A couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine shared with me a list he found on the internet. This isn’t an uncommon occurrence; I, like many of you, receive my fair share of forwarded e-mails. Still, it was the title of this e-mail that stuck out to me:

“10 Strategies for Not Losing Your Temper.”

At first, I have to admit, I was a little offended. Then, I was a lot offended. Why did they forward this list on to me? Do I have an anger issue or something? Why do I need to know how to control my temper? I certainly don’t need help in this area! Who does this person think they are??!?!?! It makes me so mad!!

Oops.

Realizing the irony inherent in my protest, I decided to read through the list. I have to admit, some of the ideas I found there were pretty good. In fact, here are some of the better ones:

• Imagine yourself as a three year old – visualize yourself having a tantrum: Try not to laugh out loud when you do this.  It could annoy the other person!
• Do something incompatible with losing temper: Some guys sing a song (in their head); some make a cup of coffee; some guys read a favorite passage of Scripture or a “feel-good” wise saying; others pop in their ear-buds and listen to George Harrison sing “Here Comes the Sun” or Louis Armstrong croon “I think to myself, it’s a wonderful world.” Bottom line, you can’t go up and down at the same time.
• Count backwards from ten but with this twist: You’ve heard of count to ten.  Now try counting backwards. It requires more concentration. Plus, imagine one alternative to blowing up for every number: Ten – “I could write a letter to his supervisor.”  Nine – “I could tell him about the time I was a kid and broke a window with a baseball.”  Eight – “twinkle, twinkle, little star….”  Seven – “I wonder what would happen if I apologized, even though I’m in the right?”

Eventually, you are going to get angry. You’re going to see, hear or experience something that is going to upset you. Anger is an almost unavoidable part of this life. Sometime in the future, whether it’s this week or next year, you are going to lose your temper.

With that in mind, you think we’d be better prepared for it. You think we’d have a plan to help us rightly handle our anger. Unfortunately, most of us have no idea what to do when anger attacks. True, we may have ways we typically deal with it. I’d imagine that most of us have the tendency to bottle it in. We don’t want to let our anger out, so we internalize it and hold onto it. All that does, however, is delay the problem. Over time, all that anger is to fester, eventually turning into bitterness, resentment or perhaps even rage. Handling our anger in that way certainly can’t be God-honoring.

But, what if there was a better way to deal with anger? What if there was a more biblical way to deal with anger? I think there is.

Multiple passages in Scripture tell us how to handle conflict. The Bible itself admits that disagreement will sometimes seep into our relationships. So, it tells us how to handle it. Take a look at what Jesus Himself said in these passages:

Matthew 5:23-25: “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift. Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still with him on the way, or he may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison.”

Matthew 18:15-17: “If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or tax collector.”

To hear Jesus say it, the best way to deal with anger isn’t to bottle it up inside. Neither is it to pretend that everything’s alright. The best way to deal with anger is to face it head-on. When someone wrongs us—when someone makes us angry—our first response should be to talk to them about it. Now, that doesn’t mean we get to go yell at them (I can’t imagine that’s what Jesus had in mind). It does, however, mean that we, as calmly and coolly as possible, try to work things out with the person who made us angry in the first place. We have to try to get to the bottom of the issue before it turns into something worse. We must learn to attack our anger before our anger starts attacking us.

One of these days, you are going to get angry. Someone (or something) is going to set you off. When that time comes, just be sure you’re dealing with that anger the way Jesus commands us to.

Questions to Consider:

1.  What do you normally do when you get angry? How does this compare with the biblical commands on the subject?

2.  Read I Timothy 2:8. How does prayer help diffuse anger?

What makes you angry? What gets your blood boiling? What causes you to get hot under the collar? What things leave you seeing red? (I hope it’s not repetitive questions… I could keep this idiom thing up all day!)

