A common concern that many Christian parents have regarding the teaching of God’s Word at a Sunday church service is, “What kind of teaching is there for my child’s learning level?”

Churches will often try to address this concern with one of the following 3 solutions:

• A brief children’s lesson during the Sunday service
• Excusing the children to their own class during the pastor’s sermon in the Sunday service
• Children are dropped off at an entirely separate children’s service for the duration of the Sunday worship service.

Although pastors/elders and Sunday school teachers of the local church are to be the most trusted and equipped Bible teachers in the church, the Bible is clear that God has equipped parents to be the most affective at teaching their children in a way they can understand (see Deuteronomy 6:4-9, Deuteronomy 6:20-25, Colossian 3:20-21).

Parents should know their children’s tendencies, learning methods, and specific educational needs more than any other public-school teacher, Sunday school teacher, pastor, or professional by nature of being the ones who have spent the most time with their children throughout their lifetime.

If parents are concerned about children learning the Bible on a level they can understand, then they need to prioritize the responsibility parents have to teach their children the Bible within the walls of their own home first and foremost. Anything the church can offer by way of children’s or youth ministries should be secondary and supplementary to what the parents are able to offer in the home.

When parents take this responsibility seriously, there will naturally be less pressure being put on the pastor or Sunday school teachers to be the primary spiritual educators of their children. Parents who diligently disciple their children in the home consistently throughout the week will also be able to enjoy the Sunday service together as a family unit in an entirely different way, because both the parents and children will not arrive to church on Sunday after being spiritually starved throughout the week.

For parents who feel they are not qualified to teach their children the Bible; there are many resources available for them to be able to learn alongside their children. I suggest parents to:

• use various kinds of devotionals
• catechisms
• read the Bible together
• sit together in church to hear the sermon together
• pray at mealtimes together
• utilize everyday moments to have spiritual conversations
• and they can always talk to their local church pastors and leaders for more ideas.

Parents teaching their children the truths of God’s Word is not just about having the knowledge, but it is probably even more about children being able to observe that their parents’ faith is genuine and being lived out on their own lives.
Children should see their Christians parents:

• regularly reading God’s Word
• praying
• living a Christian-moral lifestyle
• enjoying going to Sunday worship services
• and serving in their local church family

If the parents are doing these things then they are effectively teaching their children on a level they can understand.

The American church has, in many ways, gone the way of the American culture. One of those ways that I want to focus on is the trend of the past 20-30 years of emerging children’s and youth ministries and how it has damaged the work of the local church. The American government is always looking for ways to provide for its citizens in ways so that the citizens won’t have to provide for themselves. We see this in the way of: free lunches at public schools, welfare, financial aid, forgiven student loans, and public education. Of course, all of these resources offered by the government are very much a godsend to those who genuinely need it. However, we have also seen an abuse of all these services and how it has truly exhausted the country’s finances, and in turn, place a greater burden on its citizens in many ways. The reason I am using this as an example is because the American church has followed very similar and unfortunate trends. Sunday school classes, which originated in the 18th century in England during a time when working children were able to get a free education on Sundays (a non-workday) provided by the local church, have been a longtime traditional staple in American churches for parents to send their children to learn Bible lessons. One thing to clarify, I am not advocating for abolishing all children’s and youth ministry programs in local churches, I am hyper-focusing on the issue that, because of the prevalence of these ministries, children of all ages have been wrongly absent in Sunday worship services from most churches for a long time now.

As a result of children in churches spending much of their childhood and adolescence not observing their own parents regularly in the worship services, the statistics of children who supposedly “grew-up” going to church are largely denying the Christian faith altogether at climbing rates as they enter adulthood.

I certainly advocate for Sunday school classes that occur either before or after the worship service, but I am convinced that it is clear, biblically, that children should participate in the worship services with their parents as a normative practice. As a result of children regularly sitting with their parents during the worship services, we would see an overall much healthier trend in the Christian households and local churches in America.

Here are 5 reasons that I can think of, biblically, as to why children (of all ages) should regularly be in the worship services with their parents:

1. To emphasize the parent’s biblical role in their children’s lives

“These words I am giving you today are to be in your heart. Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”
Deuteronomy 6:6-7

When parents are able to simply pass-off their children to the nursey, children’s ministry, or youth group during the worship service, they are essentially teaching their children that the worship service is not for them. Although Deuteronomy 6:6-7 is not necessarily referring to a worship service, it is making the point clear that it is the parent’s responsibility to spearhead the spiritual teachings for their family. The vast majority of professing Christian parents do not hold consistent devotionals with their children at home or even regularly practice teaching a biblical worldview to their children during the week. It is safe to say that it is far more common for the entirety of a child’s biblical education is restricted only to what they learn on Sunday mornings (or midweek youth groups).

