Proverbs 18:1-2

¹ He who separates himself seeks his own desire, He quarrels against all sound wisdom.
² A fool does not delight in understanding, But only in revealing his own mind.

Many years ago as a young man I witnessed something in the church that impacted me at a very profound level.  The church that I had spent many of my formative years attending was headed for disaster.  What started out as a small seed of disunity among some members quickly grew into an irreconcilable disaster.  The end result was a wounded congregation and a church split.

On the outside looking in it was clear to see what had happened.  Neither side sought understanding and wisdom, both sides sought allies.  As the days passed the phone lines heated up and each person involved in the scuffle sought to ally themselves with other members by pleading their own case.  They didn’t delight in understanding, but rather their delight was in sharing “their side of the story” in order to create the large group of supporters to crush the “enemy”.  It was eye opening to me on many levels, but the most lasting impact was to see God’s church divide and separate right before my eyes.  Just as Moses divided the Red Sea, the end result was a division in God’s church that was just as distinct, and just as deadly for those caught in the middle as the two sides crashed back together again.

The problem with this situation and the millions of others like it is that pride is often more important to us than humility.  Convincing people that we are “right” is often more important to us than actually being right.  It is human nature to protect ourselves at all costs…and there is very little about our human nature that is Godly.  Actually, even though thousands of years have passed since Solomon’s reign, nothing has changed as far as human nature is concerned.  Today we have cell phones and Facebook to rally support for ourselves, in Solomon’s time they might have had the “Camel Express” as their gossip platform!  Whatever the method for rallying support for OUR cause, we need to begin to learn humility, not pride, and we must seek peace, not support.  We must seek truth and wisdom first, not seek to isolate the situation and look for ways to plead only our point of view.

When a difficult issue arises in your life, do you seek understanding, wisdom and reconciliation with the perceived offending party…or do you seek allies to join your cause?  Are you more concerned with recruiting people to “your side” by revealing your own thoughts than you are in seeking God’s wisdom and God’s resolution to the issue at hand?  Think about the last time that you were in a position to seek God or seek man, did you reach for God’s word and God’s wisdom…or did you reach for the phone?  Did you seek to separate and isolate your version of the events by revealing one side of the story to friends and family or did you seek truth?  I would wager that each one of us knows who to call to rally support depending on the situation…like a child that goes to mom in a certain situation and to dad in others.  And most of us not only know who to go to and when, but we act upon it.  Isn’t it true that more often than not we seek the person that will be most sympathetic to our cause, while refraining from either seeking God’s truth by searching His word or calling someone that might give us a dissenting viewpoint?  Being in an echo chamber is often very comfortable.  But hearing another viewpoint that says we might be wrong in our judgments is wise.

Brothers and sisters, I want wisdom, not comfort.  I want humility, not pride.  I want God’s way, not my own.  I know each of you want those things too.  If we are to be a church that grows in our love for God and each other, we must learn that protecting ourselves is not the most important thing, protecting the integrity of God’s truth is.

James 3:13-18

¹³ Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom. ¹⁴ But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. ¹⁵ This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. ¹⁶ For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing. ¹⁷ But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. ¹⁸ And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

Yours in Christ,

Pastor John

Ephesians 6:18 

¹⁸ And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.

This week, perhaps more so than ever before I have had a burden to pray. To pray in particular for the body and the ministry of LWBC. I am in the unique and humble position, as a leader in the church, to be intimately involved in many of your lives and to see the daily struggles that many of you face. All of us are confronted with burdens in life that are too heavy and far too complicated for us to handle on our own, yet far often I see too many of you trying anyway. Like a sinking ship being bailed out with a teaspoon, we desperately try to fix the problems in our marriages, families, church, health and every other aspect of life with little power or effectiveness. We need to learn to put the teaspoon down and pick up the high powered pump that is available to us!

Prayer is the direct path to the only One in the universe that not only knows our struggles but has the power to use them for His glory and our benefit. When we pray we are literally entering the throne room of the King of Kings, seeking an audience with Him. And unlike the kings of the earth, this King will never turn us away, never be too busy to listen and never ignore our pleas. As Christians, we have access through Christ our mediator, to the greatest power ever known or will be known. God is the recipient of our prayers! Do you really understand the incredible statement that I just made? God, the Alpha and Omega, the First and Last, the Almighty Creator, the Ancient of Days, the Holy One…listens to the prayers of you and me! And He not only listens, but He works all things out according to His purposes, His will and for our benefit! Do you pray really knowing who it is you are praying to?

