Happy Mother’s Day
I said on Easter Sunday, we celebrate the resurrection 52 times a year, it is why we worship on Sunday’s not Saturdays…so Easter Sunday is a good thing, but it should not be the only celebration of resurrection.
In a similar way, though it is great to have a specific day to celebrate mothers, we should be showing gratitude throughout the year.
I am aware, that not all women are able to be mothers, and that this day is difficult for some of those women.
But it is also true that though all cannot be mothers, all of us have mothers, so we can celebrate together today.
My mother is in heaven, I celebrate her life today and give thanks that she is alive with Christ.
But there are still many mothers here I can celebrate…my wife, my daughters, many of you who are laying down your lives for your families and others…we celebrate you today.
Some of you feel pain because your moms were and are imperfect in many ways…you long for what you did not and perhaps still do not have from them.
In all of this, together on this day, as we seek to do every day.
We as a church family, obey Scripture when it tells us to…”Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep.”
Some of us personally have cause to both weep and rejoice today.
But we must all learn how to do this together…for and with each other.
Our own joy must not keep us from weeping with those who weep.
Our own weeping must not keep us from rejoicing with those who rejoice.
Weeping with others must not diminish our own joy.
Rejoicing with others does not deny our own sorrow.
This is part of how we live out the already/not yet tension of the gospel together.
So, Happy Mother’s day…we rejoice together in this day of celebration of God’s amazing design of motherhood and in the mothers here in this room who are faithfully living out this great calling.
Prayer
In 2020 I was going to Topeka once a week to help with the state response to the Covid crisis.
I would stop in on my boss, General Weishaar and check on him…I would often ask him, “Been sued this week?”
One of the three hats he wore was as the head of emergency management for the state.
As a consequence, he was included in lawsuits from agencies, cities, individuals who were unhappy with him.
One week when I asked him, “Been sued this week?”
He smiled and threw a file on his desk and said, “They are suing me for doing too much.”
Then he threw another file and said, “They are suing me for doing too little.”
How did he handle it? He tried to focus on doing the right thing and not on potential consequences for doing the right thing.
It doesn’t mean he always knew the right thing…but it was the best and healthiest focus.
One time I had someone say we were the friendliest church they had ever attended, and another person say we were the unfriendliest church they had ever attended…on the same Sunday.
Truth be told…we are probably neither the friendliest nor unfriendliest church around.
We have some friendly and some not so friendly people…I’m more or less friendly week after week depending on a variety of factors in my own life.
I have had pastor friends who have people concerned because they are too charismatic, others they are not charismatic enough.
They are too reformed; they are not reformed enough.
Too many hymns, not enough hymns.
Too political, not political enough.
I could go on…but you get the gist.
What is remarkable to me is not the ways the church, our church doesn’t get along, or see eye to eye on things…
I am struck by how hundreds of adults can work and worship together in relative harmony centered around something as potentially contentious as “religion.”
We have 35 years of getting along, not perfectly but consistently…my explanation for how this has happened includes a number of factors:
The grace of God.
Having a clear philosophy of ministry…those seven heart attitudes on the wall…we actually seek to practice.
Keeping the mission central…when there is no mission bigger than self, self becomes way too big.
Embracing and holding, as best we can, the tensions of Scripture.
Like the one I mentioned in regard to rejoicing with and mourning with others.
And the tension of the already/not yet experience of the gospel.
Doing this, as best we can, in order to be faithful to Scripture…and not letting potential negative Reponses or troubles…dictate how operate.
Look at…
1 Chron 21 verse 1
Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to count the people of Israel. So David said to Joab and the commanders of the troops, “Go and count Israel from Beer-sheba to Dan and bring a report to me so I can know their number.”
2 Sam 24 verse 1
Again the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, “Go and take a census of Israel and Judah.”
This is the same historical situation described in two different passages.
Scripture is truth with no mixture of error, there is no contradiction…so what is it telling us here?
