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Making the List

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Making the List—2 Timothy 2:8-15. DBC. October 13, 2019. Dr. Denny

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Introduction:   It was morning in southern Poland and Auschwitz was just waking up.  Elie Wiesel was only 15, one of the youngest prisoners in the concentration camp.  His mother, father, and siblings had been rounded up from a little town in Hungary by the Nazis in 1944 and hauled off in a packed cattle car to the prison camp known for the billowing black smoke pouring from the extermination ovens that burned human sacrifices day and night.

One morning Elie woke up trembling with fear.  This could be the day he would be sent to the ovens.  Everyone in his barracks was ordered to line up outside.  Then one by one, when a name was called, the prisoner stepped forward for inspection.  Those deemed weak and useless for manual labor were ordered to the left.  Those who could work were sent to the right.  The left was the ovens. The right was 18 hours of hard labor. Elie recounts in his book Night that he stepped forward when called and then spontaneously began running back and forth in front of the inspector.  He ran for his life hopping and jumping, proving his worth, demonstrating his strength and praying to a God he no longer believed in for help.

Background:  When we turn to 2 Timothy in the NT we feel as if we are reading Night by Elie Wiesel.  Paul, like Elie and his father, is imprisoned in Rome’s worst nightmare, the Mamertine jail (recently restored by archaeologists and open for tourists).  Paul now bears the label of “criminal” κακοῦργος. The word was popular in the time of Nero who burnt the city down and blamed the Roman Christians.  Rome burning.jpgPaul is now in that category of miscreants who destroyed 70% of the city of Rome in the fire.  He is bound to the walls of the prison in chains. He is condemned to death and he says “the time of my departure has come.”

And then comes the statement in our text today (2 Tim 2:15) that sends shivers up my spine.  Paul says to timothy and to us today, Prepare to step forward and prove yourself to be a fit and ready workman ready to toil for the gospel.  Make sure you get on the List.  Don’t let them discard you to the ovens. 

Paul gives us three insights into the heart and soul of an approved workman.  See you think like Paul as I present them:

  1. See the Big Picture—Don’t get caught up on the details of your life. Look beyond your present troubles and see the big picture—see how your life fits into the overall plan of God.  Paul could have focused on his chains.  He could have spent the hours in the day pulling on the chains tethered to the dungeon wall, feeling his loss of freedom, feeling defeated and abandoned.

*It would like a man summoned to a rich man’s palace and given the commission to create a landscaped paradise on the 200 acres that rolled out before the castle.  I want waterfalls, and orchards of white blossomed trees, and acres of lavender orchids.  Now get started.  And the man wanders into the field and pauses to smell a single dwarfed lily forgetting the vast undertaking before him.  He can’t see the big picture.  Just the lily.

Paul says I know I’m in jail, chained to this wall but I look beyond my immediate pain.  After all, he says in verse 9—I might be chained to the wall but the Word of God is not chained.  There it is!  There’s the big picture forming in his mind.  Now he’s looking to something bigger—to God’s guiding hand in the midst of the dungeon’s darkness.  An approved workman sees the big picture.

  1. Build up your endurance. You’ve got to have. Endurance, Paul says, to be an approved workman.  Otherwise, you will falter when the first storm comes.  And in Elie Wiesel’s case, anyone who faltered in the work fields was shot on the spot.  Endurance is essential for survival.

*I looked up to see how a boxer toughens his body for the grueling 125 rounds of a boxing match.  He has to have endurance.  One way was to work his abs in training.  So now I’m going to tell you all a secret to those six-pack abs you all dream about every night.  And don’t say you never get anything practical in my sermons.  Here it is.  How to get DBC six-pack abs!  The technique boxers use is simple and effective.  Here is what you need:  An Amazon Basics Medicine Ball–$33 bucks and free shipping.  Or any medicine ball.  They range from 1 to 50 pounds.  2.  A partner.   You need someone who has room for improvement on the waistline.  Now you and your partner stand about 3-5 five feet from each other.  One of you takes the ball, grip it solidly and then toss it with power to your friend’s stomach.  Now the secret is for the one receiving the ball to let it smack your stomach first then catch it.  Do this a hundred time s a day for 20 years and you too can have the dream abs that will likely get you into the movies.

