If you haven’t listened to All Glory Be to Christ by Kings Kaleidoscope please take a moment to do so. We will actually be singing this song together as a church for the first time this Sunday (12.12.21) One of the things that I love about this song is the simple truth that all glory belongs to Christ. It doesn’t matter what we do, without Christ we have nothing. It doesn’t matter how much we gain, without Christ we have nothing.

“Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.”
Psalm 127:1

Unless we seek Christ, unless we allow Him to do His work in us and through us, we labor in vain. Without Christ what do we have to boast in?

“Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit” – yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”
James 4:13-15

Outside of Christ, we have nothing to boast in. We can strive to make all the plans we want, but at the end of the day if it doesn’t align with the Lord’s will, what do we really have? That’s not to say that we cannot make plans, when doing so we must remember that God is ultimately in charge. It’s not my will be done, it’s His will be done.

Ultimately we should strive for not our will, but His will to be done. A well-known example is found in the Lord’s Prayer and when Jesus prayed in Gethsemane. “And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” (Matthew 26:39). Is that a request that you are willing to make? I know personally, I struggle with it at times. It can be difficult to pray for His will to be done. Despite the difficulty, Christ is so much greater. He is so much more glorious. Through Christ, we have everything that we could ever need. So take Him up on His invitation and come to the water.

“Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.”
Isaiah 55:1

If you have yet to take Him up on His offer, come to the water, consider Jesus’ words to the woman at the well…

“Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”
John 4:10

It’s a gift that is given without cost. It’s water that satisfies all thirsts. It’s water that gives such a great reward.

In Christ, we have the greatest reward, both now and in the future. Christ is our hope, the one that we can look back at what He has done and hold strong in the promises of what He will do.

“And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
Revelation 21:3-4

What a glorious day that will be. Through Christ, we are adopted into God’s Kingdom. Allow me to rephrase that, we are adopted into God’s Kingdom now and forever. No matter what may come our way in this life, in Christ, we have all that we will ever need. In Christ we have life. In Christ, we can go boldly throughout knowing that we are saved now and forevermore. What a beautiful message. What wondrous love that God would send His son to die for us sinners. That he would express his unconditional love for us and give us the water that we so desperately need.

Christ is worthy of all the glory that we can give. “Saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” (Revelation 5:12). To Christ belongs all glory. In all that you do, strive to glorify Christ. He is worthy of all the glory that we can give Him.

Likely by now, you have heard the news about what is happening in Afghanistan as the Taliban ravages through, killing, raping, and literally destroying lives and cities as they go. It has honestly been too much for me to imagine and I find myself in a bit of cognitive dissonance at times. As I study for my sermon on Habakkuk 2:6-20 this Sunday, a thought struck me that I wanted to flesh out a bit through this blog post: “we need a proper understanding of hell to help bring our souls comfort in times like this.” That may sound like a bizarre statement and I truly am not writing that for shock value. Let me offer two quick caveats to explain what I DO NOT mean before I explain what I DO mean.

CAVEATS
1. I am not saying that this is the ONLY truth we need in times like this, or even the most important truth in times like this. I just see this as an overlooked truth that can bring additional comfort from the Lord.

2. I am not trying to make the doctrine of hell seem less difficult to swallow. As a matter of fact, that is one of the last things I hope this article does. The truth about hell and those who will go there should make us tremble - always.

WHAT I DO MEAN
As we watch evil seemingly triumph and win the moment in Afghanistan, we find ourselves lacking words to say and yet full of doubts in God’s goodness and His nearness. This was the dilemma that Habakkuk faced as he thought about the destruction that the Babylonians would bring to his people in Judah. And He began to question whether or not God even cared. God’s response to Him in Habakkuk 2 was to remind him that evil will not go unpunished. God Himself would ensure that the Babylonians would receive just punishment for what they would do.

In all of our conversations about the goodness and love of God, if we forget to teach ourselves and our children that God is also perfectly just and does not overlook evil, not only will they have a shallow view of salvation, but they won’t be able to handle the atrocities of the world we live in. We must know and find comfort in the fact that our enemies will not win, they will face the Judge of the Universe one day and He will enact perfect justice.

Hell is a place that is known for fire, deep pits, and utter darkness. Those are terms that Scripture uses and while we cannot with certainty describe what Hell will look like, we know it to be the place that the wicked are cast - for eternity - where they will experience the wrath of God forever. And that for those in Christ, they will be welcomed into the presence of God where we will fully experience His goodness and glory for all eternity. That’s why Paul could say with certainty that “this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (2 Corinthians 4:17). On the flip side, that means that these ‘momentary’ victories that the wicked seem to be gaining are preparing for them an eternal weight of suffering and justice to be served to them.

