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February 28, 2010
“Do You Know Jesus?”
Matthew 5: 1 – 11/Philippians 3: 10 - 14
Sunday, February 28, 2010
I can stand before you this morning and say I know pigs. I know what a pig looks like and what pigs taste like when cooked properly. But there is a gentleman sitting to my right who conducts research of pigs and he could probably make a pretty strong case that I really don’t know pigs.
I could also tell you that I know cattle. I know what they look like and what they taste like when properly cooked and I can even distinguish a few breeds of cattle. But there is a lady sitting in our congregation who has studied and done research on cattle and she could very easily demonstrate that I know virtually nothing about Cattle.
I could also tell you that I know electricity. I know how to wire a lamp and I recently rewired and installed a ceiling lamp in my home and miracle of miracles, when I left home this morning it was still working and still hanging. But there is a gentleman in our choir loft who is a retired professor of electrical engineering at Purdue and he could very authoritatively inform you that I do not know electricity.
We all know that there are various levels of knowledge in all subjects and with that realization in mind, I would like us to think about what it means to know Jesus.
What do you mean when you say you know or believe in Jesus. Does it mean that you know or believe that he is the incarnate and eternal son of God? That, of course does not imply any more than a knowledge of Christian doctrines. But to know who he is does not imply that we know him. I know who Barak Obama is. I would probably recognize him if I saw him (unless he was cleverly disguised by the Secret Service). But I do not know Barak Obama. I have never met him. I have never heard his voice without the help of digital electronic equipment via television. I know who he is and I know some things about him, but I do not know him.
The same can be true of Jesus. We can read about him in the New Testament and believe certain things about him, but at what point can we say that we know him? In order to figure that out, I want to look at what I consider to be one of the most difficult passages in the New Testament, Philippians 3: 10-14.
In the first half of the 10th verse we find that Paul wrote, “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection”. That could be a stated goal of all of us. We want to know Christ, to understand him and his teachings and to know or experience the power of his resurrection.
I don’t know about you, but I have a lot riding on the power of Christ’s resurrection. I am counting on it to bring me through to the other side of death. It is my ticket to eternity and a blessed and glorious eternal existence.
It is also my route to reunion with my friends and loved ones who believed in Jesus and have died. It occurred to me not too long ago, that even with a new generation of births in my family, I am approaching the point where I have personally known more family members who are deceased than those who are still alive. That does not make me sad. I consider it a privilege and a blessing to have known those who have departed. And I have the hope of the Gospel that I shall be with many of them again.
So many if not all of us might agree with the Apostle Paul when he said “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection”.
But one of the things we might find troubling about that phrase penned by the Apostle is that it was penned by the apostle. This is the man who wrote the largest portion of our New Testament. This is the one who formed the theology of the early Christian Church. He was the great missionary who brought people to Christ and gathered them into congregations. He was the one who preached with certainty the salvation that came from the death and resurrection of God’s only natural son, Jesus.
It was this great leader of the church, this great missionary and apostle, who had done so much for God and gone so far in his faith who wrote that he wanted to know Christ and the power of his resurrection. And I want to say, “What do you mean you want to know? We believed what you preached and wrote. We have counted on your knowledge of Jesus and you still want to know Jesus?” Did he not know Jesus, and was he not certain that resurrected Jesus would raise Paul to eternal life?
Yes he was, you might remember that he wrote words to that effect in I Thessalonians 4 and Romans 8.
But he was not writing about that kind of knowledge of or about Jesus that would bring him through into eternity. He was writing about his desire to experience a fellowship and knowledge of Jesus by experience in this life. In other words, he wanted to become like Jesus in this life. The eternal Son of God had become like Paul in becoming a human being and now Paul wanted to become like Jesus in this life.
With this thought in mind the entire sentence of verses 10&11 makes more sense than it might otherwise have. Paul was writing about his attempt to live a resurrected or holy life now, before the resurrection. The entire sentence reads “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection of the dead”
Paul was not in the least unsure of attaining the resurrection of the dead after his death. We have already established that. But what he was unsure of and attempting to do was to live the live of Christ, the resurrected holy life of the Christian in this life. He wanted to live his life on earth and if necessary suffer as Christ lived and suffered on earth and become a partner with Jesus. He wanted to know the life of Jesus by experience or his existence in this life.