Truth be told, this world is full of things that can make us angry. In fact, some things (cable news, anyone?) seem to exist for the sole purpose of making people mad. Scouring the internet, I noticed that different people get angered by different things. Some of them are quite serious; most of them are very trivial. In case you haven’t found a reason to be angry today, here are some things that angered the good people on Yahoo! Answers:

• “A big one for me is when people go to the grocery store and block the aisles with their carts so you can’t go around and take forever. Also when people congregate in the aisles and have a reunion in front of the bread and make no attempt to move when you are glaring them down.”
• “Rude people”
• “Adults who cuss at/around children”
• “People who wear pajamas to the store!”
• “Pretty much everything”

So, what about you? What makes you angry? Of all the little annoyances this world has to offer, which bothers you the most? I don’t mean this as a strictly mental exercise. I want you to write it down. Think about what makes you angry (but don’t think about it too much!) and then fill in the blank…

     The thing that makes me angry the most is:

__________________________________________________________

You feel better now that you’ve gotten that off your chest? I hope so. (I really hope this exercise didn’t ruin your day. If it did, you have my apologies…)

Now, I have a follow-up question I want you to answer. Take another look at what you put in the blank up there. What happens when you get mad about that thing? What do you do with your anger and frustration?

If you’re anything like me, the answer to that question can’t be good. Nothing constructive ever seems to come from my anger. For example, I’ve found that watching the news just makes me mad. I’m serious. I don’t know if it’s all the depressing things going on in the world or the amount of “spin” in every newscast, but I cannot watch the news without getting upset. In fact, I decided to stop watching the news a couple of years ago because it made me so angry.

One of the reasons I made that decision was because I found this anger accomplished nothing. I was getting myself all worked up with nothing to show for it. Well, that’s not entirely true. I mean, it did put me in a foul mood. It gave me something to complain about for the rest of the day. It probably raised my blood pressure, too. Not the best set of side effects, I know. My anger didn’t bring anything positive into my life.

I’d imagine most of you could say the same. When we get angry, that anger hardly ever does anything constructive. Indeed, recent research has suggested that those who struggle with anger are more likely to suffer from a wide variety of health problems, from high blood pressure to stroke. Anger can, quite literally, harm our hearts and our minds. More than that, anger has a unique way of destroying our relationships. I’m sure we could all think of friendships (or maybe even family relationships) we’ve seen torn apart by anger. Anger truly is a destructive force.

Yet, it is James who tells us about the most devastating side effect of anger:

James 1:20-21: “Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires. So get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives, and humbly accept the word God has planted in your hearts, for it has the power to save your souls.”

Simply put, anger keeps us from God’s ideal. It keeps us from living a holy and righteous life. Worse, it keeps us from being who we were created to be. Part of the reason for that is because anger clouds our judgment. We don’t tend to think all that clearly when we get angry. Anger can cause the most intelligent of people to do something stupid. It can drive the most even-tempered person in the world to recklessness. Bruce Banner (aka The Hulk) would agree: anger can make us a completely different person.

Perhaps that’s why James takes the problem of anger so seriously. Immediately after telling us that anger can keep us from God’s ideal James tells us we must be ruthless in eliminating it from our lives. There’s no way for us to manage our anger, because anger always manages us. We must simply get rid of it. We have to cut it out of our lives and out of our hearts. If we can do that, I think we’ll see exactly what anger is good for:

Absolutely nothing.

Questions to Consider:

1.  What does anger accomplish in you? How does this keep you from God’s ideal?

2.  Read Joel 2:13. How is God described in this verse? How can you live out these characteristics?

In March 2008, William Shanahan, the debate coach at Fort Hayes State University in Kansas, was debating his counterpart from the University of Pittsburgh, Shanara Reid-Brinkley.  As part of a competition at Emory University, the debate was heated, with both parties doing their fair share of cursing and finger-pointing.  Things, however, took a much more interesting turn when Mr. Shanahan got angry.  In a complete breach of debate etiquette, William Shanahan made his point by ‘mooning’ Mrs. Reid-Brinkley, as well as the classroom of spectators who had come to hear their debate.  While the incident was uncalled for, no one bothered to report it.  Indeed, for months after the debate, only those in the room knew exactly what William Shanahan had done.

But then, YouTube found out.