Each one of us must commit to increasing our prater life! Not simply understanding who it is we are praying to, but committing to making prayer the most important part of our day! As I studied this week on various topics something struck me like a ton of bricks. When the Lord accomplished a great work in and through His people, for the benefit of the Kingdom and for the people of the Kingdom, it always started with prayer! In 2 Chronicles 7scripture promises that the move of God on behalf of the people of Israel will be predicated by prayer. In Matthew 9 the move of God’s favor in the harvest field was predicated by prayer. Even wisdom is acquired through prayer! Every single day, prayer should be the place that we start, it should carry us through the day and it should be our ending point when we lay down our heads! There will be no great man or woman of God where there is no prayer! And LWBC will never accomplish all that God has for us if we are prayer weaklings. If we are distracted by the world, when we should be on our knees before God, we will ever be struggling forward, trying to accomplish the impossible. Like a teaspoon bailing out a sinking ship. Brothers and sisters, pray. Pray for the church, pray for each other, pray for your families, pray for yourself, pray for your leaders and pray for the lost…and when you are finished…start again. The best defense against the schemes of the enemy is to never give him a chance to gain a foothold. Prayer will forever be the first line of defense in our lives and the only thing that sustains us through every situation.

“Prayer plumes the wings of God’s young eaglets so that they may learn to mount above the clouds. Prayer brings inner strength to God’s warriors and sends them forth to spiritual battle with their muscles firm and their armor in place.”   -Charles Spurgeon 

Yours in Christ,

Pastor John

1 Peter 4:8

8 Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins. 

There is perhaps no word in all of the English language that encompasses such a wide array of thoughts, ideas and responses as the word “love”. I am sure each one of us have used this word to express and describe how we feel concerning the Lord and our gratefulness for His incredible gift of salvation through Jesus Christ. We have also used this word to describe our feelings for our wives, children and family members. I am also quite certain that many, if not all of us have used the word “love” to describe how we feel about a pet, a sport or a favorite food! When we examine our uses of this word, it also becomes clear that there may be no word in the English language that is used so carelessly and inappropriately as this one word as well!

Very recently I and many of you have used this word to describe how we feel towards each other…our fellow saints and brethren in the Lord. There is no question that love for the brethren is an absolutely necessary and beautiful response and expression of the Christian. Actually, one of the marks of a true believer is that they will have a deep love for God’s people (1 John 3:14). As I write this it is very easy for me to think of each one of you and say without shame or embarrassment that I love you. But while saying that I love you is easy, often showing you that I love you can be difficult. Each one of us has a responsibility to love one another not only in word but also in deed.

Peter reminds us that “…love covers a multitude of sin”. This is a very familiar verse to many of us, but how many of us both know what it means and put into practice the principles of this statement? If our love for each other is to be proper and complete, we must both know and practice this type of fervent love that is a covering for the sins of others.

Each one of us comes from a past that is marred by sin and various forms of depravity. The love that we must have for each other is a love that looks past those multitudes of sin and keeps no record. A fervent love that covers a multitude of sin is a love that knows no sin that has been committed that is unforgivable. It knows no sin that is so repulsive that we would disown each other if we were to find out. This love we are to have for each other does not mean that we are to cordially tolerate one another, but rather practice a growing and desperate love for each other! Think of your past, perhaps your past before Christ. How many of you look back and think, “if these people knew this about me, they would disown me!” May it never be! If we are indeed Christian we will look past those sins and not hold them against each other. We will not seek to aggravate those past failures, but we will remember them no more! Our love will look past them, cover them and they we will not change our opinions, thoughts or love concerning one another. We will look at each other as fellow sinners, redeemed by Christ. When I look at each of you I do not see fornicators, liars and thieves, I see God’s beautiful church! Every one of us have been guilty of many evils, but every one of us have also been forgiven by the blood of Christ! Amen!