Paul tells us that an approved workman has a certain toughness, a measure of endurance to weather the storms that come in life.

  1. Avoid distractions: The final element in making the List of approved workmen is to avoid distractions.  Paul remembers so many meetings he held over the years where people got into senseless meaningless arguments, “wrangling over words” was how he put in in verse 14.  It’s just a waste of time, he said.  Silly distractions just lead to ruin.

In Elie’s case, distractions on the work line would have resulted in a fierce whipping or worse.  And Paul is telling us that we have work to do for the Lord and we don’t want to drift away into a world of distractions.

*When I had just gotten my little Irish Setter, Reverend, years ago, I began training him.  I used to walk him along some country roads teaching him to heel.  It took a while but he eventually got it down pretty good.  Irish setter.jpgHis main flaw in the training was that as we walked along with me shouting Heel!  He would often smell the most delicious daffodils on the side of the road and they would distract him.  He was a connoisseur of smells and anything would do.  But daffodils were one of his favorites.  I would yell heel land he would stroll over and take a long smell of the sweet fragrance and then look at me with indifference.

Conclusion:

Every month I get a little booklet in the mail that I don’t use.  But it comes anyway.  It’s called Angie’s List.  It’s a magazine filled with approved workmen.  It has their history, their services, their star rating and if you choose one there might be a discount.  Everyone is approved.  They’ve all made the list.

Angie’s list might have its. Purpose but I would like to recommend Paul’s List.  To get on it you must learn to see the big picture when life squeezes you hard—you need to have endurance and you must be capable of focusing on the lesson at hand—avoiding distractions.  Do this and you will “Make the List.”

 

Rags to Riches

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Rags to Riches—Ps 113—September 22, 2019—DBC—Dr. Denny

Introduction:  Our Psalm today was often sung at Jewish festivals and special occasions.  It’s a happy Psalm meant to encourage us on our journey through life.  It reminds us of God’s unique interest in each of us and His interventions in our lives.

It’s a Rags to Riches Psalm. It’s a little like Charles Dicken’s Great Expectations where Pip, an orphan in southeast England comes into money as a teenager and lives the high life.  We hear this theme in verses 7-8:  “He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap…”.

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This is a Psalm to tuck away in your pocket or purse as you prepare for the day ahead.  And whenever you feel lost in this world,  or unappreciated or in some kind of despair, just pull this Psalm out our of your pocket and breath in deeply its fragrance for it will surely lift your soul and give you hope.

  1. This is a happy Psalm and it begins with a startling observation in verse 6: God, who is enthroned on high, humbles Himself to behold…. Isn’t that an intriguing whisper from God’s lips?  He humbles Himself to behold…Behold what, we ask.  What is it that God is looking at?  And in that question tumbles out the brilliant answer:  He beholds you and He beholds me as we start our day, as we laugh in the morning hours and cry in the afternoon—He beholds.    As we labor long hours at a job that is difficult—He beholds.  As we approach a fork in the road and struggle to decide on the way before us—He beholds.  Psalm 113 connects us to a God who cares about every detail of our lives. He’s watching because He cares.

*I read a BBC story this week about life in Kenya’s poorest villages.  There, snake bites are so prevalent that they occur every five minutes, and many times are fatal.  The nearest hospital is often too far away and the roads are too rutted and rough for ambulances.   So one nurse came up with a splendid idea:  She bought a motorcycle and equipped it with emergency medical aid. Then when she hears of a snakebite attack, she jumps on the motorcycle and races to the victim, puts him on the back of the cycle and carries them to the hospital in time for the antivenom treatment to work.  It’s called The Snakebite Squad. It’s an example of effective intervention in life’s daily traumas.

Our Psalm is like this.  God beholds us in our daily lives and rushes to our aid at just the right moment bringing aid and sustenance to help us live.

Example #1– Our Psalmist demonstrates this principle twice in this short Psalm.  First in verses 7-8. He lifts the poor up from the dust…That is such an incredible act of divine mercy!  He beholds your every moment and He can’t wait to lift you up.  It’s rags to riches.  From dust to a throne.  That is what God does for you and me.

     *Andrew Carnegie:  Let me give you an example of this divine principle.  In 1835 a little baby boy was born in Dunfermline, Scotland. His mother and father were destitute laborers and this little boy didn’t get much time in school.  Desperate, the family decided to emigrate to America in 1848 when the boy was 13.  The parents put him out to work in a textile mill where he made $1.20 a week.