When parents sit with their children in the worship service, their role as the spiritual leaders in their children’s lives is emphasized because then the entire worship center would ideally be filled with entire families sitting together in the worship service. It is no longer the children’s teacher or youth pastor’s job to make sure that other people’s children pay attention and behave during church, it is the parent’s responsibility.

2. To positively hold parents accountable (positive peer pressure)

“Be on your guard against false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravaging wolves. You’ll recognize them by their fruit…A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot produce good fruit.”
Matthew 7:15-18

When parents sit in the worship service with their children, it serves as a form of positive peer pressure. Parents who are not used to regularly sitting in worship services with their young children, are often embarrassed by their children’s behavior, because they are not used to sitting with the adults during church. The children’s ministries and youth groups do a great job of entertaining them and making church fun while they are attempting to teach them spiritual truths from God’s Word. The main problem with this, is that the parents and the local church is setting themselves up for failure in that they are conditioning the younger generations to believe that church has to be entertaining for them in order for them to benefit from it. This mentality has also resulted in many adult worship services being largely focused more on entertainment than on an environment of Christ-exalting, biblical, worship.

The positive peer pressure for parents to sit with their children in the worship service should begin on that Monday before the Sunday service. Parents should be mindful of how they are (or not) prioritizing Christ in their home during the week, and not just waking up on Sunday morning after not hearing any form of biblical teaching or Christ-centered conversations from their parents and expecting their children to automatically behave during church. Part of children being with their parents in the worship service is that it is an opportunity for them to see their parents passionately desire to worship God and to hear His Word preached. As a pastor, it is painfully obvious many times when parents are sitting in a worship service and are the least bit interested to be there. Families worshipping together allows opportunities for positive peer pressure to take effect because it should make Christian parents more mindful of what their children are seeing in their behavior between the walls of their home and the walls of the church.

3. To have a more biblical representation of the local church

But to all who did receive him, he gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in his name”
John 1:12

As Christian parents should naturally seek for their children to receive Christ by faith, sitting together in the worship services reinforces the fact that no matter what age they are able to repent of their sins and place their trust in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, they undoubtedly become another member of the family of God. They are, essentially, a brother/sister in Christ to their earthly parents!

When children are confined to living out their church lives with other children and a select few adults who are their Sunday school teachers, they get the view that they only belong around other children their age. The community they actually belong to is much larger than they think, but they would never know that because they are only spending time around other children.

Children should also learn that there are many other godly adults in the church that can minister to their souls besides their parents. Likewise, the adults in the church should be able to identify who the children are in their midst and to recognize the families that make up the congregation.

4. To convince parents they can do what they are supposed to do

“Children, obey your parents in the Lord, because this is right…Fathers, don’t stir up anger in your children, but bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.”
Ephesians 6:1-4

Parents often feel ill-equipped to be the spiritual leaders in their homes. They often compare their biblical knowledge with that of pastors, theologians, church leaders, and Sunday school teachers. By sitting in church with their children, parents can be encouraged that God equips them for the job they are to do as Christian parents. Parents don’t need to have all the answers for their children when bringing them up in the training and instruction of the Lord. In fact, I believe it is more significant that children see within the walls of their home that their parent’s love and desire for God is genuine in the form of observing them in regular-personal devotions, prayer, and commitment to Christian conduct.

Including children in the worship services reinforces to parents and families that everyone is able to benefit from hearing the preaching of God’s word together as a family. For those who are not old enough to understand the sermon or do not have much knowledge of the Scriptures, can rest assured that their parents heard the same thing that they heard, and can ask them questions later. Even when parents do not have the answers for the questions their children ask, they are still modeling a healthy model of what it means to learn together by sitting together in the worship services.

Something that parents should always be able to share with their children is how God is actively shaping their lives. In Deuteronomy 6:20-25, God instructs the parents that, when their children start asking questions about their faith, they are to simply share what they observed God do in their ancestors lives in the form of freeing them from Egypt through miraculous means. Certainly, any Christian parent should be constantly aware of the ways they have seen God deliver them from sin and death. This does not mean they need to share every detail if it is inappropriate, but they can tailor their testimony to their own children as is appropriate for them.

5. To evangelize to unbelieving guests & visitors

If there is one aspect of the American culture at large that is severely suffering, it is the family unit. The rates of divorce, single-parent homes, absent fathers, abuse, foster care, adoption, learning disabilities, behavioral problems, and homelessness, are ever-increasing and are the source of much of the stress that families are suffering from. Christian families sitting together in worship services can serve as an excellent form of evangelism for any unbelieving guests and visitors in the worship service. As Christians are called to be the “salt and light” in the world, one of the most effective ways we can do that is by modeling God’s goal for the family. By normalizing families together in worship services, the unbelievers in the midst can observe parents who actually love being around their children!
Even for any blended families or single-parent families that my be present among the Christians in the church, they too are a biblical example to the unbelievers in that they are proof that God is able to redeem anyone from any situation and they are made acceptable in His sight only because of the atoning work of Jesus Christ on the cross!

