PRAY LIKE A LAWYER! Matthew 15:22-27; Mark7:29.

Daddy used to get fed up: “You’d argue with a fence post!” So he told me to be a lawyer. True, there are thousands of lawyer jokes, few of them undeserved. But when you need one, you’ll be glad to have one. (Even Jesus is described as “our advocate with the Father” 1 John 2:1.) Attorneys search the law and facts for anything helpful to their clients. Then they persuade judges and juries to make decisions favoring those clients.

We should pray the same way. Don’t bring God a wish list. Bring God the law—show Him what His word says about your prayers. Use the Bible to persuade Him. This is the principle of PRAY THE WORD ministries, founded by Mary Ann Bridgewater, whose father and husband were both judges. Tell God why His word requires Him to find in your favor.

Does that sound wrong? Is it wrong to argue a case before God? No. This is the way He wants us to pray!

“A Canaanite [pagan] woman came crying out, ‘Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is cruelly tormented by a demon….’

Jesus replied, ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel… It isn’t right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.’

‘Yes, Lord,’ she said, ‘but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table!’

Then Jesus said to her, ‘BECAUSE OF THIS REPLY, it will be done’” Matthew 15:22-27; Mark7:29.

Jesus liked her argument! He let Himself be persuaded! And the Bible is filled with stories of people who persuaded God to change His mind: Abraham, Moses, Hezekiah, Hannah, Elijah, and dozens more.

Jesus taught the same point: God responds to persistent, persuasive prayer.

He wants us to have a passionate conversation with Him, not to mumble rote words. And He wants us to know His word so well, we can use it to bolster our prayers.

Lord, teach us to PRAY THE WORD. Help us study it and use it to zealously advocate for the things we seek, both for ourselves and for others.

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Pray Without Ceasing. Matthew 15:21-28.

Jesus says, “You have not because you ask not.” Are you remembering to ASK? And when you ask, He says to “pray without ceasing,” (I Thess. 5:17) and to “knock and keep on knocking” (Matt. 7:7). Don’t give up in prayer. Consider the story of the Canaanite woman in Matthew 15:21-28.

She comes to Jesus begging for mercy for her daughter, and He ignores her at first because she is not an Israelite. Finally the disciples tell Jesus to send her away. So He says to her, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.”

But she came and begged Him on her knees: “Lord, please help me!”

He answered, “It isn’t right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”

“Yes, Lord,” she said, “yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”

(You see that? She argued with JESUS! The same way Moses argued and Job argued and Abraham argued and Ezekiel argued and David argued.)

So what happened? How did Jesus respond?

“Then Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, you have great faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.’ And from that moment her daughter was cured” Matthew 15:28.

She pressed Jesus. She followed. She begged. She made a scene. She wore out her welcome. She nearly got sent away. She argued. She would not take ‘no’ for an answer. And Jesus had mercy on her and He let Himself be persuaded.

What are you praying for? Pray more. Pray harder. Maybe He is testing you. Maybe He wants to see whether you are serious. Argue. Quote scripture to God. Pray WITHOUT CEASING. Knock and keep on knocking.

That’s when God will give you what you seek.

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The ‘God Bless the USA Bible.’ Matthew 15:4-9.

When confronted by the Pharisees, Jesus pointed out the hypocrisy of man-made rules.

“God said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’ … but you say ‘Whoever tells his father or mother, ‘whatever benefit you might have received from me is a gift committed to the temple’—does not have to honor his father and mother. You have revoked God’s word because of your tradition. Hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied correctly about you when he said, ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. They worship Me in vain, teaching as doctrines the commands of men” Matthew 15:4-9.

We must engage the Word of God. We are to READ the word, STUDY the word, TEACH the word, MEMORIZE the word.

But we are not to ADD to the word.

“Do not add to what I command you, and do not subtract from it” Deuteronomy 4:2.

“I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this scroll: if anyone adds anything to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this scroll” Revelation 22:18.