In the 12th verse, Paul wrote: “Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own.” Paul had of course obtained assurance of his resurrection and eternal life. He had not yet accomplished his goal of living as a redeemed and holy person in this life as Jesus had demonstrated by living a sinless life. Yet he was attempting to do so every day.
In verses 13&14 he wrote “Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but his one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.”
Sometime during the winter games I watched one of the ski jumping events. You have to wonder who was the first person to think that it might be a good idea to put on skis and hurtle down a ramp that would propel you up and out into the air so you could land as far away from the ramp as possible.
As I watched those ski-jumpers it occurred to me that they were modeling what Paul wrote in this passage. He may have been thinking of long distance runners when he wrote this and other passages but ski jumping provides a good image for us. The goal for the jumper is not what he can see from the top of the ramp. The goal is not the end of the ramp.
The goal is some unseen point further down the mountain. And to reach that goal, as soon as the skier reaches the end of the ramp, he or she leans as far forward as he can to get as much distance as possible as he falls through the air. Or, using Paul’s language, he “strains forward to what lies ahead”. He has forgotten the details of his trip down the ramp, he has forgotten what was said to him while he was waiting in the gate. He is straining ahead to reach his goal.
That is the way we are to be living our lives until Jesus returns or until we go through death to be with him. We are to be focused on living our lives as Jesus lived his, we are to be trying to imitate the perfect life of Christ as we live this life.
You probably noticed that I selected the Beatitudes from the Sermon on the mount in the gospel of Matthew as our first reading this morning. I had two reasons in doing so. The first was to remind you that the Sunday Evening bible Study group is meeting tonight and that we are studying the sermon on the mount.
The second reason for selecting that text is that the sermon on the mount and the beatitudes is Jesus description of what a Christian life looks like. This is who we are supposed to be. The words of Paul that we have looked at this morning tell us how we come to look like that. We are to be setting the life of Jesus as our goal as we live our lives on this earth.
But let me tell you a cautionary tale. About 14 years ago Diane and I sent our oldest son to college. He and I both drove the 250 miles to the campus and I helped him unload both cars and drove back home. I did not see him until Thanksgiving. He arrived home and knocked on the front door, which I thought was strange because he had a key.
I opened the door and looked up at him (I have to look up at him because he is 6’2” and I am 5’ whatever. There he was with beautiful long hair and a gorgeous full beard. I looked at him and smiled and said, “You look good son, but I think you may have misunderstood me. When I said I wanted you to be like Jesus I didn’t mean that I wanted you to look like Jesus. I meant that I wanted you to behave like Jesus.”
Some of you gentlemen have handsome beards. That does not satisfy your need to know Jesus. Some of you men and women wear crosses. That is fine, but it does not satisfy your need to know Jesus.
Most of us would claim that Jesus is our Lord and Savior. Well, I am sure about the savior part, but He is only your Lord if you seek to know him by imitating him as you live your life.
Do you Know Jesus? Are you going to try to know Him? Are you trying to imitate his perfect life as you live on this earth, waiting for the final resurrection?
Pastor David Horner
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906
Posted by faithpres at 03:23 PM | Comments (0)
February 21, 2010
“Temptation”
Luke 4: 1-13
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Have you ever been tempted by Satan in person? Have you ever seen Satan face to face. I don’t think I have, but Martin Luther said he had, and the he threw his ink well at Satan. In this passage we are told that Jesus was tempted by the devil. It seems that Jesus knew that these temptations were coming directly from Satan.
Satan had to tempt Jesus in person because, although Jesus was tempted so he could be more like us, in some ways Jesus is fundamentally different from us. We have corrupted human natures. We are fallen creatures. Jesus is neither a creature nor is he fallen. His humanity was not corrupted by sin and or sinfulness as is ours.
Most if not all of our temptations come from within us, from our corrupt human nature. Now if you believe that there is a devil or Satan, then you probably would concede that your temptations come from him subtly working in your sinful nature.
But from this passage it appears that Jesus met Satan either in person or in a vision. Because of Jesus’ sinless human nature, his temptations could not come from within him but they had to come from outside or beyond his Human nature.
