Wellington Church of Christ

We’re on the fifth lesson of our current series, “The Advanced Lessons,” and we have a ways to go, so I thought it would be a good idea to do a quick refresher.

What is this series about, again?  We’ve reached the transitional turning point in Jesus’ ministry where he’s turned His focus away from the crowds to His disciples.  He’s preparing them with the final lessons they need to learn before beginning their own ministries.

Here’s what we covered in this series thus far:

One of the worst things about living in this world is the spiritually numbing effect that we experience.  What do I mean?  Let’s begin by defining what it means to be “numb.”

The adjective form of the word numb is defined as: deprived of the power of sensation.  The verb form of the word numb is defined as: deprived of feeling or responsiveness.

Isn’t it amazing how we can be so wrong about so many important things?  Before you get mad at me, consider Jesus’ greatest sermon, what we call, the Sermon on the Mount. 

He begins the sermon by explaining to us the origins of true happiness and his prescription for happiness is nothing like any human being would ever imagine.

I think of life as a test mainly because of the Book of Job.  In this largely ignored and misunderstood book of the Bible, it begins with a host of angels presenting themselves before the Lord.  We don’t understand exactly why, but we do know that angels are God’s servants.  Perhaps they are answering to God for what they’ve been doing.

History has proven that there is nothing more challenging to the church than what we refer to as the “gray” areas of scripture.  What does that mean?  Gray areas are things that the scripture does not specifically address.

In contrast, we refer to the areas in scripture that are clear as the “black and white” areas.  An example of a black and white issue would be something like Exodus 20:15,

We are starting a new series I’ve entitled, “The Advanced Lessons.”   In Matthew, chapters seventeen through twenty, Jesus withdraws from the multitudes to spend the majority of His time with His disciples. 

In this, His last six months on Earth prior to His crucifixion, He will prepare His disciples for their future ministries.  The first of these advanced lessons comes in Matthew 17:14-21.

When I went through short-term missions training, I was taught a little bit about how to not be noticed while traveling to and from mission destinations.  In third world countries standing out can be dangerous.  One of the reasons I was taught to not stand out is because if you appear to be a person of means, it may make you a target for thieves, so it’s good to blend in.

Last year, for a New Year’s sermon, I preached the text of 2 Corinthians 4:16-18,

16 Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. 17 For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, 18 while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

and set the following resolutions for 2020:

Every new year I like to go through the Bible to see how Bible verses correspond with the new year.  For instance, this upcoming year is 2021, so I look at every book of the Bible that has a chapter “20” and a verse “21,” just to see what they say.

There’s nothing prophetic or mystical about it, but it’s fun.  This year I thought we could look at the verses together and see what 20:21 has in store for us…

We’ve all heard the saying, “The best things in life are free,” but is that true?  I think that it’s both true and false.

I would modify the saying to say, “Few of the best things in life are free.” 

Think about it.  Now name some good things that are free.  One might say, “To behold the beauty of nature is free.”  Is that free?  Because the last time I checked, it costs me quite a lot to enjoy the beauty of nature.