The Jewish elders added to the word when they took one rule and expanded it into dozens more. The Catholic church has done the same by making tradition and statements from the Pope equal to scripture. But what about you and me? Do American evangelicals add to God’s word? We do. There are those among us who add a variety of non-Biblical notions to their preaching and teaching.

One way we add to the word of God is when we preach that the Church has replaced Israel, and that all of the promises God made to the Hebrew people now fall on the church. This doctrine of “Replacement Theology” is not Biblical.

American Christians further add to the word when we say that as Columbus discovered the New World, he was actually discovering God’s new Promised Land. These two unbiblical ideas lead almost automatically to a third: Christian Nationalism, the attempt to re-make America as a sort-of Christian theocracy, an explicitly Christian nation.

These ideas may be rooted in good intentions. Replacement Theology is based on scripture, but is ultimately a misreading. The idea that America is the new Promised Land is based not on scripture but history and metaphor: pilgrims leaving for the colonies began as early as 1600 to speak of this as a “Promised Land” for those being persecuted. And Christian Nationalism at its most benign is simply people who want a Christian nation, with Christian values, and where Christianity is welcome in government offices and public schools.

But scripture does not say the Church replaced Israel. Scripture does not say America is the New Promised Land.

And Christian Nationalism departs from scripture, seeking today what some mistakenly sought 2,000 years ago: to make Jesus an earthly king.

America’s founding documents—the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and Declaration of Independence—are not scripture. However, the Christian Nationalist decision to bind those documents inside a King James Bible and sell it as the “God Bless the USA Bible”[1], though seemingly harmless, elevates those words of man to the level of the word of God. Publishing those documents inside a Bible suggests they were “God-breathed”or inspired by God just as the scripture was. That is adding something to scripture.

I love our nation. I praise its founding and the brilliance of the Founders while I teach college classes nearly every week of every semester. No one is a bigger fan of the Constitution than I. But the best works of man are merely that: works of man. I believe the founders sought God, and I believe He gave them great wisdom. Our Constitution has been described as “the oldest national charter still in continuous use.” It is a work of genius.

But the Constitution is NOT scripture.

Again: we are to read, study, memorize, and teach the scripture. But God will punish those who add to His word.

“These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. They worship Me in vain, teaching as doctrines the commands of men” Matthew 15:4-9.

God, may we so revere Your word that we would not dare add to it, take from it, or speak of it as though it were just another work of literature or history.

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[1] Lee Greenwood first began selling the “God Bless the USA” Bible in 2021 to coincide with the twentieth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center. On March 27, 2024, Trump began selling a revised version (with more documents inside and the American flag on the cover) for $59.00. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noezEB6BKno   A portion of the proceeds from the sale will go to fund Trump’s legal expenses as he battles some 90 criminal charges against him https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/03/trump-god-bless-usa-bible-lee-greenwood-reviews-paper-moon-o-brother-where-art-thou.html.

REJECT THE GOOD. John 6:15.

There is a curious line following John’s report of Jesus feeding the 5,000:

“Therefore, when Jesus realized they were about to come and TAKE HIM BY FORCE TO MAKE HIM KING, He withdrew again to a mountain by Himself” John 6:15.

The crowds were going to “take Him by force to make Him king”? How? And would He be the Jewish King—replacing Herod? Or did they want to make Him the new Caesar?

Those questions are not answered. But the crowds seemed to know that Jesus could do anything. Could Jesus have led an army against Rome and defeated Caesar? Absolutely. Jesus could overthrow the Roman Empire with a word.

Making the Miracle-Worker a king was a GOOD IDEA.

Jesus could have kicked the Romans out of Israel and sat on the throne for the next twenty centuries—and though He was human, I don’t believe He would have aged a single day. Not when He was also the God of the universe.

So if He could deliver Israel from Rome, lead a just society, and remain on the throne long enough to defeat Hitler 20 centuries later—well, why not? The crowds had a good idea? What’s the harm?

The harm is, He came to share the Good News about His HEAVENLY KINGDOM, and to DIE for us, so that we could be forgiven, and adopted into God’s family.

