Phil. 3:8-11; 4:8-9, Poignant Principles About Television

(I.e. Heavy Thoughts on the Tube)

Many years ago someone, out of the kindness of their heart, or so they thought, gave us a TV.  Not surprisingly, I had the biggest problem in our family with bad habits related to the telly.  So I did what any good preacher would do: I devised a sermon on the subject so I could guilt others with my problem. (Please, note the sarcasm.)  So here it is in the original form.  I believe it has a pretty clear crossover to our issue with cell phones, other than #4.

 

1)    TV is less important than other things, and far less important than people.  Some of the things that take priority over TV include …

a)    My own personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

i)      Phil. 1:20-21: I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.  For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. (By the way: my father’s life verses.)

ii)   Phil. 3:8,10a (from today’s reading.)

b)    My family.

i)      Col. 3:18-21: Wives, submit to your husbands … husbands, love your wives … children, obey your parents… fathers, do not embitter your children.

c)    My work and school work:

i)      Prov. 10:4: Lazy hands make a man poor but diligent hands bring wealth.

ii)   Prov. 14:23: All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty.

iii)            Prov. 1:5: He who gathers crops in summer is a wise son, but he who sleeps during harvest is a disgraceful son.

d)    My church and youth group.

i)      Rom. 15:2: Each of us should please his neighbor for his good to build him up.

ii)   Eph. 4:16: From Him, the whole body, joined together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

e)    My active recreation.

i)      Ex.23:12: Work six days but on the seventh day do not work so that your ox and your donkey may rest and the slave born in your household, and the alien as well, may be refreshed.

2)    Too much TV dulls the mind and stifles creativity.  (A fact born out by scientific research.)

3)    TV is neither all good nor all bad.  Therefore I must use discretion in the selection of programs.

a)    Col. 1:1-3: Since, then, you have bene raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.  Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.  For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.

b)    Phil. 4:8 (from today’s reading.)

4)    When more than one person wants to watch TV, I cannot always watch what I want but must defer to others.

a)    1 Pet. 3:8: Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble.

b)    Rom. 12:10: Be devoted to one another in brotherly love.  Honor one another above yourselves.

c)    Phil. 2:4: Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

5)    TV is a privilege, not a right (not a necessity).

6)    At it’s best, TV can be a means to enhance the Lordship of Jesus in a Christian home.

a)    Col. 1:18: And He is the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything He might have the supremacy.

b)    Phil. 2:9-11: Therefore God highly exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Psalm 145

This Psalm, for me, serves as a wonderful guide to prayer.  Consider!

·         145:1-3: David begins with praise.  And how good is the Sweet Psalmist of Israel in giving praise to God.  God is to him my God O King.  How personal God is to him; and how properly God is King of Israel’s greatest king.  Perhaps David excels at praise because he is committed to give it every day, forever.  And of course he excels at praise because the God he praises is so worthy of praise, and whose greatness cannot ever be fully known!

·         145:4-7: David’s prayer is my prayer, that from my wife and me generations will follow who bless God, every day, and forever.  We pray for our children and generations of grandchildren to meditate on the splendor of His majesty.

·         145:8-9: How wonderful it is to regularly confess to God His name (Exodus 34:6-7), declaring His perfections.  This is our God who again, if we will take time to meditate on Him, we will find easy to praise.

·         145:10-13:  We pray, not only for our family but for the family of God, the saints.  These days there is no end of books and seminars to help correct all the faults in the local church.  But one must ask: is there faithful prayer the kind of prayer where we struggle for God’s people?  God’s kingdom is everlasting and enduring.  Jesus said the gates of hell would not prevail against His Church.  We continually seek to redefine and remake and rework and re-everything the church.  What we must do is seek God on behalf of the saints that they would speak of the glory of His kingdom and make known to the sons of men His mighty acts.  Jesus, the Judge of every local church (Rev. 2-3), knows how to lead His saints in the way in which they should do this.  Thus we pray for several churches regularly.  Pray for God’s people!

·         145:14-16: This is what our God does, upholding those who fall and satisfying the desire of every living thing.

·         145:17-21:  This is our God!  Righteous! Gracious!  Near to all who call on Him in truth.  Satisfying!  Preserving!  Eventually, in one way or another, all flesh will bless His holy name.  May we bless it NOW by perfecting our praise!

1 Cor. 2:6-14, The Person and Ministry of the Holy Spirit

Today’s post provides an outline study of the Holy Spirit with a brief application at the conclusion.

1)    Who is the Holy Spirit?

a)    A person (John 14:26; 15:26; 1 Cor. 2:10; 12:11).

b)    God (compare Ez. 17:2-7 with Heb. 3:-9; Acts 5:3 with 5:4; John 3:6 with 1 John 5:4; 1 Cor. 3:16 with 2 Cor. 6:19).

c)    The third member of the Trinity (Matt.28:19; 2 Cor. 13:14).

2)    What was the Holy Spirit’s relation to Old Testament (pre-Calvary) believers?

a)    It was different than after the cross (Jn. 7:39; 14:17).

b)    He came on certain men for service but not upon all believers (Judges 3:10).

c)    He could come upon a man for a time and then leave him (1 Cor.10:10; 16:14; Ps. 51:11).

3)    How does the Holy Spirit draw a person to salvation in Christ?