Five months later, the video of the debate was posted on the video sharing website YouTube.  Within hours, thousands of people worldwide had seen Mr. Shanahan’s classless act.  The media soon caught onto the story, quick to expose the faults of someone who was so quick to expose himself.  Fort Hayes State University responded quickly.  On August 22, the school announced that they had fired William Shanahan and placed the entire debate program on suspension.  While Mr. Shanahan had been the coach of the debate team for 10 years – even winning a national championship – his career was over and his reputation was ruined.  One moment of indiscretion was all it took to undo all that he had done.  When questioned about the incident, William Shanahan could only say this:

“I’m not a monster – I’m somebody who is committed to his students and his university.  I’m an ethical person, but I violated that code in the moment.”

Unfortunately for Mr. Shanahan, he forgot one of the cardinal rules of life.  That rule, simply stated, is this: ANGER MAKES US DO STUPID THINGS!

Though we may fault Coach Shanahan for his actions, the fact of the matter is that we’ve all done the same thing.  Sure, we may not have ‘mooned’ an entire classroom of people, but we’ve all done things out of anger.  We’ve all had moments of fury when we wish that we could take back what we’ve done.  Some of us wish that we could take back those hurtful words we said.  Others wish they undo the damage they did while they were blinded by anger.  Still others wish they could mend the relationships that their anger damaged.  Every single one of us has at least one moment in our lives that had been tainted by anger.  We all know how destructive it can be.

It seems obvious, then, that we should pay special attention to Jesus’ words here in Matthew 5.  According to Jesus, being angry isn’t just destructive – it’s also sinful!  When we become angry – when we let our rage get the best of us – we are acting in disobedience to our God.  He wants us to have right relationships with others.  He wants us to love the people around us.  When we act in anger – when we give hatred a foothold in our lives – we are falling short of His ideal for our lives.

Maybe that’s why Jesus took the subject of anger so seriously.  As He continued on in His sermon, Jesus told the crowds that they needed to be relentless about removing anger from their lives.  Consider what He went onto say in Matthew 5:23-24:

“So if you are presenting a sacrifice at the altar in the Temple and you suddenly remember that someone has something against you, leave your sacrifice there at the altar. Go and be reconciled to that person. Then come and offer your sacrifice to God.”

Did you see the importance Jesus put on dealing with anger?  According to Him, we should be so relentless about getting rid of anger in our hearts that we deal with any issue in our relationships immediately.  Even if we’re standing at the altar to pray to God, and there realize that we are at odds with our neighbor, we are to go and be reconciled to them before we worship.  Anger cannot be allowed to go unchecked.  Neither can it be allowed to fester.  If it does, tragic things can happen.

The apostle Paul would hint on this same point in his letter to the church at Ephesus:

Ephesians 4:26-27: “‘In your anger, do not sin’: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.”

In our anger, we can give the devil a foothold into our life.  We can be prompted to do things we never thought imaginable before.  As William Shanahan reminds us, anger makes us do stupid things.  Because of that, we need to deal with it before something bad happens.

Questions to Consider:

1.  Is there someone in your life whom you are angry with?  What do you need to do to deal with this issue?

2.  Read Psalm 30:4-5.  What does this verse tell us about God’s anger?

90s Connection – 06/15/13 from Cornerstone Christian Church on Vimeo.

June 15 & 16, 2013

What keeps you from breaking the speed limit?

I have to admit upfront that I am not the best at keeping the speed limit. I try – I really do! – but I often find myself going somewhere between 5-10 over the posted limit. I don’t know why this is. I don’t have a so-called “lead foot.” I don’t drive a flashy car (I’ve never seen a minivan in one of the Fast and Furious movies!). I try not to be in a hurry. But, for whatever reason, I typically find myself starting at the speedometer wondering how it is I got to traveling so fast.

There is, however, one sight that makes me instantly aware of how fast I’m going. Whenever I see a cop car stationed on the side of the road, I instantly check the speedometer, pump the brakes and get myself down to the proper speed. I may not have any difficulty speeding, but I certainly don’t want to get a ticket. In fact, I would have to say that my main motivation for not speeding is that I don’t want to get pulled over. I may not care so much about breaking the rules, but I certainly have no desire to get caught.