The gospel informs us that Jesus had just come from the Jordan River where he had been baptized by John the Baptist. He was now ready to begin his earthly ministry. He was filled with the Holy Spirit. But that Spirit of God first led him into the wilderness to be starved for 40 days and to be tempted by satan. The bible makes it clear that God does not tempt anyone, but God does take us to places where we will be tempted by our own sinfulness or the sinfulness of others or maybe even Satan.
These Temptations of Jesus were targeted specifically to the divine and sinless Jesus. That may be why it is difficult for us to understand the specifics of them.
The first temptation was for Jesus to use his divine power to turn stones into bread and to end his starvation. Jesus had not eaten for 40 days and in that wilderness there were stones that looked a lot like the small, flat, circular loaves of bread that were common in that time and place. Because we are not Jesus, it is difficult for us to determine exactly why it would have been sinful for Jesus to use his power to do this. We have been taught that we are to use our powers and abilities to feed ourselves rather than to depend on God or others to feed us.
In the second temptation listed by Luke, Jesus is offered a deal to take charge of all the kingdoms of the world if he would bow down and worship Satan. Now we do understand how sinful it would be to worship Satan, but we do not understand how this could be a temptation for Jesus.
In the third temptation Jesus was bidden to jump from the corner of the temple porch roof into the valley 450 feet below. Satan used a scripture verse from Psalms to assure Jesus that God would send angels to keep his Messiah from injuring himself in such a manner. This would cause people to immediately recognize Jesus as the messiah and would make his ministry easier, or so Satan wanted Jesus to think.
But the truth was that God evidently planned for Jesus to be recognized as the Messiah in a gradual way. He did some miracles here and there and made some Messianic claims here and there, but when certain people began to proclaim him as the messiah, Jesus told them to be quiet. He was about 2 years into his 3 year ministry before he even asked his Apostles who they thought he was.
So, while it might not be easy to determine why these temptations were so tempting to Jesus, it might also be unnecessary. I don’t think we need to understand the temptations, we just need to understand how Jesus withstood his temptations. And that is clear. He quoted Scripture. Now I don’t think we need to memorize and quote scripture to resist temptation, but I do think we need to know God’s desires for us that are revealed in the Scriptures. If you want to resist temptations, if you want to live the kind of life God wants you to live, you have to know what God wants and that is revealed in his Holy word, the bible.
Jesus’ answer to the first temptation was a phrase found in Deuteronomy 8:3 “One does not live by bread alone.” If understood properly, this concept will enable us to withstand a lot of temptations. Many of us are tempted to gratify our desires for earthly goodies and pleasures immediately. The commercials and advertisements try to get us to think that our well-being is tied up in purchasing just one thing. If we enjoy just this one pleasure our life will have value.
But Christians need to remember that our lives already have value. We are not only created in God’s image, we are also citizens of his Eternal kingdom. The pleasures and possessions of this world do not add value to our lives, we are already of great value, we are a part of God’s kingdom, we were purchased for that kingdom by the death of God’s son. We do not live by bread alone, we live by the power of God and it is our duty to please Him. For Jesus to have turned the stones into bread would have somehow displeased the father.
It is interesting to note that Luke did not finish Jesus’ quotation of the last half of Deuteronomy 8:3 The text that starts where Jesus started and finishes the verse reads “Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord”. Jesus understood that it was more important for his well-being to obey God than it was to eat, even when he was starving. Now usually the two are not mutually exclusive, but in this case they were. Do you understand how God wants us and you to behave and do you understand how important it is that we do behave in the ways God has commanded?
Jesus answered the second temptation by quoting Deut. 6: 13 “Worship the Lord your God and serve only Him.” Now few of us have ever worshipped other gods or even been tempted to do so, but how about serving other god’s or beings? How about serving the devil? I would be willing to guess that most of us have done the devil’s bidding on occasion. The choices we are given are often not clearly good or evil. Sometimes our options are limited to less evil. And sometimes it seems OK to do something shady or outright wrong to accomplish a good and honorable goal.
Jesus understood that he and we are to serve only God. We are not to have mixed motives or evil routes to a good goal. We all know who we Worship, but I wonder if we all remember who we are supposed to be serving. We are to be serving God, not ourselves and not tainted groups of people.
