“Honor your father and your mother so that you may have a long life in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.” (CSB – Read the chapter)
When scholars examine the Ten Commandments, they often group them together in two big sets. The first set has to do with our relationship with God. Those are the first four. The second set has to do with our relationship with people. Those are really the last five. This fifth command sometimes gets grouped with the second set, but it doesn’t really belong there. It definitely does not go with the first set, though. It’s really a transitional command to get from one to the next. Let’s talk today about why honoring parents was a big enough deal to God that He included it on this list.
“For we know that if our earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal dwelling in the heavens, not made with hands. Indeed, we groan in this tent, desiring to put on our heavenly dwelling, since, when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. Indeed, we groan while we are in this tent, burdened as we are, because we do not want to be unclothed but clothed, so that mortality may be swallowed up by life. Now the one who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave us the Spirit as a down payment.” (2 Corinthians 5:1-5 – CSB – Read the chapter)
This life doesn’t last forever. That is one of those truths about which everyone is supremely confident. There’s a reason we have the saying that the only two sure things in life are death and taxes. Now, yes, there are some folks who are theorizing about things like transhumanism and the notion that we can somehow achieve immortality, but even they will wind up facing the veil at some point. These efforts toward immortality remind us that the sheer finitude of life really does bother us. It bothers us because something deep in our bones screams that this is not how things are supposed to be. Well, what we know as followers of Jesus is that this sense is right. It is right because we were made in the image of a God who is eternal. And when we accept by faith that the things Jesus said about this world and the next are true, the fear and loathing death often brings all but vanish. I recently said goodbye to my friend Joyce. She knew all of this very well. As a result, her transition from this life to the start of the next was different from most. Let me tell you about it.
“I will praise you because I have been remarkably and wondrously made. Your works are wondrous, and I know this very well.” (CSB – Read the chapter)
Modern streaming services are not where one would naturally think to go in order to find content with messages that affirm and support the basic assumptions of the Christian worldview. Now, this doesn’t mean I’m abandoning my argument that the Gospel lies at the heart of all of the stories we tell. But most of the streaming content available these days, though perhaps Gospel-driven at some level, is usually much more conscious about advancing a narrative that is much more progressive in its worldview outlook. Given the passion with which the current cultural left embraces the pro-abortion position and opposes the pro-life position, you are even less likely to find something that celebrates the value of children and especially babies. Imagine my surprise, then, when I finally sat down to watch Netflix’s version of the celebrated stage show, Matilda, the Musical, and the opening song was about as profoundly pro-life in its tone as anything I’ve seen on a screen in a long time. This morning, let’s talk about Matilda, the Musical, and its wonderful reminder of just how much children matter.
“We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, concerning those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve like the rest, who have no hope.” (CSB – Read the chapter)
One of the ideas people like to throw around sometimes today is that dying is easy. Usually the corollary idea paired with that is that living is hard. That kind of notion can be made to sound philosophically sagacious. Someone with a loud pen (or keyboard as is more often the case these days) can fire it off and be guaranteed a near viral load of retweets and reposts. But the truth is that it is just a platitude. It doesn’t add anything really meaningful to a conversation that nearly everyone has at some point in our lives. Should our Lord tarry, death is coming for us all eventually. And while dying may be easy in the sense that it really doesn’t take any effort on our part, death is hard. I’m thinking about this today because a good man I know is facing his own death. These are some thoughts with him in mind.
“Blessed is the one who endures trials, because when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.” (CSB – Read the chapter)
Sometimes life is hard. I’ll preach a funeral service today for a good and godly man. This will be the third funeral I’ve been a part of in the last two weeks. That’s three mourning families. Two were guys for whom you could have said, “It was their time,” (although that never makes the loss sting any less). One makes you want to rage against the injustice of a broken world. Sometimes life is hard. How do we handle it?
The Nexus 