Jesus wants to save souls, not rule subjects in an earthly kingdom. In fact, even the best kingdom on this fallen world is an empty house of cards compared to God’s Heavenly Kingdom.

Jesus rejected the good because it was opposed to GOD’S BEST.

And get this:

(Wait for it…)

YOU WILL HAVE TO DO THE SAME.

As you grow in Christ, the enemy will tempt you with GOOD THINGS. They will be quick and easy and available, and probably just what you’ve always wanted. But they will not be GOD’S BEST.

God, never let us settle for the GOOD when we need to wait for the BEST.

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OBSERVE ALL THINGS. Matthew 28:20.

When Jesus gave us our mission statement, he included a phrase I had not noticed until yesterday’s sermon at Kingsland:

“Teach them to observe all things that I have commanded” Matthew 28:20.

In context, that means that my mission in life is to “Go… and make disciples… baptize them… and teach them to observe all things commanded by Jesus.” As a father, my number one job is to disciple my children. I know you know Jesus, and have been baptized.

But have I taught you to OBSERVE ALL THINGS commanded by Jesus? Our church culture is so focused on God’s Grace, love, and forgiveness, that we do not pay attention to obeying Jesus.

People are uncomfortable with the word “obey.” No one wants to tell young people that God has rules, and that He expects you to obey Him.

Most sermons convey the message that God loves you no matter what, so relax and feel good. Don’t worry; be happy. Hakuna Matata.

But Dietrich Bonhoeffer said Jesus is a tough leader: “When Jesus Christ calls a man, he bids him ‘Come and die’” See Matthew 16:24.

Those are strong words. But why would following Christ be easy, like lying around in a recliner? If the Navy Seals can push a man, shouldn’t Jesus push even harder? No one can challenge you like He can. In fact, researchers believe one reason men are not more active in churches is because they are not being challenged.

If following Jesus seems easy, you’re doing it wrong. Following Christ is a challenge. Consider:

  1. Love your enemies. Matt. 5:43-47.
  2. Turn the other cheek. Matt. 5:38-42
  3. Choose: Do you love God or money? Matt. 6:24
  4. Don’t worry—seek God. Matt. 6:25-33.
  5. Deny yourself, take up a cross of your own, and follow Me. Luke 9:23-25.
  6. If the world hated Me, it will hate you too. John 15:18-20.
  7. Jesus is the only way to God. John 14:6.

Pray. Ask God to call you to RADICAL OBEDIENCE, to make your life DIFFERENT.

*The bulleted list above was adapted from the article at this link:

https://churchpop.com/2014/08/20/the-14-most-challenging-radical-do-we-really-have-to-teachings-of-jesus

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COULD YOU WALK AWAY FROM JESUS? John 6:68.

Jesus called twelve to become His disciples. But multitudes followed Him, listening to His teaching, being healed of diseases, eating 5,000 fish sandwiches that He created with a simple prayer of thanks. People love a leader who says poetic things and gives away food. Everyone was drawn to Him; Jesus was the biggest thing to happen in their lifetimes.

But then He began to say hard things, enigmatic things that no one understood:

“I am the Bread of Life … I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. The bread that I will give for the life of the world is My flesh … My flesh is real food and My blood is real drink. The one who eats My flesh and drinks My blood lives in Me and I in him … The one who eats this bread will live forever” John 6:48, 51, 55-56, 58.

Jesus’s followers were offended by these statements:

“When many of His disciples heard this, they said, ‘This teaching is hard. Who can accept it?’ … From that moment many of His disciples turned back and no longer accompanied Him. Therefore Jesus said to the Twelve, ‘You don’t want to go away too, do you?’ Simon Peter answered, ‘Lord, where would we go? YOU HAVE THE WORDS OF ETERNAL LIFE. We have come to believe that You are the Holy One of God” John 6:60, 66-68.