In the third temptation Satan quoted Scripture to tempt Jesus. He quoted a portion of one of the Psalms. The devil and liars and evil-doers can sometimes disguise their evil deeds in scripture verses and as serving righteous causes. That is helpful to remember.
Jesus responded by quoting Deut. 6: 16 “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” It means do not force God’s hand. Don’t put him or yourself in a situation where you will be forcing God to act. In the original text in Deut. there is a mention of Massah. That was the name given to the place in the wilderness where the Jews rebelled against Moses and God because God had not yet given them water from the rock.
It had been God’s plan to give them water from the rock and thus show his ability to take care of them. But they grumbled and complained rather than waiting on the Lord and their bad attitude overshadowed and detracted from the miracle of the water from the rock. We are not to force God to do things according to our plan or our timetable, we are to wait for God’s perfect plan and his perfect time.
Now you may have noticed that Jesus found all of his answers to these temptations in 2 chapters of Deuteronomy. There may be a reason for that. Deuteronomy was one of the first books of the bible taught to Jewish boys in the synagogue and in the home. In using these verses, Jesus was quoting some of the first lessons he learned from Scriptures. This might remind us how important it is to teach our young ones truths from the bible in our Sunday School, our Church and in our homes.
Now I would like to be able to tell you that Jesus so thoroughly defeated Satan in these temptations that Satan left him forever and never tempted him again. But that is not what the bible says. Verse 13 tells us: “When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.” Until his death and resurrection Jesus was tempted. And as long as we live on earth we will be tempted from time to time. Someone recently sent me an e-mail that said “Opportunity may knock only once, but temptation will bang on your back door forever.” Well, in our case not forever, but for the rest of this life. So be ready. Read your Scriptures to know what God expects of you and depend on Him for guidance and help.
Pastor David Horner
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906
Posted by faithpres at 03:21 PM | Comments (0)
February 14, 2010
“Words Heard In a Cloud”
Luke 9: 28 - 36
Sunday, February 14, 2010
The Scripture passage we are looking at this morning begins with a reference to some things that had been said previously. Our passage begins with the words “eight days after these sayings…”. So as we begin this morning I want to remind you of some important things that had been said a little over a week before.
1. In response to a question asked by Jesus as to who the Apostles believed he was, Peter had declared that Jesus was the Messiah sent from God.
2. Jesus told them not to tell anyone that and then said “The Son of Man must undergo great suffering and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.” With those words, Jesus predicted his death and resurrection.
3. Jesus then announced that anyone who would follow Jesus must take up his cross daily and follow him. Thus he predicted the suffering of those who would follow him.
4. Jesus announced that some of those who were standing before him that day would live to see the kingdom of God.
Now that those things had been said, it seems that Jesus and some of his followers were ready for the event we call the Transfiguration of Jesus.
1. Peter and the Apostles were ready to see some sign of the unique nature of the one whom they recognized as being especially sent by God.
2. Jesus had just reminded himself of his upcoming death and resurrection and he was ready for some reassurance and comfort from his Father as the time of his suffering and death came closer.
3. The three Apostles would need to remember this miraculous transfiguration and several other unique signs of Jesus’ power and divinity as they would later be fulfilling in their own lives the suffering that Jesus predicted would befall his followers.
4. Three of those who stood before Jesus and would see the Kingdom of God were with him to see Jesus Transfigured or changed before their eyes.
Now, as with many passages in the New Testament, it is helpful to know something about the Old Testament when you read the accounts of the transfiguration. There are several elements of this passage that are also present in a well-known passage from the Old Testament.
Let me enumerate a few of them for you. 1. We are told here that Jesus and his apostles went up a mountain. 2. Someone, in this case Jesus began to glow with the Glory of God. 3. Moses was present (even though he had been dead about 1400 years in the event described in Luke.) 4. There was a cloud that encompassed the top of the mountain and God spoke from the cloud.
Can anyone remember an event that is recorded in the Old Testament that included these four things, A mountain, a person Glowing, Moses being present and God speaking from a cloud? Yes. A similar event happened about 1400 years earlier as God had just brought the Jews out of Egypt. As they entered the wilderness, Moses went up a mountain. God met him and spoke to him from a cloud, and Moses began to glow with the reflected Glory of God. On that occasion, God gave Moses the 10 commandments, most of the rest of the Old Testament law, and the directions for the construction of the Tabernacle, their portable worship place. In Essence, on that occasion God gave this multitude of ex-slaves a constitution and called them to be His Nation, His people.
