold!  Open your eyes!  Take notice!  

God has done something amazing! 

What is it?  He has given us an amazing gift!

The Father has given His love to us.  Bestowed His love on us.  Lavished His love upon us.

It is not a skimpy love.  It is not a Scroogey love.

See what kind of love.  “What kind” has idea of “what country?”  If someone does something strange or unexpected we might ask: “What country are you from?”

What in the world?

John says: “Of what country did this love come from?”  It is foreign to what we would think. 

What in the world kind of love is this?

That God would lavish His love upon us by calling us His children?

That we – rebels/sinners – might bear His name?

That He would claim us as His own?

This love is out of this world! 

And yet, He doesn’t just call us His children; we are His children.  That is what we are.  God has made us His children.  We have been adopted by God Himself into His family.

Open your eyes! God has showered an out of this world love upon us that calls and makes us His children.

Sermon Songs: Hebrews 1:4-14

Jesus is the Final Spoken Word
Heir and Creator of everything
He is very God of very God
Upholder, our Savior, and our King

Chorus
Fast, Fast, Hold fast
Hold fast to Jesus the Better One
Near, Near, Draw Near
Draw near to God through His only Son

Behold the Son, the Davidic King
Righteous, victorious, forever
His angels serve Him and praises sing
Before our unchanging Creator

(Repeat Chorus)

So stand in awe of the glor’ous Son
Honor Him with your lips and your life
Love the good, hate all sin, like the Son
Trust Him each day in this world of strife

(Repeat Chorus)

© 2022 Brian J. Mikul.

(Sing to tune of “Grace Greater Than Our Sin”)

Love Like Jesus

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
– John 13:34-35

These verses call us to love like Jesus.

Notice it is a command.  It is not a suggestion for when we feel like it.  We must love one another.  Churches must be places of love for each other.

And it is a new command primarily because it has a new pattern.  We are to love like Jesus.  Go through the entire Old Testament, look at saint after saint, and you will not find a perfect example of love.  But in Jesus, we have that perfect example.  Love like Jesus.

How did Jesus love?  In the context, we could say at least three things.

First, Jesus loved by serving.  At the beginning of John 13, Jesus washed the disciples’ feet.  Here was a real need, for their feet were dirty and smelly from walking the dusty roads. 

Love like Jesus.  Serve each other by meeting real needs.  That service might be dirty and messy.  It might be hard.  It might be unpleasant.  Love like Jesus.  What opportunities to serve do you see in your church family?  How might God call you to serve?  In what ways are you already serving?  Love like Jesus – by serving.

Second, Jesus loved by speaking.  You look through John 13-17, and in most of these verses Jesus is speaking. He is going away, and Jesus knows the disciples need instruction.  They need encouragement.  They need prayer.  And so Jesus lovingly speaks words of instruction, words of encouragement, and words of prayer. 

Love like Jesus.  Speak words of instruction – to spur on another Christian to follow Jesus.  Speak words of encouragement – to strengthen another Christian when life is tough.  Speak words of prayer on each other’s behalf – for strength in trial, for growth, for healing, for safety, for victory over temptation.  What words of instruction, encouragement, or prayer do you need to speak?  Love like Jesus – by speaking.

Finally, Jesus loved by sacrificing.  Immediately after that Last Supper, Jesus is arrested, falsely accused, flogged, ridiculed, and hung on cross.  Why does he endure all of this?  Jesus had already told the disciples: Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13).  Love motivated His sacrifice.  Jesus lovingly sacrificed his life for us, to pay punishment for our sins. He sacrificed Himself so that we might be forgiven. 

Love like Jesus.  Be ready to sacrifice for each other.  How might God call you to sacrifice for your church family?  Maybe your time or some money.  Maybe you will have to sacrifice your comfort or convenience, even sleep.  Love like Jesus – by sacrificing.

And this is how the world will know that we are His disciples – as we obey this command and love like Jesus.  When the world looks at the church, they should see a place of love, a people of love.  A people who genuinely care about each other.  A people who lovingly serve and speak and sacrifice.  This is who Jesus calls us to be.  This is what we are to be known for. 

Love like Jesus

Saturday Strands

Here are some loose strands from various places for your growth:

How to Draw Near to God: Learning Prayer from the Puritans – Jeremy Walker (DG)
As we listen to Puritan and Puritanesque praying, putting our ears to their doors, what do we hear? What can we seek to imitate?