We know elsewhere that in order to achieve his purposes God used even wicked nations as his tool.
Isaiah wrote about God’s judgment on Israel…
“Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger—the staff in their hands is my wrath. ” Isaiah 10
God, in order to achieve his purposes, also sometimes gives Satan a little more leash.
Simon, Simon, look out. Satan has asked to sift you like wheat. But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And you, when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” Luke 22:31
Therefore, so that I would not exalt myself, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to torment me so that I would not exalt myself. Concerning this, I pleaded with the Lord three times that it would leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness.”
2 Cor. 12:7-10
Then there is the book of Job, where God used Satan for his purposes in Job’s life.
Assyria was God’s tool of judgment, and they were judged for their own wickedness.
Satan is not God’s evil equal; he is a mean dog on a leash…God uses him for his own larger purposes…he too will be finally and fully judged someday.
Today we will look at the Scripture where David…both through his own sinful agency and Satan’s influence…brought about God’s judgment on his people.
Our application will be to commit to holding biblical tensions in faith and with faithfulness.
2 Sam 24
So the king said to Joab and the army commanders with him, “Go throughout the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beersheba and enroll the fighting men, so that I may know how many there are.” But Joab replied to the king, “May the Lord your God multiply the troops a hundred times over, and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my lord the king want to do such a thing?” The king’s word, however, overruled Joab and the army commanders; so they left the presence of the king to enroll the fighting men of Israel.
This is the last chapter of 2 Samuel.
It is not a good episode in David’s life, but the final paragraph of this chapter brings us to gospel hope…we will get there shortly.
After giving the order, the counting of troops takes almost 10 months.
Joab’s final report on the number of fighting men was, 800,000 in Israel, and 500,000 in Judah.
A very large army…loads of power and lots of personal security for King David…a lot to be proud of as a commander in chief.
Let’s read how he responded to the report.
David was conscience-stricken after he had counted the fighting men, and he said to the Lord, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. Now, O Lord, I beg you, take away the guilt of your servant. I have done a very foolish thing.
What had he done that was so wrong?
David’s sin may not necessarily have been in his action itself, but in his sinful motivation to know this number in order to put his trust in human power rather than in God.
This is the ongoing temptation for everyone, young and old.
The young are tempted to trust in their strength, their intelligence, their energy.
The old in their retirement accounts, experiences, acquired wisdom.
Listen to what David wrote in one of his Psalms
“Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.” Psalm 20:7
Ouch David…what did you do?
He knew better.
In Exodus 30:12 God told Moses to take a census but there are two big differences between his and David’s census.
“When you take a census of the Israelites to count them, each one must pay the Lord a ransom for his life at the time he is counted. Then no plague will come on them when you number them.”
First, God told Moses to do it…not David.
Second, to head off potential pride and to keep them from losing sight of God as their source of security each had to pay a ransom for his life…as he was numbered.
So, as Moses’ strong, muscled, young warriors were stepping up to be counted…they were required to give an offering, a ransom for their lives.
They were not to think they were “all that”…their very lives belonged to God, and they depended on God for their lives.
Back to 2 Samuel
Before David got up the next morning, the word of the Lord had come to Gad the prophet, David’s seer: “Go and tell David, ‘This is what the Lord says: I am giving you three options. Choose one of them for me to carry out against you.’ ” So Gad went to David and said to him, “Shall there come upon you three years of famine in your land? Or three months of fleeing from your enemies while they pursue you? Or three days of plague in your land? Now then, think it over and decide how I should answer the one who sent me.” David said to Gad, “I am in deep distress. Let us fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercy is great; but do not let me fall into the hands of men.”
These are three bad options…but one was clearly better than the others.
Again, back in verse 1, this was God’s plan to judge Israel because his anger burned against them.
Why?
Well, you could probably pick your reason for God being angry…there were always plenty to choose from when it came to Israel…remember the Exodus or the book of Judges.