I think it is obvious that God so orchestrated the Transfiguration of Jesus to help us understand that Jesus is the new Constitution-giver, and the one who leads a new people on a new Exodus to be God’s new People. We who follow Jesus are a part of the new nation or the new kingdom of God, which fortunately for us is an eternal kingdom.
Peter picked up on the details of this event and wanted to add one of his own. He wanted to build booths or tabernacles for Jesus and Moses and Elijah to stay in for a few days. The Jews celebrated and in some places still celebrate the feast of Tabernacles by staying in temporary shelters to commemorate the shelters that the Jews lived in in the wilderness as they followed Moses. Peter was of course thinking that such a great event would certainly last a few days, but he was wrong
This event of the transfiguration of Jesus was as much or perhaps more for His benefit as it was for the benefit of the Apostles and us. This event reminds us of the divine nature of Jesus, but for him, it was a brief renewal of his divine Glory. When the eternal Son of God entered into Mary’s womb, He set aside some of the powers and qualities of his divinity. He gave up for about 33 years or so His glowing presence, His ability to be everywhere at the same time, the constant visible and audible adoration of angels and some other trappings of Divinity.
As He was facing his suffering and death Jesus needed to feel his old divine nature for just a little while to build Him up for what was to come. Now, could Jesus have faced the cross without the few moments of divine powers that he experienced on that mountain? Yes. but the Almighty Father comforted his obedient Son in giving him these few moments of uncovered divinity.
The Father also sent two old friends to Jesus to comfort him. These two came from heaven, but when they were alive on earth, they had gone through their own times of suffering. They were Moses and Elijah.
Luke is the only one who seems to be telling us that this happened at night. He mentions the fact that the Apostles were fighting sleep, and this allusion fits with Jesus’ practice of spending nights in prayer. This of course makes sense; the glowing presence of Jesus, Moses and Elijah would be much more dramatic at night.
Just after Peter made his suggestion to make shelters for the 3 radiant people, a cloud came over them and the three Apostles were terrified. They probably lost sight of each other in a heavy fog.
It can be pretty scary being in a cloud. I remember once when I was in my father-in-law’s boat on the Point Judith Harbor of Refuge in a heavy fog. We could hear the big ferry boat’s horn and engine but we could not see where she was. We hoped it would not come out of the fog and run over us.
But there are other kinds of clouds we sometimes find ourselves in. You know, the figurative clouds about which it is sometimes said that they all have silver linings. Well, I think you are all mature enough to realize by now that they don’t all have silver linings, or that if they do, even with the silver lining we were much better off before we were overtaken by the cloud.
Some of us become overwhelmed by clouds of grief or clouds of despair or clouds of failure or clouds of disappointment or you can name your own least favorite type of cloud here.
When you are in a real cloud or fog the first thing you loose is your sense of direction. You do not know where to go or what to do. When my father-in-law and I found ourselves in the fog on the water in Rhode Island we would have gone into the harbor and the marina if we had known where it was, so rather than have our sense of hearing drowned out by the sound of our motor in an attempt to move we knew not where, we left the motor off and drifted, listening for waves which would tell us where the land or the walls were. If we found either, we could follow them in to the shore and marina.
The apostles did not have to wait long for a sound to help them. The voice of God spoke to them in the cloud. He said “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to Him.” Then the cloud left and they saw Jesus, in his normal appearance, without Moses and Elijah. And he led them back down the mountain.
God brings clouds into our lives and sometimes like the one the apostles found themselves in, God is in the cloud. But he has given us comfort and advice for when we are lost and bewildered in those many different types of clouds; “listen to my son.” When we are confused and disappointed and lost in grief, we are to listen to Jesus. Read his words that are recorded in Scripture and if you can’t understand them, seek out someone who does. Jesus is God’s chosen one, His Holy Son, and he came on earth to speak so we can read his words and follow his commands and his example. He will lead us through the clouds into His marvelous kingdom, if we listen to him.