The lost souls in this world need a place where they can see what hope, mercy, and grace looks like. One of the best ways they should expect to see those things is within the walls of a church during their worship services.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

Parents, one of the best ways you can love your children as God intends is by prioritizing your homelife around Christ so that they are better prepared to sit with you during Sunday services. They need to see you singing, listening, and enjoying the worship service. Most of all, they need to see that it is genuine! Your children know better than anyone else on earth what is truly important to you. They likely have seen you at your best and your worse within privacy of your home. Take your role as your children’s spiritual leader seriously and know that God is gracious in you are constantly learning and growing into that role.

 It is interesting to see how God capped off the ten commandments with one that almost summarizes all 10. To covet (passionately desire) what belongs to someone else, or whatever does not belong to you, can so easily lead one to disobey any of the other 9 commandments. Perhaps that is why there is no specific penalty in the Law of Moses for covetousness of a neighbor’s possessions, because the penalty will likely result from the other 9 commandments that coveting leads to.

The tenth commandment is not just about being content with whatever God has providentially given you, but it is also to be fully satisfied and grateful for how He has chosen to provide for you. The blessings in your life will often look different from the blessings in other people’s lives. Why should we compare God’s blessings to one another? I am convinced that I cannot truly and genuinely rejoice with someone else in their blessings if I am harboring any covetousness of them in my own heart. When I covet my neighbor’s blessings, I am despising God’s loving providence in my own life. I would essentially be saying to God, “What you gave me is not good enough”.

Also, if I am not able to truly rejoice with someone else, it makes me think of how uncomfortable it would be for me if my friends weren’t able to rejoice with me when I am blessed in various ways. If I felt that my friends were resentful of my blessings, then I would feel that I would not be able to share what God is doing in my life with them, and that would be a great discouragement to me if I were not able to share about that.

When someone is healed, rejoice! When someone gets a much-needed job, rejoice! When someone is provided with a home, rejoice!

All in all, I believe one of the most significant lessons we can take away from the tenth commandment is: Covet Christ. Just as the individuals in the nation of Israel were to be fully satisfied each in their own provisions that God had given them, Christians are to be fully satisfied in Christ. Christians are also to be constantly seeking a deeper satisfaction in Christ by pursuing holiness and striving to purge all evil that exists in our lives. We are to never be content with sin that remains in our proverbial camp. Seek out your sin. Expel it, as you can only do so with the empowerment of the Spirit of Christ that is in you (Romans 8).

Here are just a few reflection questions for you to consider this week:

• In what ways has your heart and life displayed a discontent in your spiritual maturity?
• Has a hunger and thirst for righteousness been evident in your life lately?
• How does your contentment (or discontentment) compare to your desire for more earthly pleasures and possessions?
• What are some ways you have been ungrateful for God’s loving providence in your life? What kinds of provisions do you tend to overlook?
• Where would you currently place yourself on the spectrum below?

“And the people complained in the hearing of the LORD about their misfortunes, and when the LORD heard it, his anger was kindle, and the fire of the LORD burned among them and consumed some outlying parts of the camp.” – Numbers 11:1

                We are all guilty of complaining at some point in our lives. It begins at the very early stages of our lives as infants and toddlers when we begin complaining about the snacks and toys that we wanted but didn’t get. Unfortunately, it continues in our lives as adults! We can often complain about how the current politics are affecting our daily lives, our spouses not putting the dishes away, our children’s misbehavior, or even the aches and pains that can often make our lives more difficult than we feel it should be.

                In the case of the Israelites, they were complaining about their “misfortunes”, which later is revealed to be their desire for more food (they have been eating manna everyday for every meal since being freed from Egypt). Aside from complaining about God freeing them from SLAVERY to Egypt, another major issue is that they had the audacity to claim that life was better in Egypt than in the wilderness with God! One of my favorite parts about this story in Numbers 11 is when God promises to give them so much quail to eat for an entire month that it will be “coming out of their nostrils” (which I want to say that this is the origin of the famous quote used today).

                In the end, the people get exactly what they want (kind of). Their complaint was that life was essentially better before God saved them, and were seeking meat to fill their stomachs, instead of the eternal security that only God could provide them. As a result, they got the meat they craved, but it came at the cost of their very lives. God’s judgment for the generation that was complaining was that they would all die before the nation of Israel ever stepped foot in the land that God promised them. God refused to let anyone who believed that life was better as a slave to enter His promised land.

                The people’s craving for meat revealed a deeper issue in their hearts: they didn’t crave a relationship with God.

Proverbs 17:1 is true in this case when it says, “Better is a dry morsel with quiet than a house full of feasting with strife.”