David is given three choices, the first two would have required David to be dependent, to a degree on men.
Warfare puts Israel at the mercy of their enemies.
Famine would require Israel to rely on surrounding nations for food assistance.
We see his heart reversing course once again as he went from the terrible choice of ordering the census (putting his trust in human power) to here, putting himself fully at the mercy of God not men.
God is not playing games with lives, there is much at stake here for Israel to be a light to the nations…and this is all part of his plan for the ages.
So the Lord sent a plague on Israel from that morning until the end of the time designated, and seventy thousand of the people from Dan to Beersheba died. When the angel stretched out his hand to destroy Jerusalem, the Lord was grieved because of the calamity and said to the angel who was afflicting the people, “Enough! Withdraw your hand.” The angel of the Lord was then at the threshing floor of Araunah (a row nah )the Jebusite. When David saw the angel who was striking down the people, he said to the Lord, “I am the one who has sinned and done wrong. These are but sheep. What have they done? Let your hand fall upon me and my family.”
Over and over, we see why imperfect David, was a man after God’s own heart.
We see it here again in his repentance…turning from his sin in true sorrow and turning to God for mercy.
And in his willingness to pay for his own sin.
Now to the final passage, and the gospel hope.
On that day Gad went to David and said to him, “Go up and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” So David went up, as the Lord had commanded through Gad. When Araunah looked and saw the king and his men coming toward him, he went out and bowed down before the king with his face to the ground. Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” “To buy your threshing floor,” David answered, “so I can build an altar to the Lord, that the plague on the people may be stopped.” Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take whatever pleases him and offer it up. Here are oxen for the burnt offering, and here are threshing sledges and ox yokes for the wood. O king, Araunah gives all this to the king.” Araunah also said to him, “May the Lord your God accept you.” But the king replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen and paid fifty shekels of silver for them. David built an altar to the Lord there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. Then the Lord answered prayer in behalf of the land, and the plague on Israel was stopped.
A threshing floor was a flat place, ideally elevated with prevailing winds.
The sheaves of wheat were beat separating the chaff from the seeds.
Then it was tossed in the air, and the wind would blow the lighter chaff away, leaving the wheat.
The threshing floor is a frequent theme in the Bible used to symbolize God’s sifting judgment.
We saw it used when Jesus said to Peter, “Satan wants to sift you like wheat.”
Meaning, he intended to show that Peter was chaff, not the real deal.
David was instructed to build an altar at this site where the judgment of God came to an end.
Remarkable, this was the site of the future temple, later erected there in Jerusalem by his son Solomon.
God righteous judgment and his mercy were made evidence on this site in David’s time and then over and over and over in the years to follow
Jesus would come and he would stand in front of temple, which had been built, destroyed and rebuilt…and he would say…”destroy this and I will rebuild it in three days.”
He was talking about his own body…his death and resurrection.
He also said, the physical temple would soon come down…it did, in about 40 years from his lifetime.
Jesus replaced it as the point where heaven and earth collide.
Let’s talk about important biblical tensions from this passage.
I am going to give these tensions using a broad brush, if you want finer strokes…take one of Aaron’s classes.
That is one of the differences between preaching and teaching…both have their specific purposes.
Preaching is exhortation…using broad brush strokes.
Teaching is education…using smaller strokes.
First, what must be our presuppositional starting point for dealing with biblical tensions.
God and his word are not on trial…we do not judge them, they judge us.
For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Hebrews 4:12-13
There are many, many philosophical, historical, scientific, and experiential reasons for the reality of God and the validity of his word.
I’ve spoken of these many times…today I will simply say…
“As for God, His way is perfect. The word of the Lord is flawless.”
Psalm 18:30
To trust God and word is a fully reasonable, rational, and biblical presupposition to hold…and I hold it firmly.
Now, with that foundation in place, let’s look at some tensions.