It is not enough for the Christian to simply bear with each other out of a loathsome responsibility to God’s command, we must love each other so much that bearing with each other becomes an expression of our love for God and each other. Each one of us have been given, by Christ, the capacity to minister to one another with a special care and enjoyment. My prayer is that we each grow in our hospitality to one another, our service to one another, our encouragement of one another and our grace to one another. Freely we have been forgiven, freely we also must forgive! We are not to look past sin and condone one another’s continued sin, however we must love each other enough to forgive and remember those sins no more.

Yours in Christ,

Pastor John

Luke 12:4-7

⁴ “I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that have no more that they can do. ⁵ But I will warn you whom to fear: fear the One who, after He has killed, has authority to cast into hell; yes, I tell you, fear Him! ⁶ Are not five sparrows sold for two cents? Yet not one of them is forgotten before God. ⁷ Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.

Have you ever looked out at the vastness of the universe and felt overwhelmed by the greatness of God?  There is arguably no greater sight in all the world than the sight of billions of stars shining in the black moonless sky on a crisp cold night!  No matter how many times I see it, I still cannot help but to be stirred in complete awe of God at His handiwork as displayed in the starry sky.  After I think about the incredible greatness of the Lord, the next thought that overwhelms me is how small I am when compared to the scope of God’s vast creation.  In these moments it is easy to think of ourselves as completely ordinary at best and insignificant at worse in comparison to all that God has created.  In these moments we can also be tempted to think that we are such a small entity in a land of “giants”.  Unfortunately, very often we confuse small with “of little worth”.

But is the conclusion that man is of little worth accurate?  Modern day humanists, evolutionists and environmentalists would all have you believe that to be true.  After all, we are the problem with creation, not the crown of creation.  We are disposable but nature is indispensable.  This narrative is not only untrue, but it is a dangerous lie that the enemy of our souls uses to wound our faith in the Lord.  In reality, we are so important to the Lord that even the hairs on our head are numbered!  And please understand what the Lord is reminding us of here.  Our hair is of little value compared to our souls, yet not one of them is forgotten by the Lord!

If fact, all of human history has been the narrative of Gods incredible story of how He gave all He had in order to save the very men we often view as so insignificant!  The crowning achievement of the handiwork of God was the creation of man.  From every little hair and skin cell to our eternal souls, every time we look at another human, we should see nothing short of something awe inspiring!  Man is the only thing in all of God’s creation that bears His image!  The starry sky is nothing compared to the intricacies of man’s body and soul.

Each of us need to be reminded of the great value that the Lord places on mankind.  We need to teach our children that God’s love for the souls of man far outweighs any other thing in the universe.  As soon as we view men in the same way that God views them our focus will completely change concerning our duty to God and to the Gospel.  Satan wants us to view the Russians, Iranians, illegal immigrants or the Muslims and so on as evil and worthy only of destruction.  God wants us to view them as God’s greatest creation and to understand that the value of their soul is no less than the value of your own.  When we view man the way God does and remember that He gave everything so that men might be saved, it will cause us to acquire the heart of our God and we will give all of ourselves to the work of the Gospel.  Never allow Satan to whisper the lie that you or any other human is insignificant.  Remember that even on your worst day and your lowest point, in the middle of your greatest failure, Jesus, the Lover of your soul has completed the work to sustain your salvation because of His great love for you!

Next time you look at the stars on a clear dark night remember that YOU are God’s crowning achievement of creation.  Turn to your child or your wife or whoever you may be with and remind them of this.  The heavens, the mountains, the oceans and everything in between are small compared to the incredible creation that is man!  You and I can be tempted to look at the value of our soul as small in comparison to the incredible vastness of the universe.  But praise God that He looks at the vastness of the universe as small in comparison to the value of our souls!  And He proved it through the work of our Faithful Savior Jesus Christ!

Psalm 8

¹O Lord, our Lord, How majestic is Your name in all the earth, Who have displayed Your splendor above the heavens! ² From the mouth of infants and nursing babes You have established strength Because of Your adversaries, To make the enemy and the revengeful cease.

³ When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained;

⁴ What is man that You take thought of him, And the son of man that You care for him? ⁵ Yet You have made him a little lower than God, And You crown him with glory and majesty! ⁶ You make him to rule over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet, ⁷ All sheep and oxen, And also the beasts of the field, ⁸ The birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, Whatever passes through the paths of the seas.

⁹ O Lord, our Lord, How majestic is Your name in all the earth!

Yours in Christ,

Pastor John