                The Israelites did not value the peaceful relationship they could have had with God, even if it meant eating only manna for forty years (the dry morsel in Proverbs 17:1). Instead, they craved the feasting of meat (likened to various foods they had as slaves in Egypt) at the cost of having strife with a holy God.

                Likewise, Romans 6:20-23 says,
“For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

                As sinners saved by God’s grace, we can never afford to forget that life is always better when in a reconciled relationship with God. When we complain about the “dry morsels” of this life, I believe it is helpful to have the perspective that no matter how much we have in this life, it will always be like dry morsels compared to the riches in the kingdom of heaven that we will all inherit as sons and daughters of the King! When contemplating what our complaints are about, we will likely be able to see the deeper longing of those complaints. Do our complaints reveal a desire to attain perishable riches independent from having a personal relationship with God? Or do our complaints fall in line with a true desire to want to be in a closer relationship with God?

Our life is never better off without God!

If you have not already done so, give up the desire to “feast” in this life as if there is nothing beyond that, and experience the joy of what dry morsels can bring when you are at peace with the God who created you and loves you. Put your faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins and salvation of your soul, and you will feast in heaven for eternity!

18 “What profit is an idol
when its maker has shaped it,
a metal image, a teacher of lies?
For its maker trusts in his own creation
when he makes speechless idols!
19 Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, Awake;
to a silent stone, Arise!
Can this teach?
Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver,
and there is no breath at all in it. – Habakkuk 2:18-19

Ephesus was a city known for its worship of many Greek gods and goddesses. In fact, the Temple of Artemis (the ruins are still there today!) is one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. When Paul preached the Gospel there and the people received the Holy Spirit and were baptized, it was an immediate threat to the idol/god-makers because the worship of an invisible God was going to put them out of business! In Acts 19, we read of Demetrius, who made silver shrines of the goddess Artemis, rallied together all the other god-makers, and convinced them that they needed to stop Paul and the “The Way” so that their businesses would not be jeopardized, and that Artemis would not be regarded as worthless.

God spoke through the prophet Habakkuk regarding the punishment of Judah for their constant involvement with false gods and idol worship. Israel and Judah had access to the One and only Living God, yet they had become easily distracted by the deception of gods that were made by the hands of other men.

The Greeks in Ephesus were deceived into believing that their handmade gods possessed real-supernatural powers. The Israelites were saved from Egypt, who also thought that their handmade gods possessed supernatural powers. When the Israelites were brought out of slavery to Egypt, God’s first command to them was “you shall not have any other gods before Me”.

As Christians, we were all brought out of slaver to our sin, which also involved the worship of false gods and idols. We are not all that far from Ephesus today! All around us are handmade gods and idols that beg for our attention and loyalty. I am reminded from an episode of the show The Simpsons, where the characters on billboards and store advertisement signs came alive due to the amount of attention people were giving to them. What was the secret to defeating them? Simply looking away. In this episode, all these inanimate objects immediately fell down lifeless as soon as people stopped paying attention to them.

I think this is a great illustration of the power (and the lack of power) that false gods and idols can have in our lives, all depending upon how much power we give them through our attention and loyalty.

Those who have been renewed by the power of Christ by faith in Him have literally turned their loyalty and attention away from all the lifeless gods and idols that we used to depend on as a source of live-giving spirit and fulfillment.

Money, TV, video games, hobbies, life experiences, alcohol, drugs, occupations, and food are all examples of creations of this world that are lifeless in and of themselves, but their value to us is fully dependent upon whatever value we are willing to give them.

God, the Creator of all things, is different. His value is not dependent upon us or how many people worship Him. No matter what, God is worthy of our worship! Those who deny that fact (thus denying Him) will come to realize their fatal error on the day they are judged for their sins and unrighteousness (Isaiah 45:22-24). Ignoring God does not simply make Him go away.

False gods are dependent upon us to give them life and purpose. With God, we are dependent upon Him to give us life and purpose!

Jesus said He came so that we may have life and have it fully! That life is promised to all those who put their faith and trust in Him for the forgiveness of sins. As Christians, we rely upon the righteousness of Jesus to save us, not our own. We are unable to give ourselves eternal life, but it is Jesus who gives it freely to all those who come to Him.

Got questions? Email me at corwin@fbcwintrhopharbor.church.

Reflection questions
What are some ways you have shifted your focus from treasuring the things in this world to treasuring Christ and knowing Him?

How are you still tempted to give your attention and loyalty to things that are not truly life-giving?

What kinds of reminders can you think of during times of temptation that can help you resist giving into them again?

“If only you had paid attention to My commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea.” -Isaiah 48:18

The context of this passage comes when God is speaking to Israel about their continual disobedience to God and the reasons for their current state of suffering for their sins. Chapter 48 concludes with the promise of restoration and redemption for Israel, not by Israel’s own doing, but by God’s grace and mercy.

