Mark 6:14-29
Length: 19:56
This is a message given on July 12, 2009 at the Bowdertown United Methodist Church.
“Conscience”
Our scripture starts off with King Herod hearing some exciting news about Jesus of Nazareth. Many people during this time truly believed in resurrections, but they had some false notions about it.
For example, they believed that the spirit of a dead person could come back in another person. They is why some people thought Jesus was John the Baptist or Elijah. It appears as though King Herod believed this as well, as he kept saying “John, whom I beheaded, has risen!”
By this confession, Herod proved that he could not forget the evil he had done. This shows that he too had a conscience that plagued him with guilt. Obviously, though, his desire for power was greater than his conscience.
In verse 17, Mark launches into a flashback of the events that led up to the beheading of John the Baptist.
As we know, John the Baptist was not a soft-spoken kind of guy. He was direct and rigid with his messages. He spoke out against Herod’s illegal and illicit marriage as well as other ungodly activities.
See, Herod was married to the daughter of the King of Arabia. After a while, Herod took a trip to Rome and stayed with his half brother Phillip. While in Rome Herod fell in love with Phillip’s wife, Herodias, and got married.
Herod’s first wife got word of this and escaped and told her father about the situation. The reaction is typical of any father and the King of Arabia declares war against Herod. Rome steps in to the picture and bails Herod out of the mess.
As I mentioned the marriage was illegal and illicit. Illegal because Herod was married already and Herodias was married too, even though she technically got a divorce. It was illicit because Herodias was his half-niece so they were technically related.
Even though Herod enjoyed listening to John preach and teach, he could not let anyone speak bad of him. So Herod had John arrested and put into prison. Herod’s wife wanted John dead, but Herod knew John was a righteous man and no doubt had him protected while in prison.
A while later, Herod throws himself a birthday bash. Part of the entertainment featured a “special” dance by his step daughter. Herod is so “impressed” by the dance that he offers up to half of his kingdom to the girl for her “performance”.
The girl is urged on by her mother to ask for the head of John the Baptist. Herod agreed and had John’s head brought to the girl on a platter as requested. Herod felt bad, but wanted to save face in front of his guests so he gave the order.
Once again we see Herod’s desire for power quiet his conscience. What a sad story this is, but it typifies people even today as they make wrong choices in their life.
Herod had John the Baptist killed. This plagued him personally and publicly. His conscience made him believe that Jesus was empowered by John spirit. And, of course, the public was outraged that a righteous man was killed for nothing.
Second, his marriage to Herodias ruined not only his marriage, but his brother’s marriage as well. It brought warfare from another country and forced Rome to get involved to settle the conflict.
Eventually, Herod continued to screw up and was stripped of his power by Rome and he was banished to Gaul with his wife.
It is indeed sad. The even sadder part is the fact that we still see this type of thing happening today. People are more focused and concerned with money or political power that they are willing to shut down their conscience and focus on their greed, lust, and desires.
When I think about listening to your conscience I always think of a couple of Old Testament men. Listen to the word’s of David in 2 Samuel 24:10:
“And David’s heart condemned him after he had numbered the people. So David said to the Lord, ‘I have sinned greatly in what I have done; but now, I pray, O Lord, take away the iniquity of your servant, for I have done very foolishly.’”
David sinned against God and his conscience convicted him of it. There was no escape. To ease his conscience he had to confess his sin to God and repent of it. David was a servant of God and he screwed up quite a bit, but he always came back to God deeply sorrowful for the things that he did.
The story from the Old Testament that I think about when someone mentions the word conscience is the story of Joseph. I am sure you are all familiar with the story. His brothers were jealous of him and left him for dead, but decided to sell him and make some money instead.
Years later, in Genesis 42:21, the brothers said to one another, “We are truly guilty concerning our brother, for we saw the anguish of his soul when he pleaded with us, and we would not hear therefore this distress has come upon us.”
The brothers knew like David did. Their conscience convicted them of their sin. They knew their sin and they knew they would be punished for it. It needed to be confessed and repented of.
We too need to listen to our conscience today. That little voice in your heard is there for a reason. God put it there and uses it for his purposes.
The conscience is our internal warning system. It allows us to think about our motives and actions and determine right from wrong. Of course, in order for it to work properly, we need to have it filled with the Word of God, which gives us the absolute right and truth.
Our conscience should accuse and convict us of our sin. Don’t ignore it, but embrace it and repent of your wrongs.
Our conscience isn’t all bad though. Yes, it convicts us of our sin, but it also should affirm in you that you are a believer. It did for Job, it did for Paul, and Peter. It will for you as well.
Remember, only the blood of Christ can purify us (Heb 9:14) who offered Himself without spot to God for our sins. Only He can cleanse us to serve the living God.
Knowing this, we should walk obediently with Christ. Then our conscience will affirm to us that we are believers in the true and living God.