But, let me ask you something: What is the speed limit for? Why does it exist? While we may at times disagree with it, the speed limit exists to keep us safe. The government has decided that each and every road has a maximum driving speed. They post the speed limit to communicate that speed to us and encourage us to drive as safely as possible. At its core, the speed limit is all about protecting the lives of those out on the road.

I think we can all admit that there’s a big difference between the intent of the speed limit and our usual reasons for following it. It’s one thing to say you don’t speed because you don’t want to get a ticket. It’s another thing to say that you don’t speed because you want to keep yourself and others safe. In one case, you’re afraid of the punishment the law subscribes. In the other, you’re more interested in honoring the intent of the law as it is written. Obviously, I think we can all agree the latter motivation is a little nobler.

So… What keeps you from breaking God’s Law?

Most of the time, I think we keep ourselves away from sin because we don’t want to get caught. We don’t want other people to know about our faults. We don’t want to get in trouble. More importantly, we don’t want God to hold us accountable. We don’t want to have to stand before Him on Judgment Day and explain our sin. So, we avoid sin merely because we’re afraid of its consequences. In a sense, this is exactly why the Pharisees were so intent on keeping God’s Law. They didn’t want to get caught breaking it. They didn’t want God to suddenly show up and audit their level of obedience.

Yet, as Jesus perfectly illustrates in this passage, God wanted more than that. He didn’t want their level of righteousness to be motivated by their fear of punishment. He didn’t want them to avoid sin just so they could keep from getting in trouble. No, God wanted their obedience to come from something else. He wanted their obedience to be motivated by their love for Him.

I think that’s what Jesus had in mind when he told the crowds to have a “better” righteousness than that of the Pharisees. The Pharisees did things because they HAD to. Jesus asks His followers to do things because they WANT to. To say it another way, Jesus wants His people to do the right things for the right reasons. He wants our love to be motivated by our deep love for God.

Just think about what Jesus identified as the greatest command. In Matthew 22, a Pharisee approached Jesus and asked Him to identify the ultimate commandment in the Law. Here’s what Jesus had to say:

Matthew 22:37-38: “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.”

I have to believe Jesus identified this as the greatest commandment because it is the one from which every other commandment flows. If we love God, we will follow His commands. If we’re hungering and thirsting for Him, then we will have no desire for those things that keep us separated from Him. Love for God is the greatest commandment simply because it is the only right motivation for obedience.

William Barclay hints at this truth in his commentary on Matthew:

“It was Jesus’ teaching that thoughts are just as important as deeds, and that it is not enough not to commit a sin; the only thing that is enough is not to wish to commit it. It was Jesus’ teaching that a man is not judged only by his deeds, but is judged even more by the desires which never emerged in deeds. By the world’s standards a man is a good man if he never does a forbidden thing… By Jesus’ standards, a man is not a good man until he never even desires to do a forbidden thing. Jesus is intensely concerned with a man’s heart.”

Obedience isn’t just about actions; it’s about the heart. It’s not simply a matter of what we do; it’s about who we love. Here in this sermon, Jesus calls us to a better righteousness – a righteousness motivated by our passion for God.

So, why do you do what you do? What keeps you from breaking God’s Law? If it’s not love, then perhaps it’s time for you to check your motivation.

Questions to Consider:

1.  Why do you keep God’s commands? Is this a good motivation?

2.  Read John 14:15. What does love lead to?

Most of the rules we live by on a daily basis are stated in the negative form. When the fire department wants to protect a lane for their trucks to be able to pass through, they put up “No Parking” signs. When a teacher wants her students to quiet down and listen to what she has to say, she’ll encourage them to “Stop Talking.” When my wife wants to go out somewhere fancy, I always hear the same rule: “Don’t put your elbows on the table” (a distant cousin of another rule I hear quite a bit: “Don’t chew with your mouth open”). For some reason, we have a tendency to deliver rules and regulations in their negative form.