These words of God have implications both for life on earth as well as life eternal in heaven.
There will be plenty of instances in our lives where we will say, “If only…” and we can only hope and pray that God will use those moments to teach us about the importance of continually seeking to live obedient lives to the God that saved us from our sins and the punishment of them.

We can complete the “If only…” statement in so many ways:
“If only…
… I had followed God’s plan for sex and marriage.”
… I had followed God’s commands for friendships.”
… I had taken God’s warnings seriously.”
… I had a better grasp of my anger issues.”
… I had taken care of my body as a temple of the Holy Spirit.”
… I had been the kind of parent that God commands me to be in Scripture.”
… I had been more forgiving.”

It’s easy to dwell on the “if only…” statements and allow them to haunt us and continually leave us feeling condemned or doomed, but we must take to heart how Isaiah 48 ends; with redemption! However, it is important to recognize the next statement of the verse, “your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness as the waves of the sea.”

Rivers in the Old Testament are often used as a metaphor for their steady and constant nature. To have “peace like a river” is likely meant to cause the reader/hearer to imagine the quietness of a steady flowing river, that is free from obstructions and rapids. To have “righteousness like the waves of the sea” is likely to bring to mind the overflowing abundance of the ocean waves (being from California, the ocean waves is one of the things I miss the most!) God promises to fill those with His righteousness who hunger and thirst for it. Jesus said, “I come so that you may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10)

When look back on our “if only…” moments in life, we can often easily see how if only we had remained obedient to God’s instructions, it would have resulted in peace, not discord. Even though we are saved from the punishment of our sins through Jesus Christ’s atoning sacrifice on the cross, we cannot deny that we still suffer the consequences of our sins, in one way or another, here on earth. When we fall into sin, we are sure to rob ourselves of the peace of God that He promises to those who obey Him. We are left to suffer through and learn from the consequences of those actions, and it should humble us to the point to where we run back into obedience to God.

We also rob ourselves of the righteousness of God when we sin against Him. As Christians, we are to live as Christ would live (hence, Christ-ians). God’s people are called to be holy as He is holy. In this sense, we are robbing ourselves of the righteousness of God in the sense that we are not properly representing His holy name when we sin against Him.

Fortunately, the good news about our "if only..." moments in life, is that there is always redemption for those who put their trust in Jesus. The redemption may not be evident as immediate as other moments, but it is a promise of God that He will cause all things to work for the good of those who love Him.

It should be evident that God offers us peace and His righteousness to us in this life on earth, but the bigger picture of it all should be our focus on the promise of redemption from all the ways we failed to pay attention to God’s commands. I might complete the “if only…” statement with, “If only…but God.”

If only we had kept God’s commands perfectly, but God knew that we would fail and He chose to save us from our sins. Do you see the beauty of Isaiah 48? God makes it clear to them all the reasons why they should mourn over their disobedience to Him, and as their hearts are changed to mourn for their sins, God responds to their humility by restoring and redeeming them back into His blessing.

As Christians, we have no fear of falling out of God’s eternal blessing, because Jesus’ death and resurrection was for sins for all time (Hebrews 10:12). God promises to cause us to be more and more obedient to Him until the day we die and go to Him. It is when we are with Him in heaven when we can say for eternity, “I have peace like a river and righteousness like the waves of the sea” and there will be no “If only…” statements anymore!

My encouragement to Christians is try ask themselves when they are faced with temptation, “will this be one of those ‘if only…’ moments?” God promises a way out of all temptation (1 Corinthians 10:13) if we rely upon Him to strengthen us.

My encouragement to everyone else (those who do not currently have the forgiveness of their sins through faith in Jesus), put your faith in Him today! For those who suffer God’s wrath for eternity in hell will not be crying out, “If only…!”, rather they will be weeping in their sorrows and gnashing their teeth in anger at the God who is punishing them. There is no repentance in hell, but only a further and eternal hardening of one’s heart against God. Put your trust in Jesus and follow Him before your “if only…” moments run out.

16 “For God so loved the world,[a] that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. – John 3:16-18

From a long background in both the Christian faith and martial arts environments, I have often compared churches to martial arts academies that offer cardio kickboxing classes. When a martial arts academy is more concerned about filling their space with students quickly, they will often offer cardio kickboxing classes. This seems to be an easy way to get (mostly) women signed up who simply want to lose some weight and get in a good-sweaty workout. They aren’t necessarily interested in learning the traditional martial art that is taught at the academy, but are mostly concerned about finding a place for them to lose weight and feel good about themselves.