Put yourself in Peter’s shoes: You have a wife and family. You gave up your fishing job to follow a traveling preacher around Israel. And He does work amazing miracles, but Rome is still crushing Israel under the empire’s weight. Little has changed. People are deserting Jesus, His followers are turning back, going home to their families and neglected jobs. Perhaps in her last letter your wife asked you to consider doing the same. It is hard for her to manage everything without you. Suddenly Jesus offers you a way out. Maybe you can walk away from this dusty life on the road? And you think about it for a beat…

But there’s no way. 

“Lord, where would we go? YOU HAVE THE WORDS OF ETERNAL LIFE” John 6:68.

Do we agree with Peter? Do we understand the critical nature of the words of Jesus? Do we love those words, study those words, and truly believe that these are the WORDS OF ETERNAL LIFE?

Do you share Peter’s conviction: that the words of Jesus—the words of the Bible—are more important than ANYTHING ELSE? These are the words of eternal life.

No one else can offer that, no religion, no self-help book, no self-care guru, no online “influencer,” or “mindfulness” coach.

Only the word of God contains the message of eternal life. We should sacrifice everything to embrace the Word.

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HIDING PETER’S FOIBLES. Matthew 14:22-31; Mark 6:47-52.

Bible readers have always LOVED Peter. We love his rash statements, his passion, even his mistakes. People identify with Simon Peter. I relate to the way he talks without thinking. You know he keeps making mistakes—but you also know his heart is in the right place. He just wants to please Jesus, but often does not know how.

But these stories of Peter’s screwups are noticeably lacking from the book of Mark. I caught that today reading a chronological King James Bible; Matthew reports Peter meeting Jesus walking on the water, then losing faith and falling in. But Mark reports Jesus on the water without mentioning Peter.

It turns out, Mark omits most of Peter’s failures. Why?

Mark and Peter were friends. Scholars believe Peter was the source for Mark’s gospel. Either Peter did not tell Mark about his embarrassing moments, or Mark omitted them[1] out of respect for the man who had become the most respected of all apostles. (I believe it’s the latter.)

But aren’t you glad the other writers fleshed-out the full story of crazy Peter, with his big mouth and out-sized personality? He tried to decapitate a Roman soldier! I’m glad that’s in there!

The Bible is the only religious book that does not hide the failures of its heroes. Did you know that? You can name failures for everyone—Adam, Noah, Abraham, David, and on and on. And that gives the scriptures credibility. A false religion would try to make perfect saints of them all. But the Bible shows humans, like you and me, struggling, forgiven, and growing in faith.

God, help us seek excellence and GRACE, not perfection. Thank You for loving us and redeeming us!

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[1] For a list of Peter’s failures omitted from Mark’s gospel, see https://coldcasechristianity.com/writings/good-reasons-to-believe-peter-is-the-source-of-marks-gospel/

THE DEATH OF JOHN THE BAPTIST. Matthew 14:13-14.

The death of John must have been so hard.

John was Jesus’s first cousin. They had been friends all their lives. And it was not awkward: John did not know who Jesus was until the day he baptized Him. But Jesus knew John was the forerunner, the great herald, preparing the people for their Savior. Jesus later said no one greater than John had ever been born. But John was also his cousin and friend. Their lives had been connected, divinely linked from the womb. No one could have understood the pressure and loneliness of being the Messiah better than John.

Then Herod chopped off his head.

Imagine the blow. Jesus may have known it was coming—as He knew the cross was coming. But it’s different when it actually happens. Deaths are never quite what you expect. The death of John must have been hard. So Jesus spent time alone.

“When Jesus heard about it, He withdrew by boat to a remote place to be alone. When the crowds heard this, they followed Him on foot from the towns. As He stepped ashore, He saw a huge crowd….”

—How do you think He felt about the crowd? He’s just lost a man He connected to like no other, and the crowds will not leave Him alone. So what happens next?

“—He saw a huge crowd, felt compassion for them, and healed their sick” Matthew 14:13-14.