Educators today, however, are increasingly cognizant of the fact that rules cannot always be stated in negative terms. Rather than just using rules to prohibit bad behavior, many people today are starting to see the importance of using them to encourage good behavior. Thus, there are many out there today who would encourage parents, teacher and even bosses to consider putting their rules in a more positive (or affirming) form. Allow me to give you a few examples:

• The negatively phrased “No Talking” can be positively stated as “Please Pay Attention in Class.”
• The positive command “Please Walk” is apparently more palatable to children than the negative “Don’t Run!”
• Even a command as hopelessly negative as “No Gum” can be positively restated as “Please Leave All Gum at Home.” (Seriously, I didn’t make this up…)

When the Pharisees and religious leaders of Jesus’ day thought of God’s commands and requirements, they typically thought of them in their negative form. They concerned themselves primarily with the things God had told them not to do. To be sure, God did state many of His Laws in the negative. Of the Ten Commandments, for example, only two are stated in positive terms. He told His people not to commit murder. He told them not to commit adultery. He told them not to worship gods other than Him. He told them not to eat certain types of food. He told them not to covet after what other people had. If you were to flip through the books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy, you would quickly see just how many negative commands God gave the Israelites.

The Pharisees honed onto these negative commands, building an entire theology around them. As a result, they defined their personal holiness in terms of the things they did not do and the particular sins they avoided. While we certainly want to avoid that which God despises, the Pharisees believed that they earned God’s love by avoiding what He hates. Their relationship with God was based solely on whether or not they kept themselves from the things God had told them not to do.

Yet, what the Pharisees missed was the fact that God also had some positive commands for His people. Though many of the Old Testament Laws were stated in a negative form, God gave them some clear-cut positive commands. A few examples:

Deuteronomy 6:4-9: “Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

Hosea 6:6: “I want you to show love, not offer sacrifices. I want you to know me more than I want burnt offerings.”

Micah 6:8: “No, O people, the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what He requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.”

As these passages show us, following God isn’t just about avoiding evil; it requires us to actively pursue that which is good. We can’t just sit around and do nothing and say we’ve followed all God’s commands. Though we may have kept ourselves from sin, we haven’t fully pursued the righteousness God has in mind for those who belong to Him.

Jesus doesn’t just call us to avoid evil; He also asks us to pursue good. Those who would follow Him must commit themselves to following everything God commands – both positive and negative!

Questions to Consider:

1.  What do these positive commands show us about what God expects?

2.  Read John 13:34. How can you live out this positive command today?

Deuteronomy 6:7 “Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up.”

Homefront June 29 & 30, 2013 from Cornerstone Christian Church on Vimeo.

Deuteronomy 6:7 “Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up.”

Homefront June 22 & 23, 2013 from Cornerstone Christian Church on Vimeo.

June 8 & 9, 2013

Matthew 5:17-20: “Don’t misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not even the smallest detail of God’s law will disappear until its purpose is achieved. So if you ignore the least commandment and teach others to do the same, you will be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven. But anyone who obeys God’s laws and teaches them will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven. But I warn you—unless your righteousness is better than the righteousness of the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven.”

Last year, Acute Viral Nasopharyngitis (try saying that five times real fast!) cost the United States somewhere around $20 billion in lost work hours. An additional $3 billion was spent trying to fight off its effects. Also known as Acute Viral Rhinopharyngitis and Acute Coryza, this dastardly villain was responsible for 189 million lost days of school and another 126 million lost days of work. All told, we lost billions upon billions of dollars on account of Acute Viral Nasopharyngitis.

Unfortunately, there is absolutely nothing we can do about it.

You see, Acute Viral Nasopharyngitis is actually just the technical term for the common cold. Caused by one of over 200 different kinds of virus, the common cold hits its sufferers with a myriad of possible symptoms, ranging from coughing and sneezing to congestion and fatigue. What’s so interesting about the common cold is that it is a disease for which there is no cure. Even though scientists have been working on it for years (even mapping the cold’s genomes), we have no drug that will completely cure someone of their cold. All doctors can do is treat the symptoms. The medicine you get for your cold may soothe your cough, but it does nothing to stop the disease.

While this kind of approach works wonders on Acute Viral Nasopharyngitis, it’s a terrible way to approach the problem of sin.

