Obedience. Jesus wraps up His famous Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7 and it is the conclusion that catches me by surprise more than anything else that Jesus has spoken up to this point. I think the religious in the audience had to be shocked as well. Jesus declared that their behavior was opposed to the kingdom of the Father, He revealed that their self-righteousness was not enough to impress the Father, He exposed their religious practices as shallow attempts to impress oth

Dependence. This morning I read an excerpt from Paul David Tripp’s book, A Quest for More. The excerpt indicated that Satan tempted Adam and Eve with autonomy from God and transcendence over the life God graciously gave them. In believing and acting upon Satan’s deception, Adam and Eve’s existence shrunk. They became less than what God created them to be. Their desire for independence did not make them capable of independence. Their passion for transcendence did not result in

Blessing: A common theme for all mankind is the endless pursuit of joy and satisfaction. We might succinctly state it as a search for what we were made for. In the sermon on the mount Jesus uses the term “blessed” to summarize this endless pursuit of joy and satisfaction. This pursuit began in the Garden, but the surprising thing is that Adam sought for blessing outside of the blessing (true joy and satisfaction) that God had already made available to Him. He chose to pursue

Temptation. The temptation of Jesus recorded in Matthew 4 provides one of the clearest indicators of His humanity. He took on flesh at birth. He did not cease being God, but at the same time He became fully man. Philippians 2:5-7 indicates that He willingly set aside what was rightfully His. He chose not to act in the capacity of God, but rather He took on the likeness of humanity and became man. He endured all that man goes through. It is difficult for us to comprehend God,

Preparation. One of my favorite Christmas passages is found in Galatians 4:4. The Amplified Bible says, “But when (in God’s plan) the proper time had fully come, God sent His Son…” The arrival of Christ was no last-minute response to a time of desperation or an act of exasperation. The world truly was and is desperate, but Christ’s coming is something that had been prepared for in eternity past. The entire Old Testament is a movement to the arrival of our redeemer. Not one mo

Refugee: A refugee is one who has been forced to flee their country of origin or place of birth due to persecution or threat. In Matthew 2, Herod viewed the birth of Jesus, the king of the Jews, as a threat to his own kingdom. Upon hearing from the wisemen of Jesus’ birth, Herod immediately begins to plot the death of Jesus. The wisemen do find Jesus but are warned in a dream not to return to Herod, so they return to their own country another way. The angel of the Lord appear

Unexpected: Jesus’ coming was anticipated and prophesied, but at the same time how and when He would come was unexpected. Most were caught off guard. Most were not expecting His arrival. Most did not anticipate the circumstances of His coming. This was unexpected. Matthew 1 begins with the genealogy of Jesus going back to Abraham. In one sense, the very fact that God would design the sending of His Son, our Savior, through a physical birth is unexpected. Every one of Jesus’ r

The Bigger View. Anger is about the immediate gratification of our own desires. Anger says, "I am the biggest thing that matters at this moment." Anger focuses on the moment that we are in. Anger does not think of others, eternity, or God. Anger fails to see the big picture, but rather it focuses on the temporary. Anger seeks to make ourselves the central focal point of the picture. Anger deceives, destroys, and disappoints. In Romans 13:11-14 Paul shouts into our self-center

Be Aware. As we discover the reality, the depth, and the breadth of the anger of our hearts, we must be cautious. Knowledge is not power when it comes to anger. The more knowledge we have about anger does not translate to more control over anger. In fact, Paul warns us that knowledge alone leads to pride (1 Cor. 8:1). This does not mean that ignorance is the key to victory over anger either. Anger is rooted in pride, so the antithesis is humility to begin to root our anger. I

Signs of Growth. We can rejoice that God is at work in us and that He will continue His work in His children until it is complete at the day of Jesus Christ (Philippians 1:6). Change seems slow and sometimes hopeless. We must trust what God says rather than what we feel or see. Keep our eyes on Him and know that He is at work in us. Often we look for monumental shifts over short periods of time, but this is not the typical work that God does. Abraham is a great example. God w