Radical Christian Gentleness in an Era of Addictive Outrage – George Marsden (TGC)
…we live in an age when social media puts an immense premium on cultivating anger and indignation. We’re experiencing a pandemic of addictive outrage that spreads uncontrollably on the internet. Polarized political hostilities have made the situation worse, and Christians of all sorts, whether on the right or left, are hardly immune.

Are You a “Yeah, But…” Christian? – Tim Challies
I have long observed a fascinating but concerning tendency when I read one of the Bible’s clear commands. I have observed it in myself and I have observed it in others. It’s the tendency to turn quickly from what the Bible does command to what it does not, from the plainest sense of one of God’s directions to a list of exceptions or exclusions. It’s the tendency to hear what God says and immediately reply, “Yeah, but…”

The Spiritual Promise the Cinema Can’t Deliver – Trevin Wax
All this is spiritual language. When the lights dim, spiritual illumination begins. All this is tapping into the deepest longings of humanity—for connection, for growth, for inspiration, and for stories that bring resolution.

Flashback: The Savior’s Example
If you think him a harsh taskmaster, then that is how you will treat others. But if we grasp that Jesus is gentle towards us – if we rest in his gentle heart, then we can learn from him and share his gentleness with those around us.

Sermon Songs: Hebrews 1:1-3

Jesus is the Final Spoken Word
Heir and Creator of everything
He is very God of very God
Upholder, our Savior, and our King

Fast, Fast, Hold fast
Hold fast to Jesus the Better One
Near, Near, Draw Near
Draw near to God through His only Son

© 2022 Brian J. Mikul.

(Sing to tune of “Grace Greater Than Our Sin”)

Classic Quote

Be killing sin or it will be killing you.

– John Owen

Our Prevailing Purpose

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. 
– I John 2:1a (ESV)

John is the patriarch of the church, the last remaining apostle.  He writes to the church with the affection of a father for his little children, and he has a purpose in his writing – that we may not sin.

Is that your purpose?  To not sin? 

Is that your goal?  Your desire?  Your ambition?  To not sin?  To stop sinning?

Our world, of course, has other goals: to be comfortable, to be healthy, to be happy.  And comfort, health, and happiness are wonderful blessings.  I like those things too, but they are not our purpose, our goal.

Our purpose here is that we would not sin.

Is that your purpose? 

When you are uncomfortable, is your prevailing purpose to pursue comfort, or to not sin in your discomfort?

When you are unhealthy, is your prevailing purpose to get healthy, or to not sin in your unhealthiness?

When you are unhappy, is your prevailing purpose to get happy, or to not sin in your unhappiness?

Our trials and struggles are not an excuse for sin, but rather opportunities to overcome temptation and not sin.

Is that your goal in whatever you face today? 

Is that your prevailing purpose? 

Saturday Strands

Here are some loose strands from various places for your growth:

The Difficult Discipline of Joy: What Keeps Us from Seeing God? – Clinton Manley (DG)
Joy is indeed a difficult discipline. Greed, self-centeredness, and the relentless pull of inattention constantly creep in and cut us off from divine delights.

With Friendship in Decline, Belonging Is a Powerful Apologetic – Sam Allberry (TGC)
What will show the presence of heaven itself among God’s people? What will show that God is alive and well and right here? It’s our love for one another. This isn’t an afterthought, as though what really mattered were other things and our love for one another was the icing on the cake. No, the quality of our relational life is to be an apologetic to the world around us.

Humility and Overcommitted Busyness – Alasdair Groves (Ligonier)
I want to direct our gaze to a significant blemish on humility in our own generation where we need further chipping and sanding: our overcommitted busyness.

Unpacking “Look inside Yourself” – Brian Rosner (Crossway)
Humans are not self-defining, isolated units. The biggest problem with only looking inside to find yourself is that it is hopelessly reductionistic, ignoring crucial dimensions of what it means to be a human being. Human identity does not exist in isolation, it cannot be defined without reference to the narrative in which it finds itself. We know ourselves by looking around to our closest relationships, back and forward to our shared life stories, and upward to something bigger than ourselves. We are profoundly social, deeply story-driven, and we have eternity in our hearts.

Flashback: The Shepherd’s Care
Is this how you think of God – as a gentle shepherd?