The Bible is clear on the fact that you and I suffer from sin-sickness. We are deathly ill because of what our disobedience has done to us. Yet, in dealing with our sin issues, we are often content to merely deal with the symptoms. We try to change our habits. We try to transform the things we do. Unfortunately, we fail to recognize that our actions and habits – while important – are merely the symptoms of a larger issue. You see, we sin because our hearts aren’t in the right place. Our acts of disobedience are merely a byproduct of misplaced worship.

Paul David Tripp put it like this:

“Even if everything were legal, I would still have a big problem, because…I don’t just have a legal problem; I have a mastery problem. Because of my mastery problem, even God’s good things become bad things, because they become ruling things. My struggle is deeper than an ignorance or misunderstanding of God’s law. My problem is that there are moments when I rebel against God’s law because I have given over my heart to another master… My problem is a fickle, wandering, easily disloyal heart. I say that Jesus is my Lord, but I am daily tempted to give my heart over to the rule of other masters… Every day in every area of my life a battle of rulers wages in my heart.”

In this section of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus confronts our mastery problem head-on. Rather than just telling us what actions we should avoid, Jesus gets underneath the skin to talk about the attitudes that drive our sinful actions. Just look at the first three commands Jesus offers in this section of the Sermon on the Mount. Let’s consider them one by one:

Matthew 5:21-22: “You have heard that our ancestors were told, ‘You must not murder. If you commit murder you are subject to judgment.’ But I say, if you are even angry with someone, you are subject to judgment! If you call someone an idiot, you are in danger of being brought before the court. And if you curse someone, you are in danger of the fires of hell.”

Matthew 5:27-28: “You have heard the commandment that says, ‘You must not commit adultery.’ But I say, anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

Matthew 5:31-32: “You have heard the law that says, ‘A man can divorce his wife by merely giving her a written notice of divorce.’ But I say that a man who divorces his wife, unless she has been unfaithful, causes her to commit adultery. And anyone who marries a divorced woman also commits adultery.”

Just because you haven’t murdered someone doesn’t mean you’re not a slave to anger. You can go your whole life without harming someone and still be filled with the most vile bitterness and resentment. Just because you haven’t physically cheated on your spouse doesn’t mean you’re not a slave to sexual sin. You could resist the temptation to sleep with another person and still have misplaced (and ungodly) sexual desires. Just because you haven’t gotten a divorce doesn’t mean your marriage is all it could be. You could have a marriage that lasts and still not be committed to each other the way you need to be.

These three commands each challenge us to get to the root of our issues. Our sinful actions are merely symptoms; our sinful hearts are the disease. If we’re going to be who God wants us to be, then we must confront our true problem.

Questions to Consider:

1.  What sins do you struggle with? How do these reveal a mastery problem?

2.  Read John 8:34. What does sin lead to?

When I think of the Old Testament, my mind immediately goes to the stories it contains. From the time I was old enough to understand what was going on in Sunday School, I have been transfixed by the stories contained in the front half of our Bibles. Indeed, some of my favorite (not to mention the most interesting!) anecdotes from the entire Bible come from the Old Testament. I don’t have to look very far to find a story that catches my eye…

Genesis, for example, contains the stories of Adam and Eve, of Noah, of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, finally concluding with the grand story of Joseph. Exodus brings us the story of Moses and the Israelites. Joshua tells us the story of how the Israelites finally conquered the Promised Land. The book of Judges contains some of the most disturbing and violent stories in the whole of Scripture. Jonah’s experience in the belly of a big fish and Daniel’s night among lions rank as some of the most well-known and well-loved stories we have. Almost every Old Testament book has some kind of great story about God and His people.

When the Pharisees thought of the Old Testament, their minds immediately went to the plethora of commands contained within the Law. All told, the Old Testament contains 613 commandments designed to tell the people how to live within their covenant. If you were to catalogue all of those rules and regulations, you would quickly notice that they touch almost every area of life.