Neighbors. Growing up, our neighbors were our friends. We fished, hunted, played baseball and football, argued, fought, and did a few things that we hoped that none of our parents ever discovered. Neighbors look out for each other. We share fences and concerns for our community safety. We borrow sugar, flour, or butter. We heartily great one another and occasionally have deeper conversations. Our neighbors in our city do not look like us or even think like us, but there is a

What are we Aiming for? In Romans 1:21-32; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10; Galatians 5:19-21; Colossians 3:5-9; and Titus 3:3 Paul lists numerous sins. He seems to classify both sexual sins and sins of anger. It is no surprise that where we find one classification of these sins, we typically find the other classification (sexual sins and anger sins tend to go hand-in-hand). The desire, "I WANT" is the adhesive joining these sins. The flesh is bent towards sexual immorality. What God sa

Blame Sharing. We are all aware of blame-shifting. We have done it by blaming our spouses, bosses, co-workers, etc. We have all had it done to us by the same people. It is most evident as we watch children interact with one another and listen to them blame each other for the fights, disagreements, stinginess, etc. However, there is another take on blame-shifting that Welch calls blame-sharing. Blame-sharing feels more sophisticated, but it is simply a repackaging of blaming o

God is the Judge. We will be treated unjustly. Our anger is usually a response to an actual wrong, but what is more important is how we react to that wrong. We may lodge a complaint, have a personal conversation with an individual, or deal with the desires or sins of our own heart. Regardless of our course of action, God, the Judge, will handle all offenses and He will act rightly and justly. 1 Peter 2:21-23 records the unjust suffering that Jesus endured. It also records tha

Why can't everyone be like me? Underlying our anger is pride. It is pride that our way of doing things, our expectations, our responses, our standards, etc. are the best. In order to be patient with others and not respond in anger we must acknowledge two things to be true: 1) We desire an easy and problem-free life. When this desire is thwarted, we likely will pounce in anger on those who we believe are keeping us from experiencing our desire. 2) People are not the same as we

God's Anger Emptied Out. The outpouring of our sinful wrath on others and others pouring their sinful wrath upon us is always wrong and undeserved. However, God's wrath being poured out upon us is always right and always deserved. As we read through the Old Testament we see the evidence of God's wrath being poured out upon Israel as well as other nations. It is always deserved, but it is never fully expressed. We likely struggle understanding how God could do such a thing, bu

Unlimited Patience. Ed Welch gets to the heart quickly today. He states, "If you want to know what you really think about the Lord, watch how you live." If your anger persists unchecked, you hold the Lord in contempt. If your anger is fueled by fear or shame, you don't believe that He could love you and you have to fend for yourself. If your anger veers off into hopelessness, you believe that His standards are impossibly high and you will never please Him. The apostle Paul ad

Be Quick to Listen. James 1:19 is often referenced when addressing anger. The idea typically involves being quick to listen before responding in anger. The implication is that we ought to listen to the other person first before losing our temper. However, the context is not a focus on listening to other people (there are verses that speak about listening to others before answering), but it is a focus on listening to the Word of God. By extension, Jesus is the Word, so we are

Justified Anger. We convince ourselves that we have the "right" to be angry and our position of "rightness" demands that we must be angry. We live in a day where "rights" have dominated our culture and our churches. Think of anger as our own "peaceful (or not-so-peaceful) demonstration" to champion our rights. The question we must ask is, "Does God allow for me to exercise my right to be angry?" Do I have the "right" to be angry? Jonah is a great example to help us understand

Blame. One of the underlying thoughts in our anger is a sense of superiority over others. This is because anger is rooted in a perceived violation of our own sense of right and wrong (Uprooting Anger, Robert D. Jones). We become the prosecutor, judge, and jury of another's actions. We elevate ourselves over others and refuse to recuse ourselves in the process. This sense of pride leads to blame. Pride says "I am not angry because of something in me, but I am angry because of