Even in grief, Jesus was moved by people. His eyes were not on the death of His friend. His eyes were not even on the dread that John’s death caused Jesus to feel about the torture and death in His own future (suddenly it all seems real!). Instead, Jesus focused on the needs around Him. He served—not only healing the sick, but going on to feed the 5,000. He would do the same the night before His arrest: washing disciples’ feet rather than thinking of the nails aimed at His own.

Serving others is sometimes the best reaction to grief.

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TWO YEARS IN EPHESUS. Matthew 10:34.

When the home team wins a championship, it is HUGE. Everyone is going to Academy, wearing the gear, closing schools, having a parade. The city is turned upside-down—for a day or two. But God sent Paul and others to Ephesus for TWO YEARS. He revolutionized the city of idols.

First, Apollos “vigorously refuted the Jews in public, demonstrating through the scriptures that Jesus is the Messiah” Acts 18:28. Then Paul held discussions “in the lecture hall of Tyrannus … for two years, so that all the inhabitants of Asia, both Jews and Greeks, heard the message of the Lord. God was performing extraordinary miracles by Paul’s hands so that even cloths and aprons that touched his hand were brought to the sick and the diseases left them and evil spirits came out of them” Acts 19:9-12.

Did you catch that? God anointed Paul so powerfully, he could touch a cloth and it could be used to heal someone Paul would never see! God went to great lengths to reveal His power and truth to the people of Greece—and this went on for TWO YEARS.

Finally, Jewish exorcists who did not know Christ began using His name to exorcise demons. They would say, “‘I command you by the Jesus that Paul preaches.’ Seven sons of Sceva … were doing this. The evil spirit answered, ‘I know Jesus, and I’ve heard of Paul. But who are you?’ Then the possessed man leaped on them, overpowering them all, … so that they ran out of the house naked and wounded” 19:13-16. Everyone heard about that (of course) and excitement about Jesus spread.

Finally, a silversmith named Demetrius rallied the other idol makers and convinced them their jobs were at risk if the city abandoned its idols. The men had a screaming riot for two hours until the clerk calmed them down.

Jesus turned the world upside-down. Don’t be surprised if He turns your life upside-down too.

“I have not come to bring peace but a sword” Matthew 10:34.

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SIN-LEVELING. Luke 10:13-14.

People say, “the ground is level at the foot of the cross.”

It’s a nice reminder not to judge. True, we must ALL bow the knee. No one reaches Heaven without Jesus.

But is the ground really level? Are Hitler and I equals apart from Jesus?

NO. Hitler’s sin is extremely, almost infinitely worse than mine.

“Okay. Hitler is worse than you from a HUMAN perspective,” you answer.

No. He is worse than me FROM GOD’S PERSPECTIVE!

The only thing “level” between us is that without Christ we are both lost. And even lost, the Fuhrer remains far worse. After all, Jesus taught that there are differing punishments in Hell:

“Truly, I say to you, it will be more bearable on the Day of Judgment for the land of Sodom than for that town” Matthew 10:15. “It will be more tolerable in the Day of Judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you” Luke 10:13-14.

The reason Jesus emphasized degrees of punishment in the afterlife was to draw attention to the corollary—there are DEGREES OF SINFULNESS on earth.

He warns us not to sin in this way or that because those sins are WORSE, resulting in greater punishment. Jesus told Pilate that the sin of Judas was greater than Pilate’s: “The one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin” John 19:11.

SOME SINS ARE WORSE THAN OTHERS.

Why is sin-leveling a problem? Because those who would make all sins equal do so to silence the victim. They tell you to “take the log out of your own eye” before questioning the preacher living a lie, or they convince you to shut up about that worship leader caught in adultery, or to forgive that youth worker who abused you when you were a child, or something equally horrible.

That is, sin-leveling is a heresy used by those in authority to quiet complaints from victims. But get this:

YOUR ABUSER IS NOT YOUR EQUAL. HE WILL NEVER BE YOUR EQUAL.

You know it—and more importantly—GOD KNOWS IT. Rest in that. The ground is not level. Some sins are worse than others. Far worse.

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