There are laws about the kinds of food God’s people should eat (no bacon!). There are laws about marriage. There are laws about divorce. There are even laws about stoning your children when they misbehave. The laws deal with such varied subjects as sexuality, property rights, legal procedures, capital punishment, clothing and personal hygiene. A section of the Law goes so far as to say what must be done in cases when mold and mildew infest a garment or house. There’s hardly any area of life God’s Law did not cover!

But, is the Old Testament really just about laws? Is it just about how God wants to be involved in the minutia of our days? On the flipside, is the Old Testament just about its stories? Are we merely supposed to look at the first 39 books of the Bible as a kind of morality play? What is the Old Testament really all about?

Though we could spend days talking and arguing about the true point of these books, I think it’s fairly easy to identify the purpose of the Old Testament. I say that because Jesus pretty blatantly told us why God gave us the Law and the Prophets. As it turns out, God didn’t give it to us merely for the stories. His end goal wasn’t the laws and commandments either. No, God gave us the Old Testament for another purpose…

He gave it to us to point us toward Jesus.

Here in Matthew 5, Jesus tells us that He came to fulfill the Old Testament books – to “accomplish their purpose” as the NLT says it. That means Jesus came to finally and fully do what God intended the Law to do. He came to once and for all finish the work the Old Testament started!

All the stories and laws of the Old Testament pointed us toward an undeniable truth: We are sinners in need of salvation. From the opening chapters of Genesis, the Old Testament is clear on the fact that we are alienated from God by our sin and disobedience. The myriad laws and regulations served as a poignant reminder of just how short we had fallen from God’s high standards. Everything in the Old Testament, then, was designed to point us towards our need for a Savior and the salvation God would one day offer through Him.

The apostle Paul hinted at this truth in his letter to the Galatians:

Galatians 3:23-24: “Before the way of faith in Christ was available to us, we were placed under guard by the law. We were kept in protective custody, so to speak, until the way of faith was revealed. Let me put it another way. The law was our guardian until Christ came; it protected us until we could be made right with God through faith.”

The ultimate purpose of the Law wasn’t to give salvation; it was to point us towards our need for it. The ultimate purpose of the Old Testament stories wasn’t to serve as a morality play; it was to show us how God was working from the very beginning to provide us with that salvation. Every law and every story point the way towards who Jesus would be and what He was coming to do.

Mark Driscoll said it like this:

“When Isaac carried his own wood and laid down his life to be sacrificed at the hand of his father Abraham, he was showing us what Jesus would later do… Jesus is greater than Moses in that He stands as a mediator between God and us, bringing us the New Covenant… Jesus is a King greater than David, who has slain our giants of Satan, sin and death, although in the eyes of the world He was certain to face a crushing defeat at their hands. Jesus is greater than Jonah in that He spent three days in the grave and not just a fish to save a multitude even greater than Nineveh.”

Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law. He did everything the Old Testament set out to do. Through Him, we see what these laws and stories are really all about.

Questions to Consider:

1.  How does the Old Testament point us toward Jesus’ work and identity?

2.  Read Romans 8:3-4. How is Jesus greater than the Law?

90s Connection – 06/08/13 from Cornerstone Christian Church on Vimeo.

Visit Applebee’s anytime on Saturday, June 29 and Sunday, June 30 with the flyer and 15% of the proceeds will go towards funding the Christ In Youth trip! It’s that easy!

Applebee’s
4300 Green Mount Crossing Drive Shiloh, IL 62269
Open 11:00 AM to 12:00 AM

Print Dine to Donate Flyer or pick one up at the office window.

Matthew 5:17-20: “Don’t misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not even the smallest detail of God’s law will disappear until its purpose is achieved. So if you ignore the least commandment and teach others to do the same, you will be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven. But anyone who obeys God’s laws and teaches them will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven. But I warn you—unless your righteousness is better than the righteousness of the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven.”

Do you have at least one dollar in your pocket?  Are you sure?  It might seem like a pretty silly question to start off a Monday morning, but I assure you that it is absolutely important.  Believe it or not, you can be arrested for vagrancy in the state of Illinois if you don’t have at least $1 in your pocket (no mention of what happens if you get caught with just your debit card…).