Pastor David Horner
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906
Posted by faithpres at 04:51 PM | Comments (0)
February 07, 2010
“Forever Love”
John 13: 31-35/I Corinthians 13: 1-13
Sunday, February 7, 2010
I know it is Superbowl Sunday and that it might seem strange to talk about love on the day we will hear people shouting “Kill the Saints” (Drew Brees Excepted of Course)
St. Valentines day of course is next Sunday, as is the Daytona 500 and the beginning of the Nascar Season. But next Sunday is also the day the church celebrates the Transfiguration of Jesus.
So, even though today is Superbowl Sunday I am preaching on Love. Perhaps this might help you prepare for all the love stuff you will be exposed to this week.
But as I begin to talk about Love, I must caution you that the love I am talking about is not the passionate sexually charged love that has taken over St. Valentines Day. When I see some of the products that are promoted around Valentine’s day I want to shout at the TV (which by the way is not unheard of for me) I want to shout “For heaven’s sake, Valentine is honored by many as a saint. This holiday was originally the day his death was celebrated. Why do you have to use his name to sell trashy things?”
To clarify matters a little I will remind you that in the Greek language, the language in which the NT was written, there are 3 words which are properly translated Love. Only two of them were in common use by the Greeks. Eros was the word that referred to romantic love. Phileo was the word that was used to describe familial love, or brotherly love or the love of ones nation or friends.
The Greek speaking Jews coined another word to describe the love that God has for us and that we should have for God and for others. That word is Agape. It is found a lot in our scriptures and not at all in Classic Greek writings.
It is Agape that is the subject of our text this morning. In this well known passage also known as I Corinthians 13, Paul describes what this kind of love causes a person do to rather than what it is.
But before he does that he declares the importance of this kind of love. The Christians who lived in Corinth Greece in the first century AD were assigning values to certain qualities and to people. They were really into what we call “pecking orders”. In their way of seeing things, some folks and some qualities that people had were more valuable than others. When they became Christians and began to receive Spiritual gifts such as prophecy, speaking in tongues, extraordinary faith, generosity, and biblical and theological knowledge, they had to place values on them so they knew or thought they knew who was more important based on the gifts God gave them.
Paul set out to help them understand that their approach was wrong. He first of all stated that they had neglected the most important gift. It was this agape love that God had given them. This form of love was so important that without it, no other gift mattered.
Without Love speaking in tongues made no more sense than someone clanging symbols or hitting a gong with a hammer. Without love, the ability to see the future, and the ability of understand God’s mysteries and the ability to know marvelous things gives no value to a person at all. Without Love, nothing matters, not even if one were to sacrifice his own life for a cause or even for God.
In verses 4-7 Paul wrote about the qualities that love gives a person. One who has God’s kind of love is: patient and kind, not envious, boastful, arrogant, or rude. One who has God’s kind of love does not rejoice in bad deeds, but rejoices when the truth shines forth. One who has God’s kind of love puts up with or bears all kind of bad things, and continues to believe in and trust people, seeking the good in them and seeking good for them.
It may have occurred to you by now that this is the kind of love that Jesus demonstrated to all people in his life and death. He bore all things for us, even death on a cross. And the night before he died on that cross he spoke the words that are recorded near the end of our first lesson in John 13. He said “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
And, going back to our second lesson from I Cor. 13, Paul gives us another reason why practicing this love here on earth is so important. It is one of the few things that we can develop or allow to grow within us that will be useful in the kingdom of God AKA heaven. Most of the stuff we learn here on earth will not be important in the eternal kingdom. This life is like a childhood compared to the maturity that will be ours in the coming kingdom. Most of the skills we develop here will not be used in the kingdom. But love is forever. The loving deeds we do for others will be remembered in heaven. And love will be practiced constantly in heaven.
There is an old saying about the value of money, that you can’t take it with you when you die. That is true of almost everything we value in this life. But it is not true of the Love that we have for others and the loving and kind deeds that we do for others.
I am glad to have the boy scouts with us this morning. The scout motto is “Be Prepared”. It is a good motto for all of us. If you want to be prepared for the life after this one, build up within yourself and demonstrate to others the God-like Love that God has for us and demonstrated in the death of his Son Jesus for us.
Let us now remember Jesus’ death by celebrating the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper.
Pastor David Horner
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906
Posted by faithpres at 06:11 PM | Comments (0)