I have been fortunate enough to train in Brazillian Jiu Jitsu, primarily under Crosley Gracie, where the art of Brazillian Jiu Jitsu is taken very seriously. When someone visits a traditional BJJ academy, they can expect to learn the proper teachings of the martial art, and not some cardio-version of it to just give people a good workout. The same goes for actual kickboxing academies, those who are truly interested in learning kickboxing will learn how to properly: punch, kick, block, and move, so that they would actually understand what it means to participate in the sport of kickboxing. One of the dangers of cardio-kickboxing classes, is that they will often mislead its participants into believing they really know how to punch, kick, block, and move just like real kickboxers. This is really quite dangerous, because if a woman believes that she knows how to defend herself effectively based on her cardio kickboxing experience, then that belief will most likely be more of a liability to her than a help to her. She has essentially been given a false hope that will not truly stand up to a real test of self-defense.

I’m not saying that martial arts academies shouldn’t offer cardio kickboxing classes in the interest of helping people lose weight and feel better about themselves, I am just using these types of classes as an example to compare it to something that is much more significant; the Church.
Many churches today are offering the equivalent to cardio kickboxing classes at martial arts academies. They are often more concerned about growing in numbers rather than being confident in the pure message of the Gospel and Word of God. Many preachers are too concerned about offending visitors and unbelievers with what the Bible teaches, and will often focus on speaking more about pragmatic ways of being a better and nicer person than the focus being on sin and the exclusivity of salvation through Christ alone by faith alone. Many churches also place much more of an emphasis on humanitarian efforts than thoroughly studying doctrine and theology. Don’t get me wrong, Christians are supposed to be the best humanitarians in the sense of loving our neighbors as ourselves. However, I have personally seen many churches love teaching about what it means to love our neighbors, but seldom teach about what it means to love God.

Again, it is not wrong to teach how Christians are to love their neighbors, but the danger I see is the prevalent avoidance of teaching on the holiness of God and what it means to love Him first and foremost. Churches that avoid teaching what it means to love God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength will often find themselves changing their stances on cultural moral issues for the sake of “loving their neighbor”. This is what will inevitably happen when a church is focused more on loving their neighbor than loving God, they will allow their neighbors to dictate what is morally right and wrong, and when the pressure becomes too great, the church will almost predictably conform to their neighbor’s moral stance.

When a person walks into a martial arts academy who has a genuine desire to learn the traditional form of that martial art, they should be able to observe the students there training how they ought to. Similarly, when someone enters a church, they should expect to be able to observe how Christians ought to worship. In addition to that, when an unbeliever attends a church, they should be able to expect to learn biblical doctrine and theology from that church’s teachings, so that if they reject the Christian faith (thus rejecting Christ), they are rejecting the purity of God’s Word. If they fin that God is calling them to Himself, then they should be able to be confident to remain at that church so that they can learn from proper biblical teachings. Many people are attending churches today that are offering them teachings equivalent to cardio kickboxing classes; teachings that simply make them feel good about themselves, and tell them how to be a “better” person, without first teaching them that they are utterly depraved from their sinful nature and only redemption through the blood of Christ can make them “good”.

Similar to the woman who believes she can effectively defend herself based on her cardio kickboxing experience, those who attend churches that offer spiritual cardio kickboxing classes are deceived in the same way that when their faith is truly tested, they will find that the watered down teachings they have been receiving are inept to stand the test, and they will be left floundering and wondering why everything they learned is not working for them.

As a pastor, I am not interested in filling the church with people who have no interest in hearing Biblical teachings. I believe that when unbelievers come to our worship service, they deserve to be able to observe a group of Christians who display a reverence for God, the Bible, and what it truly means to worship this God we claim we love. Although I don’t think this will necessarily make the Church more popular, but it should at least be more attractive to those who are truly seeking an understanding of who God is, Christian or not.

Several years ago, I repented of the ways that I felt I was offering spiritual cardio kickboxing classes through my ministry philosophy and teachings. What I found was that I was not putting confidence in the purity of the Word of God to speak life into people’s lives and be a potential sword of division between those who opposed it. Instead, I was constantly trying to find ways to convince everyone that they would like the Bible’s teachings, and that resulted in me watering down the more difficult truths that are throughout Scripture (for example, the fact that loving God is an essential quality of a true Christian), and emphasizing that more acceptable teachings of “how to be a good person”.

My encouragement to both Christians and non-Christians out there, find a church that is not necessarily trying to impress you, but rather love you so much that they are not willing to compromise the message of the Gospel and the Bible so as to not offend you. When you observe their worship, it should be more apparent that they love God more than they love you being there. It should be as if their worship of God and teaching of the Bible is not dependent upon who is there and not there.

If you are reading this and you are not a Christian, the Church owes it to you not to compromise the foundation of the Gospel message, that you (like the rest of us) are a sinner who naturally is rebelling against God, and the only hope you have to escape God’s righteous judgment of your rebellion against your Creator is to humble yourself and understand that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was the only One who was able to atone for your sins by dying in your place. He rose again, proving that He is God, and essentially proving that only God Himself is righteous enough to meet His own holy standard. If you place your faith in the goodness of Christ, and not in yourself, only then God can forgive you of your sins and grant you eternal life in heaven. If not, you are essentially rejecting God’s offer of forgiveness and will, therefore, pay the penalty of your sins which is eternal judgment in hell, suffering the wrath of God (John 3:16-18).