While on the one hand, this is difficult to talk about, it should bring our souls tremendous comfort to know that “The Lord is in His Holy Temple” (Habakkuk 2:20), and “The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord.” (Habakkuk 2:14) as He one day eradicates evil from this world. He is not sleeping, He will return and “repay each one according to their deeds” (Romans 2:6). This does not mean we will not experience evil in this life. It means that God will repay the wicked for every evil deed and reward His children for enduring every evil deed. It means that “the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18).

The doctrine of hell should bring us comfort in these things. It should also cause us to pray for our enemies - yes, even the Taliban. As I read through Habakkuk 2:6-20 and saw all the evil and wickedness of Babylon, it made the evil of the Taliban hit home for me and I began to grow angry. But then, I remembered that I too was once a child of wrath, just like them (Ephesians 2:3). I too deserved the eternal punishment of hell for my sin against a holy God and yet, God in His kindness has redeemed me and showered me with His grace and Mercy.

I now have been given the charge to go into all the world and proclaim this Good News - yes, even to the Taliban. So we pray for their salvation, and we pray that God’s justice would be done in every situation, and we have complete confidence that He will ensure that to be true. We know that every deed done by mankind under the sun will either be forgiven by the grace of Jesus (because Jesus already bore the wrath for them) or repaid at His second coming through the eternal punishment of Hell. This truth should cause us to tremble and be comforted at the same time.

None of this allows us to sit back and throw off the responsibility we have to find ways to relieve the suffering of our brothers and sisters. None of this gets us ‘off the hook’ in any way, shape, or form. It does, however, give us an anchor for the soul that none of this is meaningless and God is not surprised, nor will evil win. We mourn with our brothers and sisters today and know that there is coming a day when Jesus will wipe away every tear, death and evil will be no more, and we will enjoy the goodness of the presence of the Lord forever.

There is so much more to be said, but let me end with this for now: Pray for your brothers and sisters in Afghanistan. Pray for the Taliban. Pray for God to fill the earth with His glory. Pray for Jesus to return soon.

Our church began a series through the book of Habakkuk this week where we are looking at questions regarding God’s justice and goodness in our world. It’s an age-old question to ask “if God is good and powerful, why does evil exist?” As we look around our world, we see evil, disease, natural disasters, and more around us that can cause us to wonder if God cares at all or if He is able to do anything about it.

But something struck me as I walked through the first 11 verses of the book of Habakkuk. The prophet’s first concern was not the evil out in the world, but the evil among God’s people. In the first 4 verses, as he pours out his first complaint before the Lord, his focus is on the evil within the people of Israel. He is going to eventually get to the evil in the world, but it seems his primary concern is the sin of God’s covenant people.

It got me thinking: do we really care about all evil? Often when we pour out our complaints to the Lord about the evil in our world, we are talking about the unsaved all around us who are committing terrible acts. But how often do we cry to the Lord about the sin among the people of God - or to make it more personal - the sin of the people in our local church. Better yet, how often are we grieved over the evil in our own hearts?

Habakkuk was grieved that the people of God were walking in constant sin and it didn’t seem that God was doing anything about it. When is the last time you cried out to the Lord over the sin in your own heart or the sin that you see in your brothers and sisters around you? When did you last add to your prayer list the sin that the people in your local church are struggling with?

If we are going to be a people who are truly concerned about the evil in the world, shouldn’t it start with an honest assessment of our own hearts and churches?

I’m not suggesting that we become judgemental and make our every prayer about the sin of the people around us. I am suggesting that we judge rightly with godly discernment and ask God to break our hearts over the sin that breaks His. Could it be that one of the reasons the Church seems to not take evil in the world seriously is because we don’t take the evil in our own hearts and homes seriously?

Here’s the good news - this conversation doesn’t end with guilt and shame. If we humble ourselves and truly repent before the Lord for the evil in our hearts and the sin in our lives, He always hears and forgives (1 John 1:9). When we get serious about dealing with sin in the camp, I believe the Lord honors those efforts. As a matter of fact, one of the purposes of the church is to help one another walk in holiness (Hebrews 10:24).

So let’s be grieved over the evil in our world around us, but let’s begin by grieving over the evil in our own hearts and in the lives of our brothers and sisters in Christ. And let us cry out to the Lord in repentance and ask Him to purge the evil from among us.

Yesterday I wrote a short blog about how many Christians abuse the phrase, “God told me.” That inspired me to think of a few other things that Christians often say either without much thought or simply because it’s something we’ve grown so familiar with, we’ve lost the meaning of it. As I said in my last post, I’m not trying to be nit-picky or single anyone out, but I do believe that the words we say matter. I also believe that sloppy speech leads to sloppy theology - and sloppy theology leads to sloppy living. Many of these are not wrong to say and can even have times that they are appropriate, but I want us to focus less on the statements themselves and more on the theology that's often behind them. Let’s get going.

1. “God is in this place.”
This is most often found in worship songs with lines such as “we invite you in this place.” One of God’s attributes is that He is omnipresent - which means as John Frame says that He is “in every place and time.” Frame also notes “To say that God is “present” is to say that he is here with us, really here, not absent.” We cannot ‘invite’ God anywhere, He is already there and will never require our permission.

“Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.”
Psalm 139:7-10

2. “That was a ‘God-thing!’”
Often after some prayer request is answered the way we desire, or something really important happens, we throw this one out there. Now the heart behind this one is most often right because we are trying to bring glory to God for the event that just took place. But when we only attribute this to the big, exciting events of life, we are acting as though there are things that God is in control of and things that He is not in control of. Or worse, we are saying that God is only responsible for the good things that happen, but is not in control when bad things happen. I’m not saying that this phrase is wrong and that we should never use it, but let’s make sure that we give glory to God in the small and hard things as much as the big amazing things.

3. “Church was amazing today!”
As a pastor, you can imagine that I wish everyone walked away on Sunday mornings saying this, but I also realize the danger in this mindset. Most often, we use this phrase when emotions were high and we left the service feeling happy and encouraged. We almost never use this phrase when we walk away from the gathering feeling convicted or when the pastor just wasn’t as energetic as we would like. The factors that often go into this statement rarely have anything to do with the main goals and purposes of a local church gathering. While there’s nothing wrong with this statement in itself, we should ask ourselves why we said that.

Here are some helpful questions to ask yourself when leaving a church service: Was Jesus Christ glorified during that service? Was the Word of God faithfully preached? Did we truly seek to encourage one another? Were the songs that we sang true about the character of God? Were our hearts seeking to magnify Christ or get a spiritual shot in the arm for the week? Those are not all the questions we should ask, but it’s a starting point. If you can answer yes to all of those, then church was indeed ‘awesome’ that day whether or not the band was ‘on point’ or the pastor was ‘engaging.’

4. “I wish God would show me a sign.”
I want to be sensitive with this one, but honestly, it’s really time for us to stop saying this. More importantly, it’s time for us to stop asking God for signs. He has already given you what you need in His Word to know how you should live. Asking for a sign is a good sign that you’re not doing the hard work of studying the Word, praying, and seeking to walk in the Spirit day by day. I know there are many people out there who are in really hard situations and you really aren’t sure of the way forward. Maybe you have been praying and seeking the Lord and things don’t seem any clearer now than they did at the beginning of all this. It could be that God is trying to teach you what He taught Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:9 - “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” It could be that He has you in a state of uncertainty in order to drive you to depend on Him more than you depend on having clarity and comfort in life.

That’s it for now. Maybe I’ll do another post like this in the future. If you’ve got a suggestion for more phrases Christians need to stop saying, send them my way by commenting on this post.

Something that Christians often say without giving it much thought is, “God told me.” There are variations to this such as: “God impressed on my heart,” "or “God spoke to me,” but the premise is the same. But I think this can be a very dangerous phrase at best and blasphemy at worst. I don’t believe that we intend to do either of those things, nor am I attempting to question the motives of anyone who uses those phrases or similar ones. I simply want us think more deeply about how we use such words. Let’s begin with words from a guy names Agur who was inspired by the Holy Spirit to write these words:

“Every word of God proves true;
he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.
Do not add to his words,
lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar.”
Proverbs 30:5-6

I believe these words should cause us to tremble whenever we are using the words “God told me.” If those words are not immediately followed by direct quotes from Scripture, you are seriously in danger of “adding to His words.” For example, if you said “God told me to not take His name in vain,” you would be quoting from God’s actual words in Exodus 20. But if you say something like “God told me to move to California,” you would be making a bold statement that god Himself said something to you that no-one else can verify. In other words, you would be claiming to have ‘special revelation’ from God Himself.

Does God still speak?
I’m often met with this question in response to the above explanation. Well-meaning Christians want to know that God still speaks to His children. My answer is often “Yes, He has spoken and continues to speak to us by His Spirit through His Word.” Or I will take them to Hebrews 1:1-2 - “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.” In other words, God speaks to us in accordance with His Word that He has already spoken. This should not scare us or make us feel helpless to face life’s decisions because His Word has given us everything we need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3). He guides us, not by telling us what city to move in, the name of our future spouse, what job interview to attend, etc, but by His Spirit through His Word to live lives that seek His glory above our own.

This provides us with immense freedom because we do not have to “wait on a word from the Lord” since He has already spoken and His Word is sufficient. Does the Holy Spirit still guide us? You bet He does, through the sufficient, inerrant, steadfast Word of God already spoken to us - and as Agur has told us “Every word of God proves true.” I don’t have to say things like “I feel like God is telling me…” I can confidently say, “The Lord has said.”

I know there are some of my charismatic friends who will disagree with some of what I’ve presented here and I am not accusing them of seeking to add to the word of the Lord. I am simply begging us to be very careful to utter “God said” when He has not. One thing I do know, I don’t have to be careful in proclaiming “God said” when I am reading His Word.

The next time you are about to say “God told me” I pray you will evaluate the next words out of your mouth according to the Words already written down for us.