Carnegie.jpgBut the boy was determined to help his parents and he soon got a job as a messenger boy and factory worker and then a secretary and telegraph operator at the Pennsylvania Railroad.  Before long he became superintendent of the railroad’s western division.  He saved his money all along the way and invested in a steel mill that by the turn of the century became know as Carnegie Steel Company which he sold for $480 million.

Our Psalmist declares that God beholds us from his throne on his high and lifts the poor from the dust and makes us sit with princes.  And from this simple truth, I can declare with confidence that God watches you—He watches you—and he will lift you from the dust. He will help you make the right decisions.  He will whisper encouraging words to you when you are down.

Example #2—The Psalmist gives another example in case you still doubt That God beholds.  He tells us of a woman whose life is one of difficulty and shame.

Her home is silent without the pitter-patter of children’s feet.  She is barren—a curse for any woman of the ancient world.    But God beheld her daily sufferings and he stepped in and smiled upon her giving her joy and wonderful children to brighten her days. It’s another rags to riches intervention.

*Catherine 1 of Russia:  When I thought of this woman in our text my mind went to a modern example of such divine intervention.  In 1684 a little girl was born into a family of Lithuanian peasants.  The little girl’s parents who struggled daily each day with life died from the plague when the girl was only three.

catherine1.jpgTaken in by a local pastor she spent her days as a housemaid in Latvia.  When Russia conquered the city in 1702, the girl, now 18, was captured and taken to Moscow. She became a servant in a high-ranking government official and it was there that she met the Russian Emperor Peter the Great. She was illiterate and uneducated but she charmed the emperor and they married in 1712.  When he died in 1725, she became the first Russian empress.

She, like the woman in our text, went from despair to joy because God beholds—He follows our lives.  He knows of our failures and limitations.  But he longs to help.

Conclusion: 

In verse 5 we hear these words:  Who is like the Lord our God who is enthroned on high, who humbles himself to behold…

As you leave today to go home, remember this one truth:  God goes with you.  He follows your every movement and waits to hear from you.  Call upon him and watch him spring into action to lift you from the dust.

 

Nightmare on Straight Street

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Nightmare on Straight Street—(Acts 9:11).  May 5, 2019.

There comes a time in everyone’s life when a difficult but necessary task lies before you.  You can try to run from this challenge like Jonah did, but chances are if you resist the challenge you will encounter a whale, (in other words, there will be consequences).

I want to take you to such an event this morning and show you how an ordinary person—a person like you and me, faced a difficult decision, and how he handled it.  Perhaps this story will inspire you to face some fear in your life or to move forward on some difficult decision.

Background

There are two streets mentioned in our story this morning—one is unnamed and one is called Straight.  On the unnamed street near Damascus Saul travels on a ruthless mission.  His face is hard and set on murder.  With every labored breath, he utters a threat against the Christians who live peacefully in the ancient walled city of Damascus.

*On an old map dated 1855, tradition marks the place that Saul fell to the dusty street and fought against a heavenly voice and a bright light that blinded him.
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He was nearly there.  He was so close to committing the crimes against innocent saints.  He could see the walls of the old city looming just beyond the gardens and olive groves on the southern side of the city.  But God stopped him in his tracks before the untold atrocities could erupt in his untethered heart.

But there is another street mentioned in our story:  the street called Straight.  It was an ancient Roman road built in the fashion of Roman logic and orderliness. It ran 1500 meters (nearly a mile) west to east, perfectly straight, with a series of north/south corridors like river tributaries crisscrossing this main artery.

*I have an old photo made in 1900.  It has been colorized and it shows people strolling casually down the narrow street called Straight.  A few are on horseback dressed in Syrian garments.  Some are westerners wearing London suits carrying parasols to shade themselves from the fierce midday sun.

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It is on this thoroughfare that history was forever changed.  For it was here on the western side of Straight Street not far from the city where a disciple of Jesus named Judas lived. And it was here that Saul the raging bull lay trembling with confusion, blinded by a terrific light.  And it is here in Judas’ house that we have the Nightmare on Straight Street.