We tend to hate tension…tension itself must be held in tension.
Tension in relationships can be bad, but if dealt with properly they are necessary for relationship.
The tension in my marriage has been transformative for us both.
The tension is because we are two different people…but if handled correctly…the tension becomes the strength of a marriage, or the music of marriage.
Like a muscle in proper tension is strong.
A piano string in proper tension makes music.
Tension in our bodies can be painful…sore muscles…but it is necessary for muscles to be in tension and for that tension to be tested…if there is no tension in a muscle there is no strength in that muscle.
If there is no tension in a piano string it makes noise not music.
Let’s be clear, there is no tension for God…he understands this all perfectly.
We use the word tension to describe how we must hold two things that might appear to contradict each other, together at the same time…the contradiction is apparent, not real.
It is only there because we lack the ability to fully understand…but we hold it because we trust God and his word.
It’s also true that these tensions work in the real world…we might be puzzled by them as we sit and study them over a cup drinking coffee…the math doesn’t seem to work.
But when we seek to live them faithfully in the real world…it works.
Like light…said to be both wave and particle…it seems like it should not work…but throw a switch and those photons, whatever in the world they are, start bouncing off stuff back to your retina.
So, the first tension from this passage, and probably the largest one for humans to embrace.
- God is sovereign, and humans are responsible.
There is a lot of noise out there about reformed or not reformed…or not reformed enough or too reformed.
It’s not that none of this matters.
But the biblical texts must speak for themselves.
To summarize the Biblical position.
We must choose and we must trust God.
God is 100% sovereign; we are 100% responsible.
If you let go of either side of that tension…you will move outside of reality and run into problems.
- God is holy and God is love
God does judge sin; he does judge sinners.
AND
God has made the way, for the sinner to escape judgment.
To believe and to attempt to live that God is not holy…will not work out well for you.
-He does judge sin and sinners.
To believe and attempt to live that God is not merciful…will not work out well for you.
-He does forgive sin and sinner when sin is repented of.
- Sin is costly, and Sin is covered.
-Sin cost David pain and it cost lives; his own children included.
-But God forgave David’s sins and covered them with his grace.
Our sin can cost us and others…we should hate it and fear it.
Our sin if we are saved, is covered…we need not live as slaves to it…we need not cower in fear from it…but let fear chase us to Christ.
- Grace and Grit must be held in constant tension
We cannot try to be holy; we are made God’s holy people…it is all grace.
BUT
We must train to be God’s holy people…it requires ongoing grit.
The reality of justification by faith alone must keep us constantly grateful and dependent.
Sanctification by faith and empowered effort must keep us constantly faithful…giving full gritty effort.
Let go of one side…you become passive.
Let go of the other side…you become proud.
Both are bad.
We talked about this at length last week in the lives of passive David and proud Absalom.
In this week’s passage:
David was instructed to build an altar in the place where God would show mercy, and then judgement would end.
David knew he was fully reliant on God’s grace…it was why he choose plague and put himself at God, not man’s mercy.
Yet, he was willing to give his own life to turn God’s judgment away.
And he refused to make an offering that was not personally costly for him.
“I’m not making an offering to God that costs me nothing.”
This tension runs through Scripture, and it is a hard one to keep.
We can try to earn what cannot be earned.
and
We can fail to give full effort in faithful obedience.
We must maintain the biblical grace and personal grit balance.
Effort not Earning
- We saw in the passage that God was grieved and yet God doesn’t change.
In Scripture God is immutable, unchanging.
Yet in Scripture God changes his dealings with people in response to prayers and repentance…or negatively in response to sin.
This is closely tied to the first point; God is sovereign, and humans are responsible.
There have been many who have failed to keep this tension…or what seems to be a contradiction.
God is unchanging…yet he seems to change his mind.
Some theologians have written and taught that God is actually changing, he is evolving…and he doesn’t know or fully control the future.