Living in this world can indeed be a challenge today. There are many distractions and things to draw us away from a godly life.
We are to “conduct ourselves in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God.” (2 Cor 1:12)
What does your conscience say? And more importantly are you listening and obeying it? Think about it this week. Pay attention to your conscience and seek to glorify God with your actions.
Closing Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank you for our time in your Word this morning. We thank you for the lessons that we have received. We thank you for faithful men like, David, Job, Peter, and Paul. Help us to live out our faith and walk in this world as these men did. We thank you for our conscience, we ask you to send your Spirit to purify it and make clear to us what is right and what is wrong. Give us the strength to do what is right and honorably and glorifying to you. In the precious name of Jesus. AMEN.
Showing posts with label Joseph. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Joseph. Show all posts
Monday, July 13, 2009
Monday, June 8, 2009
Spiritual Tragedy
Matthew 26:36-46
Length: 17:44
This is a message given on June 7, 2009 at the Bowdertown United Methodist Church.
Spiritual Tragedy
This morning’s scripture gives us a description of a Spiritual Tragedy or a path to spiritual destruction.
The first thing we see in this passage is self-confidence with the disciples. If you remember, while the disciples were still in the Upper Room after having been a part of the Lord’s Supper, they were arguing among themselves as to which would be the greatest in the Kingdom.
Talk about self-confidence. These guys had it here, but self-confidence always opens the door to temptation. This is the first step on the path of destroying your spiritual life. We become confident in our own ability to live our life with our own power.
The disciples thought they too could do this. Notice what happens next. As they enter the garden, Jesus tells them to stay alert, watch out for me, while I go over there and pray. What happens?
They all fall asleep. This is in the next step on the path of spiritual destruction. The disciples all fell asleep physically while they were in the garden of Gethsemane with Christ. They thought they could do this on their own, but they fell asleep.
Today, we can fall asleep spiritually by ignoring evil in this world, becoming indifferent to the injustices that we see happening all around us. Letting the world corrupt our morals.
I believe there is a right and a wrong, a black and white. There is no grey area in God’s eyes. We are the one’s who create the gray area of our life.
There is a term in the computer industry, garbage in, garbage out, meaning if you put bad data into the computer it will process and return bad data to you. If you are putting garbage in your brain from television, books, magazine, or whatever, then you are naturally going to start to have that garbage replicate itself in your life.
As we continue to doze in our spiritual life, we will have less and less concern for what we put into our brains and hearts. This leads us to the next step, which is the temptation. This is what Satan uses against us to really draw us away and keep us away from God.
Each of us is tempted by different things, but usually it has to do with our rights. I have a right to do what I want, read what I what, watch what I want, listen to what I want.
Anytime I think about temptation, the story of Joseph pops into my mind. No doubt you are familiar with the story from Genesis 39. Joseph was a nice looking young man in charge of Potiphar’s household. Potiphar’s wife becomes interested in Joseph and wants to sleep with him.
Joseph gives an excellent speech about why he cannot sleep with her. But as I have said before, words without action often times mean nothing. So Joseph proves himself later by not giving in to the temptation.
The scene occurs when Joseph is alone in the house with Potiphar’s wife. She grabs him and tries to seduce him into sleeping with her. Joseph literally leaves his shirt behind and runs from the situation. Joseph knew right from wrong and he fled the temptation of having this, no doubt beautiful, women thrust herself upon him.
Joseph did not give in to the temptation. Unfortunately, for many people today the temptation leads to the sin. This is only natural for the self-confident, evil tolerant person. Without the help of God, we cannot withstand Satan and avoid sin. We are all sinners, Romans 3:10 tells us there is none righteous, no not one.
The last step is the actual disaster. When you trust in your own confidence and believe that you can live your life in your power and you give in to temptation and sin then you often find yourself calling your sin by a different name.
Instead of calling it sin, people call it a lifestyle choice or a quirky habit. And as you no longer look at your sin as being sin, you no longer feel the need to repent and ask for forgiveness from God. This leads to your spiritual destruction.
This is exactly the path the disciples followed that night in the garden and this is the path we follow when we do not trust in the Lord.
The disciples were confident in themselves. They didn’t need help to stay awake. Then they figured a little nap won’t hurt, there are after all 10 other guys here watching, right? They all fall asleep and when they wake up there is the mob, which came to arrest Jesus.
This passage is a sad example of what can happen to people as they relax in their spiritual journey, but there is some good news too. This passage also provides an example for a spiritual victory through Jesus Christ. The path of victory is the exact opposite as that of destruction.
This means confidence in God rather than yourself. Seeing evil and injustice in the world around you and addressing it as such. Resisting temptation, not through your own will, but through God’s power. And of course, obeying God’s will rather than your own.