 

  1. God often used ordinary people to do difficult things.

Now we must pause and pick up our protagonist for this story on the northeastern side of the city.  On my old map, I see the house of Ananias near an old cemetery that lay just outside the wall. And it is there that we meet a believer in Jesus.  He is an ordinary man.   And it is here that I must pause and make the first of two points this morning:  God often uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things.  I see this principle at work throughout the Scriptures:  It was an ordinary low born Hebrew child in Egypt—just a little baby of slave parents, who rose to become Moses the liberator of a nation.  And it was just a lowly, ordinary lad who kept sheep in the hills around Bethlehem that pick up a few stones and slew Goliath.

And so don’t be alarmed if God taps you on the shoulder and asks you to step into a challenging task, a difficult assignment that you might feel is beyond your ability. Just remember our first lesson this morning:  God often uses ordinary people to do difficult things.

And this was the case when God slipped quietly into Ananias’ life with a vision(Acts 9:10).  “Ananias, I have a job for you.”  “What is it, Lord?”  “I want you to slip down the street called Straight just a few blocks from you live and lay your healing hands upon a murderer of saints.  He trembles in blindness in Judas’ house.  Go and touch his eyes for me.”

An ordinary man asked to do a difficult task.  He should have said no!

*I read an article the other day entitled 10 guilt-free strategies for saying no. In each scenario, the author shows us how to gracefully and effectively say no.  I don’t think Ananias had read this article.  He tried to say no but he couldn’t pull it off.  It isn’t logical to liberate murderers and criminals.  But his no carried no power with Jesus who quickly brushed his protest off and told him quietly clearly to just get up and GO!

*I often wondered how he would explain this assignment to his wife: Honey, I have to go out for a while.  “Where?  Just out. Where?  Down to Judas’ house.  Birthday? No.  Why?  To help a murderer!

So let’s all learn from this.  God sometimes asks us to do things that are difficult, out of the ordinary, things that we don’t understand.

  1. Difficult challenges make us stronger. It was Peter who said in 1 Peter 5:10 that difficult challenges always result in wonderful personal benefits.  And so is the case here.  Ananias is ordered to do a difficult thing:  Go and help Saul your mortal enemy.  It was a supreme challenge but it led to the birth of the world’s greatest missionary—the Apostle Paul.

*George Washington was given this impossible task.  Defend NYC against the British.  But the British had unlimited resources, and scores of powerful ships and 20,000 well-armed soldiers.  In Ron Chernow’s book on Washington he said, “For some soldiers, their only weapons consisted of sharpened scythes fastened to poles, forming primitive spears” (p. 253). Washington lost NYC but in that struggle, he learned about himself, and somehow gained a new strength that eventually led his forces to victory at Yorktown.

Conclusion:

Perhaps the greatest example of an ordinary man facing a difficult challenge is seen in the garden of Gethsemane.  There Jesus, a man born of poor ordinary parents, was now challenged to save the world and die upon the cross.  He kneeled in the garden that night and Luke tells us that he was in such agony and distress that he prayed for the cup to pass from Him if possible and He sweats drops of blood, so great was His inner turmoil.

As we leave the Nightmare on Straight Street let us bid Anania’s farewell and leave determined that we too will face life’s difficult choices with courage and hope knowing God is with us all the way.

Desert Storm

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Desert Storm—Luke 4:1-13/Ps 91. DBC. March 10—Dr. Denny

Introduction:
        What were you doing on January 1991?  What was America doing on January 1991?  Let me jog your memory.  This was the year that we entered into a 60 billion dollar war.  That’s what it cost to conquer Saddam Hussein.  35 nations followed George Bush and the USA into battle to save Kuwait and conquer Iraq.  The war took 5 weeks.  There were 262 coalition casualties.  It was called Desert Storm.

Background:
         Now let’s step into another desert storm, the one mentioned with such gravitas in the book of Luke.  Here we find the Savior still dripping with the baptismal waters of the Jordan being led by the Spirit into the wilderness of Judeato face trials and temptations of the Devil.  And as we step onto the hot sands of the desert, we realize a truth all too common to people of all ages.  We are all prone to trials, testing, and temptations in our lives.  We must be prepared and we must guard ourselves against the certain attacks of the enemy.
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The wilderness of Judea into which Jesus walked is a place of majestic, silent beauty.  It begins near the city of Jerusalem and tumbles thousands of feet down to the Dead Sea. Moses stared humbly at this wilderness from the mountains of Moabto the east of the Dead Sea.  God, however, would not allow him to enter. But Jesus did venture into the wilderness, led by the Spirit and you and I must also enter daily for the life of a Christian is not void of trials.  We, like the Savior, must expect the devil to attack us daily, seeking our weaknesses, exploiting our frailties, striving to weaken our resolve to follow Jesus to the end.