Don’t go to a church that offers you a false hope through spiritual cardio kickboxing. Find a church that offers you the real thing.

How should we understand the killing of sinful people in the Old Testament through the lens of the Gospel?

As we come to understand the definition of murder to be: the killing of a human being apart from the instruction and authority of God, there is certainly a lot to consider. In this past Sunday’s sermon, we covered how this definition of murder has implications for various situations like: physical acts of murder, hatred, anger, abortion, death penalty, law enforcement, military/wars, euthanasia, accidental “manslaughter”, and more. Ultimately, one of the main conclusions that I wanted to make through Scripture, was that, any killing of another human being in the Old Testament was to be done first and foremost in fear of the LORD, and not for one’s own pursuit of personal vengeance or justice. When Israelites were commanded to stone someone or put them to death for their sin, it was to be done with great fear and trembling. Putting a fellow Israelite to death was not supposed to be a pleasurable experience for those casting the stones. It should have been an event filled with great sorrow, grief, and fear that they were doing the right thing in God’s eyes. The same goes for when God commanded Israel to utterly destroy their enemies in battle. The killing of women and children was not something that the Israelite soldiers would have wanted to do (hence whey they failed to do it so often, thus disobeying God), but they were to obey God in this way because of what those people of other nations represented: godlessness, unrighteousness, and sinfulness.

Psalm 106:34-39 illustrates pretty well what God wanted to save the Israelites from by having them destroy all their enemies:
34    They did not destroy the peoples,
as the Lord commanded them,
35    but they mixed with the nations
and learned to do as they did.
36    They served their idols,
which became a snare to them.
37    They sacrificed their sons
and their daughters to the demons;
38    they poured out innocent blood,
the blood of their sons and daughters,
       whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan,
and the land was polluted with blood.
39    Thus they became unclean by their acts,
and played the whore in their deeds. [1]

God sought for Israel to he holy as He is holy. When we read about the killings of sinful people and nations in the Old Testament, we must remember that those killings were to be done in direct obedience to God, as He alone is the perfect Judge of human life. God’s people were never to take another person’s life into their own hands without consulting God about it first.
So this brings us to the overall purpose of what I am writing to you about; How should we understand the killings of sinful people in the Old Testament through the lens of the Gospel?

Let’s take a look at Scripture:
Matthew 5:43-48
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.[2]

Here we see that Jesus commands His disciples to love their enemies. This would have been shocking to hear for them since much of Israel’s history was all about hating their enemy nations that were attacking them. In addition, King David is recorded many times in the Psalms literally praying for the destruction of those who are against him. So what does Jesus mean now when He says we are to love our enemies?

We need to take a closer look at how He ends this teaching when He says, “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect”. The perfect love of God is the only kind of love that knows how to love its enemies (Romans 6:23). Furthermore, I believe Jesus is preparing His
 disciples for the new era that is about to begin with His resurrection, when He says to His disciples, “Go and make disciples of all the nations…”. The Jews who follow Jesus are no longer supposed to view people of other nations as their enemies, because they will be tasked to take the Gospel message to them. Jesus first ministered to the Jews, and then the Gentiles/Greeks. The Apostle Paul echoes this pattern when he states how the Gospel is salvation to all those who believe, first to the Jews, then to the Greeks (Romans 1:16).

If we are not to hate other people, then what made it okay for the people in the Old Testament to kill those who were sinners? The answer to this question is better understood when we read in the New Testament how our hatred is to be directed.

Romans 12:9
Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.[3]

We are told to literally hate evil. This verse comes in the context of the importance of seeking to live at peace with those around us. Just as the Israelites in the Old Testament were to hate evil so much that it would not stop them from carrying out God’s justice against sinners, Christians today are to hate evil with the same intensity. However, we must be very careful that our hatred of evil does not translate into the hatred of another human being made in the image of God. So the next question would be, how are we to correctly hate evil?

I think Hebrews 12:1 says it well, “lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us…” We should be constantly seeking the destruction of our sin that hinders us from living the holy life that God calls us to. Of course, we will never achieve that holiness until we are made new in our life in heaven, but our knowledge and understanding of God’s love for us through Christ is what fuels our desire for our striving after holiness.

The Apostle Paul writes a warning to the Corinthians in regard to the dangers of willfully living in sin, “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith, examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Christ Jesus is in you – unless indeed you fail the test?” (2 Corinthians 13:5).

When we have a holy hatred for sin, we are exercising a proper view of sin being our “enemy”. First Corinthians 15 calls the last enemy of God “death” (1 Corinthians 15:26), which is mentioned again in Revelation 20 when it foretells the future of death and Hades being thrown into the Lake of Fire. Furthermore, Paul writes clearly about death being the end result of sin (Romans 5:20-21), and so does James (the half-brother of Jesus) in his letter when he says, “…when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.” (James 1:15).