By the way, have you spoken the English language today?  You might want to think twice before you answer this one.  That’s because it is also illegal to speak the English language in the state of Illinois.  Confused?  So was I, until I found out that the English language isn’t actually the official language of our fine state.  Our official language is ‘American.’  No matter what language you think you speak, I think we all call that ‘stupid.’

The fact of the matter is that nearly every state in our Union has some kind of dumb law on its books.  Normally tucked inside actual pieces of legislation, these laws represent the low point of the American judicial system.  While Illinois certainly has some strange laws, we’re no different from the rest of the forty-nine states.  Take a look at some of these laws:

• In Alabama, it is illegal to carry an ice cream cone in your back pocket at any time for any reason.

• In Hawaii, it is illegal to ‘annoy’ any bird while in the confines of a state park (it apparently doesn’t matter if the bird started it or not).

• In Maine, you can be fined for keeping your Christmas decorations up past January 14.

• But, it may be the great state of Wyoming that has the weirdest law.  In Wyoming, it is illegal to take a picture of a rabbit during the month of June.

Now, I know these rules are a little ridiculous.  Most of them don’t make any sense at all.  But, I think they show us something about the culture we live in.  You see, we live in a culture that has a certain cynicism about rules.  We believe that rules are made to be broken.  According to our way of thinking, the rules don’t always apply.  They can be bent.  They can be broken.  So, we disobey.  We ignore.  If the rules don’t always apply, then they don’t have to apply to us.

Sadly, we tend to do the same thing with God’s Law.  We assume it doesn’t apply to us.  We believe that His moral standards are outdated, intended for a different time and a different place.  They can be bent.  They can be broken.  So, we disobey and ignore them.

In so doing, we have made a grave mistake.

As Jesus says in His Sermon on the Mount, He did not come to abolish God’s moral standards.  He didn’t come to wipe away the Law. Rather, He came to fulfill it.  He came to show us the true nature of what the Law was all about.  Jesus’ intent wasn’t to do away with the Law, but to show us what it really means to live with God’s standards in mind.  He did this in two different ways:

• For starters, Jesus fulfilled the Law in His TEACHING.  Looking through this section of the Sermon on the Mount, it’s clear to see that Jesus expanded what the Law had to say.  Though the commandment said not to commit adultery, Jesus said that even lusting was a violation of God’s Law.  Where the commandment condemned murderers, Jesus said that even those who had anger in them were subject to judgment.  Throughout this passage of Scripture, Jesus continually calls us back to the true meaning of God’s commands.  The command about adultery isn’t just about cheating on your spouse physically; it’s also about being pure in every area of your relationship with them.  The commandment about murder isn’t just about killing; it’s also about maintaining right relationships.  Jesus fulfills the Law by showing us what God really requires from us.
• Jesus also fulfilled the Law in His LIFE.  Hebrews 4:16 assures us that He was without sin.  Jesus never broke God’s Law.  He never failed to live up to His Father’s standards.  He always did what was right.  In this way, He was totally unlike us.  He fulfilled God’s Law by doing every single thing it commanded. He lived up to the ideal that Scripture holds out for each one of us.  He succeeded where we failed!  Jesus fulfilled the Law by doing every thing God commands.  By looking to His example, we see what it looks like to truly be obedient to God.

Like Jesus Himself said, He came to fulfill the Law.  He held up and exalted it as God’s righteous standards.  If we’re going to be His people, then we need to be doing the same.

Questions to Consider:

1.  How does Jesus’ example motivate you to value God’s Law?  How can you exalt God’s standards in your own life?

2.  Read Romans 13:8-10.  According to Paul, how do we fulfill the Law?

Deuteronomy 6:7 “Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up.”

Homefront June 15 & 16, 2013 from Cornerstone Christian Church on Vimeo.

Splash City in Collinsville is the place to be on July 15!

Invite all your friends and family. Admission to the park is one canned food item per person to stock the Cornerstone Pantry.

From 6:30-7:30pm feel free to bring a picnic for your family to the pavilions just outside the park.

From 7:30-9:30pm enjoy all that Splash City has to offer!