The Judean wilderness where Jesus walked for 40 days is the home of one of the world’s oldest monasteries—Mar Saba.  If you could look down from the air you would see it perched precariously on the edge of the Kidron Valley midway between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea.  Built in the year 483 it houses today about 20 monks and is considered to be one of the world’s oldest monasteries.  It still maintains many of its ancient traditions. Mar Saba.jpg

It was into this rugged wilderness, the desert of Mar Saba, that Jesus wandered without food or water for 40 days fending off attacks by the Devil.  He studied the Savior and searched for weaknesses.

According to Luke, the devil knew Jesus was hungry and so he challenged him to turn the rocks into bread.  But Jesus said no.  Then the devil tempted him with power and fame.  ‘I will give you all the kingdoms of the world.’  But Jesus said no.  Then the devil tempted him to leap off the temple wall knowing the angels would come to his rescue.  But Jesus said no.

And so we too must learn to say NO! to the daily temptations that come our way.  And we can do this God’s help.

  *When was your last big test?  How did you handle it?  Did you fall apart?  Did you find your way through to success?

*The biggest test of my life did not come at my doctoral defense even though my best friend Phil Walker had gone into the room where the professors waited to grill all candidates for the doctor’s degree. And when he came out he was in tears. They had flunked his dissertation.  After many years of seminary work, he left without a degree. And as he passed me in shaking his head in utter disbelief, the door swung open and a boney hand from the lead professor summoned me in next.

No, the biggest trial of my life came at a much earlier time in my life.  I was just entering the second grade.  I had left Ms. White, my first-grade teacher behind in Sumpter South Carolina where I used to live in peace and tranquility.  And now I was in Japan and this was my first day in second grade with anew teacher I did not know or trust.  Her name was Ms. Mud and I think it was an appropriate name.

I sat near the back. I did not know anybody. I had no friends.  And then Ms. Mud made a declaration.  “All right, Class get out a sheet of paper.  We’re going to have a test.  I looked at her with my eyes blinking.  Ms. White didn’t give tests.  What is a test?  I squirmed uneasily.  “Number you page from 1-20.  I sighed with relief.  I did know my numbers.  I could probably count to 30.  I had this.

But then she started with something I did not understand.  She called out a word.  She said “our first word today is tree.  I noticed all the kids writing but I didn’t know what to write.  What did she want to know about trees?  I did like trees.  I had fallen out of one once.  I panicked. I didn’t know what to do.  So I just wrote YES!because I knew I did like trees.  But she kept going.  Our next word is DOG.  Everybody began writing.  I did like dogs.  I had a dog named Fluffy.  “YES! Our next word is GIRL.  By now I had it down.  Of course, I had no use for girls.  That was easy.  I wrote boldly the word NO.

When I was all down with the 20 words I turned in my test paper and waited for the verdict. Finally, she curled her finger at me like my doctoral professors and summoned me forward.  I came with high hopes. She stared at me hard with dark eyes and then scribbled a huge E on the paper.  I looked at the verdict and then smiled with such pride.  An Excellent on my fist test.  (It wasn’t until I got home that realized that than an E was a flunking grade).

Conclusion:
Tests and temptations come in all shapes and sizes.  None of us are immune to life’s trials.  Even Jesus faced them as we see so clearly in His Judean Wilderness experience.

Let’s close with the wondrous words of Ps 91, a Psalm for those under attack from the devil, for those of us in the midst of a desert storm.

In this amazing Psalm, we learn that God is our refuge and fortress in times of testing and temptation.  He builds an impenetrable wall about us.  He protects us.  He shelters us with His wings.   And he sends his angels to guard us in times of duress of temptation.

Each of these thoughts is a sermon in itself. God is our fortress—He shelters us with His wings—He sends His angels to watch over us.  Such powerful truths to help you and me through our wilderness wanderings, when we are under attack.