So the next time you read a Psalm of David like this one regarding his enemy:
6  Appoint a wicked man against him;
let an accuser stand at his right hand.
7    When he is tried, let him come forth guilty;
let his prayer be counted as sin!
8    May his days be few;
may another take his office!
9    May his children be fatherless
and his wife a widow!
10    May his children wander about and beg,
seeking food far from the ruins they inhabit!
11    May the creditor seize all that he has;
may strangers plunder the fruits of his toil!
12    Let there be none to extend kindness to him,
nor any to pity his fatherless children!
13    May his posterity be cut off;
may his name be blotted out in the second generation!
14    May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the Lord,
and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out!
15    Let them be before the Lord continually,
that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth! [4]

We are no longer permitted to pray this way concerning other human beings, but we are obligated to pray this way concerning our own sinfulness and the sinfulness that is in the world. It should be the longing of our hearts to see this world seek after the righteousness of God and to place their faith in Christ for their salvation so that they would see their sin utterly destroyed on the cross.

When we read about the killings of sinful people in the Old Testament (God’s smiting, Israelites being stoned to death, enemy nations being destroyed), we must first remember that we are all deserving of death, in God’s perfect justice, but it is His grace and patience that allows us to continue to breath. For those who already fear God and have their faith firmly in Christ, each breath we take is to be done in worship to Him. For the unbelievers, every breath they take is another opportunity for them to repent of their sin and put their faith in Jesus for their salvation. Secondly, we must remember that we are to have the same level of the fear of God and hatred for sinfulness that we are willing to do whatever it takes to destroy sin in our lives for God’s name sake as the Israelites were supposed to have in the Old Testament. Lastly, when we read about the killing of sinful people in the Old Testament, it would be good for us to remember that it was Jesus, the Lamb of God, who died our death and paid our debt for the sins we have committed. He became sin who knew no sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God.

so easily entangles us…” We should be constantly seeking the destruction of our sin that hinders us from living the holy life that God calls us to. Of course, we will never achieve that holiness until we are made new in our life in heaven, but our knowledge and understanding of God’s love for us through Christ is what fuels our desire for our striving after holiness.

The Apostle Paul writes a warning to the Corinthians in regard to the dangers of willfully living in sin, “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith, examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Christ Jesus is in you – unless indeed you fail the test?” (2 Corinthians 13:5).
When we have a holy hatred for sin, we are exercising a proper view of sin being our “enemy”. First Corinthians 15 calls the last enemy of God “death” (1 Corinthians 15:26), which is mentioned again in Revelation 20 when it foretells the future of death and Hades being thrown into the Lake of Fire. Furthermore, Paul writes clearly about death being the end result of sin (Romans 5:20-21), and so does James (the half-brother of Jesus) in his letter when he says, “…when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.” (James 1:15).

So the next time you read a Psalm of David like this one regarding his enemy:
6  Appoint a wicked man against him;
let an accuser stand at his right hand.
7    When he is tried, let him come forth guilty;
let his prayer be counted as sin!
8    May his days be few;
may another take his office!
9    May his children be fatherless
and his wife a widow!
10    May his children wander about and beg,
seeking food far from the ruins they inhabit!
11    May the creditor seize all that he has;
may strangers plunder the fruits of his toil!
12    Let there be none to extend kindness to him,
nor any to pity his fatherless children!
13    May his posterity be cut off;
may his name be blotted out in the second generation!
14    May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the Lord,
and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out!
15    Let them be before the Lord continually,
that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth! [4]

We are no longer permitted to pray this way concerning other human beings, but we are obligated to pray this way concerning our own sinfulness and the sinfulness that is in the world. It should be the longing of our hearts to see this world seek after the righteousness of God and to place their faith in Christ for their salvation so that they would see their sin utterly destroyed on the cross.

When we read about the killings of sinful people in the Old Testament (God’s smiting, Israelites being stoned to death, enemy nations being destroyed), we must first remember that we are all deserving of death, in God’s perfect justice, but it is His grace and patience that allows us to continue to breath. For those who already fear God and have their faith firmly in Christ, each breath we take is to be done in worship to Him. For the unbelievers, every breath they take is another opportunity for them to repent of their sin and put their faith in Jesus for their salvation. Secondly, we must remember that we are to have the same level of the fear of God and hatred for sinfulness that we are willing to do whatever it takes to destroy sin in our lives for God’s name sake as the Israelites were supposed to have in the Old Testament. Lastly, when we read about the killing of sinful people in the Old Testament, it would be good for us to remember that it was Jesus, the Lamb of God, who died our death and paid our debt for the sins we have committed. He became sin who knew no sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God.