That is your challenge this week. Be confident in God, don’t turn your back and ignore the wrongs of the world. Pray that God will deliver you from temptation and if you find yourself in a tempting situation flee from it. Most importantly, if you should find that a failure did occur and you did sin, take it to God and ask for forgiveness and seek to obey His will.
Closing Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the many lessons that we find in it. Help us to continuously study its truths so that we may put into practice the things that we do indeed learn from you. Help us to trust and obey. Cleanse our hearts and purify our minds as we prepare to communion with you and others. AMEN.
Length: 17:44
This is a message given on June 7, 2009 at the Bowdertown United Methodist Church.
Spiritual Tragedy
This morning’s scripture gives us a description of a Spiritual Tragedy or a path to spiritual destruction.
The first thing we see in this passage is self-confidence with the disciples. If you remember, while the disciples were still in the Upper Room after having been a part of the Lord’s Supper, they were arguing among themselves as to which would be the greatest in the Kingdom.
Talk about self-confidence. These guys had it here, but self-confidence always opens the door to temptation. This is the first step on the path of destroying your spiritual life. We become confident in our own ability to live our life with our own power.
The disciples thought they too could do this. Notice what happens next. As they enter the garden, Jesus tells them to stay alert, watch out for me, while I go over there and pray. What happens?
They all fall asleep. This is in the next step on the path of spiritual destruction. The disciples all fell asleep physically while they were in the garden of Gethsemane with Christ. They thought they could do this on their own, but they fell asleep.
Today, we can fall asleep spiritually by ignoring evil in this world, becoming indifferent to the injustices that we see happening all around us. Letting the world corrupt our morals.
I believe there is a right and a wrong, a black and white. There is no grey area in God’s eyes. We are the one’s who create the gray area of our life.
There is a term in the computer industry, garbage in, garbage out, meaning if you put bad data into the computer it will process and return bad data to you. If you are putting garbage in your brain from television, books, magazine, or whatever, then you are naturally going to start to have that garbage replicate itself in your life.
As we continue to doze in our spiritual life, we will have less and less concern for what we put into our brains and hearts. This leads us to the next step, which is the temptation. This is what Satan uses against us to really draw us away and keep us away from God.
Each of us is tempted by different things, but usually it has to do with our rights. I have a right to do what I want, read what I what, watch what I want, listen to what I want.
Anytime I think about temptation, the story of Joseph pops into my mind. No doubt you are familiar with the story from Genesis 39. Joseph was a nice looking young man in charge of Potiphar’s household. Potiphar’s wife becomes interested in Joseph and wants to sleep with him.
Joseph gives an excellent speech about why he cannot sleep with her. But as I have said before, words without action often times mean nothing. So Joseph proves himself later by not giving in to the temptation.
The scene occurs when Joseph is alone in the house with Potiphar’s wife. She grabs him and tries to seduce him into sleeping with her. Joseph literally leaves his shirt behind and runs from the situation. Joseph knew right from wrong and he fled the temptation of having this, no doubt beautiful, women thrust herself upon him.
Joseph did not give in to the temptation. Unfortunately, for many people today the temptation leads to the sin. This is only natural for the self-confident, evil tolerant person. Without the help of God, we cannot withstand Satan and avoid sin. We are all sinners, Romans 3:10 tells us there is none righteous, no not one.
The last step is the actual disaster. When you trust in your own confidence and believe that you can live your life in your power and you give in to temptation and sin then you often find yourself calling your sin by a different name.
Instead of calling it sin, people call it a lifestyle choice or a quirky habit. And as you no longer look at your sin as being sin, you no longer feel the need to repent and ask for forgiveness from God. This leads to your spiritual destruction.
This is exactly the path the disciples followed that night in the garden and this is the path we follow when we do not trust in the Lord.
The disciples were confident in themselves. They didn’t need help to stay awake. Then they figured a little nap won’t hurt, there are after all 10 other guys here watching, right? They all fall asleep and when they wake up there is the mob, which came to arrest Jesus.
This passage is a sad example of what can happen to people as they relax in their spiritual journey, but there is some good news too. This passage also provides an example for a spiritual victory through Jesus Christ. The path of victory is the exact opposite as that of destruction.
This means confidence in God rather than yourself. Seeing evil and injustice in the world around you and addressing it as such. Resisting temptation, not through your own will, but through God’s power. And of course, obeying God’s will rather than your own.
That is your challenge this week. Be confident in God, don’t turn your back and ignore the wrongs of the world. Pray that God will deliver you from temptation and if you find yourself in a tempting situation flee from it. Most importantly, if you should find that a failure did occur and you did sin, take it to God and ask for forgiveness and seek to obey His will.
Closing Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the many lessons that we find in it. Help us to continuously study its truths so that we may put into practice the things that we do indeed learn from you. Help us to trust and obey. Cleanse our hearts and purify our minds as we prepare to communion with you and others. AMEN.
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