John 16:7-11: He convinces men of their sin, of the truth that Christ alone can make them righteous, and that apart from Christ they will be judged along with Satan, the Ruler of this world.

4)    What is the Holy Spirit’s work when a person is saved?

a)    He does the work of “regeneration” (the new birth) within the person (John 3:5-8; Titus 3:5; in Romans 6:3-4 this work is described by baptism).

b)    He immediately indwells the person (1 Cor. 6:19; Rom. 8:9; Jn. 7:39).

c)    The believer is immediately baptized in the Spirit (that is, immersed or placed in the Church, 1 Cor. 12:13).

d)    He gives gifts to the believer to be used in service for Christ (1 Cor. 12:7,11).

e)    He is God’s pledge (earnest, guarantee) within the believer that his salvation is eternal and that God will complete the work He has begun (2 Cor. 1:22; 5:5; Eph. 1:13-14; 4:30).

5)    What is the Holy Spirit’s ongoing work for the believer?

a)    In general, He is our Helper/Advocate (John 14:16,26; 15:26; 16:7).

b)    More specifically, He fills (controls) the believer as he yields to Christ (Eph. 6:18).

6)    What are the results of the Spirit-filled life?

a)    Gal. 5:22-23: dynamic, life-changing Christian character.

b)    Ac. 1:8: power for witness and service.

c)    Eph. 5:19-20: a life of praise and thanksgiving.

d)    Eph. 5:21: a life of good relationships.

e)    Rom. 8:26: power in prayer.

Here are two application questions based on John 7:37-39.

7)    How does a person receive the Holy Spirit?  In response to the spiritual thirst in his life, he follows the Spirit’s lead by coming to Christ for satisfaction and believing in Christ.  If a person does not have the Holy Spirit it is because he does not have Christ.  (Rom. 8:9)

8)    How is a Christian filled with the Holy Spirit?  The Christian continues to believe in Christ from day to day. In other words, he walks by faith.  He who believes in Me … out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.  (Isa. 44:3; 55:1; Eph. 5:18)

Ex. 32:1-6; 1 Ki. 12:25-33, Transition Between Covenants (2)

We did a survey in short order of worship in the world before Mt. Sinai.  I want to add one thought, concerning a priest named Melchizedek.  He was “the priest of God Most High” (Gen. 14:18).  In other words, he/He (some think Melchizedek was a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ) only worshiped and offered sacrifices to the true God.  This is what Jethro came to see and believe in Ex. 18.  YAHWEH, the God of Israel, is also known in the Bible as “God Most High.”  Jethro said, “Now I know that YAHWEH is greater than all gods” (18:11).  Therefore, on the spot, he did what he did as an occupation: he conducted a worship service attended by “Aaron … with all the elders of Israel” (18:12).

After Exodus 28:1, what Jethro did would have been false worship.  “Now take Aaron your brother, and his sons with him, from among the children of Israel, that he may minister to Me as priest.”  The old way was: every man was a priest for his own household.  The new way was: the only priests in the worship of YAHWEH were Aaron and his descendants.  Furthermore, the old way was: when you want to worship YAHWEH, build an altar somewhere.  But effective Exodus 40, when the tabernacle was put together, the new way was: YAHWEH will dwell over the mercy seat in the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle; so the only altar for sacrifice is the one just outside the door of the tabernacle.

All this makes sense out of the first two of the Ten Commandments: “You shall have no other gods before Me.  You shall not make for yourself a carved image” (Ex. 20:3-4).  Every nation had their gods.  But God, the Creator and the God who promised to provide an adequate atonement for sin, had determined to attach Himself to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac AND Jacob.  Worship was now exclusive.  All other gods and altars and religions were idolatrous.

Wow!  What a change.  But we started this discussion talking about “transition.”  So, in case you missed it, there was a transition from the old to the new at Mt. Sinai, even as there was after the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2).  Did you know that Moses served as “priest” for the people of Israel after they left Egypt?  He chose some young men of Israel to do the hard work (what would become the work of the Levites), and then Moses sprinkled “the blood of the covenant” on the altar of sacrifice that would eventually be used by Aaron (Ex. 24:5-8).  And there’s more.  Moses also put his own tent at the outskirts of the camp of Israel and called it “the tabernacle of meeting” and that was where he met with God (Ex. 33:7-11).  These were “transitional” but were not permanent because God had another plan.

Now, think about the golden calf (Ex. 32:1-6).  What happened?  The people, and apparently even Aaron, began to question God, and reverted to the old way.  They designated a god and offered sacrifices.  And there’s no time to go into this, but if you read about Jeroboam establishing the religion of the Northern Kingdom, he did the same thing: he reverted to the gold calves and even established a feast to rival the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem (1 Kings 12:25-33). 

There is a simple principle here having to do with interpretation of Scripture.  We learn doctrine from passages that teach doctrine, not from passages that tell stories.  It really is simple.  Just because something happened, and seemed to have God’s blessing (young men serving as priests and Moses meeting with God in his own tent; some, but not all believers, receiving the Spirit by the laying on of hands, speaking in tongues, etc.), does not make it the norm for God’s people.  The “norm” is laid out clearly by Moses who met with God on the Mountain in the Old Testament and the Apostles of Christ in the New Testament.  “Be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior” (2 Peter 3:2).