“When it is in your power, don’t withhold good from the one to whom it belongs. Don’t say to your neighbor, ‘Go away! Come back later. I’ll give it tomorrow’—when it is there with you.” (Proverbs 3:27-28 CSB – Read the chapter)
You’ve almost certainly had this experience before: you are driving down the road or sitting in traffic, and you see it. A person sitting out standing on the side of the road looking rough and holding a sign asking for help. Perhaps you have been approached by someone on the street asking for money. What do you do? Knowing how to help a neighbor in need is hard. But one thing that is clear in the Scriptures is that we are supposed to help. Let’s talk about it.
“Maintain sound wisdom and discretion. My son, don’t lose sight of them. They will be life for you and adornment for your neck. Then you will go safely on your way; your foot will not stumble. When you lie down, you will not be afraid; you will lie down, and your sleep will be pleasant. Don’t fear sudden danger or the ruin of the wicked when it comes, for the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from a snare.” (Proverbs 3:21-26 CSB – Read the chapter)
Security is a big deal in our world today. Our need for it keeps all sorts of companies in business. We want our homes to feel secure. We want our health to feel secure. We want our finances to feel secure. We want our spiritual lives to feel secure. We want to know that everything is going to be okay, and we’re willing to go to pretty great lengths to make sure that it is. But while a certain amount of feeling secure is related to a variety of physical things we do, a significant portion of it is also a state of mind. It is a state of mind that wisdom can help address. Let’s talk about it.
“The Lord founded the earth by wisdom and established the heavens by understanding. By his knowledge the watery depths broke open, and the clouds dripped with dew.” (Proverbs 3:19-20 CSB – Read the chapter)
When Charles Darwin first proposed his ideas about human origins, our understanding of the complexities of life was pretty rudimentary. Of course, we didn’t think that at the time. The mid-19th century through the early days of the 20th century were marked by incredible confidence in human knowledge—a confidence we now recognize as a rather wild overconfidence (even as we fall into the same trap ourselves about our own knowledge). What we have come to understand since is that life is vastly more complex than Darwin could have imagined. Not only that, but the universe itself is complex almost beyond all description. To borrow the phrase that is commonly used to describe it, we live in a finely tuned world. It takes a great deal of wisdom to manage such a world. Fortunately, that’s the nature of the God we serve. Let’s talk about it.
This week we are kicking off a brand-new teaching series for the summer. When Jesus invited people into God’s kingdom, He didn’t stop there. For those who were interested, He gave them a clear and compelling vision of what life in His kingdom would look like. While we get bits and pieces of this grand vision in various places throughout the Gospels, the apostle Matthew gathers the largest and most comprehensive presentation of it in one place in the Sermon on the Mount. For the next few weeks, we are going to be exploring the Sermon on the Mount together in order to see what life in God’s kingdom is really like. Thanks for joining me on this journey.
The Blessings Flow Out
I went to college at a really interesting time. I landed at our Baptist Student Union in a season with a whole bunch of really forward-thinking student leaders and an incredible campus minister. One of the ministries that was created during this season was a seeker-oriented service on Thursday nights called Damascus Road, that was designed specifically for non-believers. It was aimed at getting them interested in the Gospel. Now, I know that we are several years’ removed from the height of the seeker-sensitive church model, and I am well aware of some of its most pressing weaknesses including inviting people into a watered-down version of the faith. With this in mind, we actually created a second service on Tuesday nights called Fuel, that was unapologetically Chrisitan in its framing. It was just a worship service. We used Damascus Road to serve as a funnel to Fuel, and saw several people come to faith by that approach over the four years I was there.
“For just as the body is one and has many parts, and all the parts of that body, though many, are one body – so also is Christ.” (1 Corinthians 12:12 CSB – Read the chapter)
Across the country right now the average church is not growing. It is plateaued at best. Many are stagnant as a prelude to dying. I have a member who travels regularly for work all across the state, but never more than day trips. He has returned several times with stories of seeing more and more churches with for sale signs in their front yards. Over the last 10-15 years, one of the fastest growing interest movements within the church is the church revitalization movement. A big part of the reason for this is that a whole bunch of church leaders have realized all at about the same time that the church isn’t in great shape. There are some significant signs of life in recent days, but many churches are still limping along at best. It seems worth noting, then, when a church is experiencing the opposite of all of this. Well, my church is experiencing the opposite of all of this right now. I thought we might spend at least this Friday exploring some of why I think this may be.
The Nexus 