This is unbiblical and it creates greater problems than the ones it proposes to solve.
It is normally proposes to solve the problem of evil and suffering…but it fails to do that, it makes God into a kind of super hero but a limited one.
They cite Scripture like “God repented that he made Saul king.”
This doesn’t mean God “changed his mind” (repent) like humans do.
It is using human language to describe how God dealt with Saul according to how Saul dealt with God.
A question from a child upstairs recently was: “Does God ever get scared.”
What a beautiful question from a child.
I started my answer by giving the reasons that we get scared.
-We don’t know the future, we don’t know what might happen to us and the people we love…we get scared about that.
-We can’t control the future; we don’t have power to fully protect ourselves and the people we love…we get scared about that.
We get scared because we lack the power to control important outcomes.
Fear is future based…and it reveals a lack of power there…we are afraid in the present, because we lack power for the future.
We are to deal with our fear by trusting God with the future…he has the knowledge and the power to control all outcomes.
So, no, God doesn’t get scared…neither do we need to live in fear…if we learn to live in faith.
So, on the one side are those who let go of the tension of God’s unchanging nature and on the other side are those who let go of the tension of faithful and obedient action.
There are those who don’t pray, they don’t share the gospel, they don’t try to make a difference in the world around them, maybe they don’t make hard, faithful choices… because they have an imbalanced, and unbiblical perspective on God’s unchanging nature.
Why pray, God will do what he wants to do.
Well, he said to pray…so your prayer is a part of what he is doing…you can try to do the math, or you can obey and pray.
When we hold this biblical tension in place…it empowers both faithful action and faith filled endurance.
William Carey was born in England, 1761.
He gave his life to Christ 17 years later.
He joined the Baptists and was baptized by J.C. Ryland.
While Carey continued to work as an apprentice shoemaker, this ‘uneducated’ man of God began to learn Greek and Hebrew in order to study the Bible in its original languages.
He eventually became a pastor and the more he studied Scripture the more his convictions regarding world missions grew.
He made his own leather globe of the world…to keep it in his mind and prayers.
One day at a meeting with the other Baptist ministers in his area Carey shared excitedly what God had put on his heart about reaching the nations.
He said the Great Commission to make, mark, mature believers was for all Christians not just the original disciples.
Mr. Ryland, the very man who had baptized Carey and had been his first pastor
interrupted him and said,
“Sit down, young man, sit down and be still. When God wants to convert the heathen, He will do it without consulting either you or me.”
You know this stung him, this was his mentor…but he was not dissuaded by this imbalanced rebuke.
Eventually he made the 5-month sailing trip to India where he buried two consecutive wives.
He worked 7 years before he saw his first convert to Christ.
He worked for years on a translation of Scripture, only to see it destroyed in fire just before its completion.
He persevered.
At the end of his life Carey founded the Christian Church in India, the school system, the postal system and ended the practice of widow burning as he had vowed to.
He had seen the Scriptures translated into forty languages and printed 213,000 Bibles.
William Carey’s tombstone in India has these words inscribed about the life of the father of modern missions.
William Carey
Born August 17, 1761
Died June 9, 1834
“A wretched, poor, and helpless worm, On Thy kind arms I fall.”
How did this helpless worm go about living his life…well…through concerted, faithful, long term, enduring grit.
Everyone must learn to live faithfully with tensions…Christian
Or we will fail to be faithful because let go of tensions.
Here is one last tension we must keep…there are many more, I focused on the ones we found in our text.
We have adequate and accurate revelation of God…we know all we need to know.
We do not have exhaustive knowledge.
There are a lot of questions we have; God has given us the answers and the clarity he had determined that we need…not that we might demand.
So…
Will we trust and obey him or trust ourselves?
Will I only trust him in only what I can understand?
Will I only obey when God’s tells me why?
No.
“As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the Lord is flawless.”
Ps 18:30
This is the foundational premise for our lives.