God Wants it All - Pastor Johnnie Simpson Jr.

Luke 14:25-33

25 Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said:26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. 27 And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

28 “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? 29 For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, 30 saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’

31 “Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. 33 In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.

I am a joiner; I like to join organizations, especially if those organizations help me accomplish the goals I set for my personal development. I have joined the Masonic Order, I have joined Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Incorporated, and I look at different social clubs, networking organizations, community groups, and the like to see if I would be a good fit for them or if being involved with them is a good use of my time. There are still some organizations I would like to join during my lifetime; however, I must consider some things before I go further. Before entering any new group or organization, I at least want to know, what it takes to join the group, and how much it is going to cost. The cost of organizations varies; I am in one organization that has yearly dues that cost as much as a lifetime membership for another organization. 

There are exclusive clubs in this world. Certain country clubs come to mind, demanding six-figure initiation fees. The wealthier members can presumably afford it. But what club requires everything of its members? The church of Jesus Christ. We find Jesus talking about the membership fee in the Gospel According to Luke, chapter 14. Jesus is addressing the crowd in this passage. 

One of the essential characters in the Gospel According to Luke, is the crowd. I like the Gospel according to John because John always says, "the disciple whom Jesus loved," and I can put my name in that place. Luke is growing on me because he has a trait where he mentions the crowds. Luke wants the readers to know that this man named Jesus is not just going around performing parlor tricks in private, that Jesus is doing things for the world to see. 

Cost is what we give up to acquire, accomplish, maintain, or produce something. It involves a measure of sacrifice and perhaps loss or penalty in gaining something. Cost requires effort and resources.  The process of discipleship takes time and has false starts and modest successes, and nothing of worth is accomplished overnight. 

At the heart of discipleship is transformation. The cost of discipleship is not just becoming accumulators of new information about life and living it fully or changing our behavior in regard to Jesus' teachings. The cost is engaging in a profoundly radical shift toward the ethics of Jesus with every fiber of our beings. 

Jesus lets his disciples know that the road he is walking is not without its sacrifices; to follow Jesus is not without its heavy demands; to carry the cross is not without its tangible consequences. We must be willing to endure these consequences if we ever hope to experience the promised rewards of following Jesus' way. 

You must become a disciple with your eyes wide open, counting the cost of this decision. Jesus is telling us to read the fine print. When the text says hate the, it does not mean hate as we use it today, some things get lost in translation (we are reading about a Hebrew who spoke Aramaic, had his words written in Hebrew, Greek, Latin, etc. until we got it in English). Jesus means that we should place anything above God in order of priority. God comes first.  

When Jesus says consider the cost to avoid embarrassment, he means that people will have something to say if you don't plan out something and it fails, regardless of whether they could do a better job or even know how to do it. 

On a hillside above the town of Oban, Scotland, there is a gray granite structure known as McCaig's Tower. It has an alternate name: McCaig's Folly. Passengers waiting to board the ferry to the sacred Isle of Iona can look and see this circular stone wall looming over them. It vaguely resembles the ancient Roman Colosseum, but you can see nothing but sky through its gaping windows, and it's nothing but a shell.

This massive stone monument was never finished. John Stuart McCaig, a wealthy banker, was the man who conceived the project. You do have to say this, on old McCaig's behalf: he did count the cost before the first stone was laid. The tower was supposed to cost 5,000 pounds sterling, nearly $1 million in today's money.

Work began in 1897 and continued until 1902 when Mr. McCaig died of a heart attack. Part of his purpose had been to give off-season work to local stonemasons. The project indeed fulfilled that purpose for as long as it lasted. Even though McCaig had made provision in his will for the tower to be completed, his heirs disagreed. They saw the project as too costly. The heirs went to court and successfully challenged Mr. McCaig's will, stopped construction work, and to this day, McCaig's Folly stands as a monument to a dream never realized.

Mr. McCaig had grand visions for his tower; he wanted a lasting monument to his family; it was to include a museum and art gallery: a real showplace for the little town of Oban. A central tower would display heroic statues of McCaig, his siblings, and their parents. 

But that's not how people remember it today. They don't remember the dream, only the disappointing reality. When tourists ask what's that up on the hillside, the locals point at the gaping windows and lack of a roof. They reply, "That's McCaig's Folly."

What do you suppose those we leave behind will say of our Christian lives after we've gone on to our reward? Will they say, "Well done, good and faithful servant"? Or will they sigh and say, "What a folly!"?

Working out our discipleship in terms of what we give away and keep for ourselves is no small issue. What we own can come to own us, posing a serious threat to our spiritual welfare.  Working out our discipleship requires a costly, challenging, and lengthy process. 

When I was driving to Seminary in Dallas, there was a peach store along the way on Interstate 45; when I had time, I would stop there because they had some excellent peaches and sold peach preserves. The process of canning preserves ensures the food is edible and flavorful for a long time. You must endure the process because a misstep in the process will harm the taste and quality of the food. Preserves taste good and last long, but you must surrender the desire to eat the food right away; you can't have the peaches right off the tree; you have to take them through the process. 

We want and receive radical grace from God. The Bible says in Romans 3:23 that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. God still loves us; well, this radical grace we receive also comes with some costly discipleship. Discipleship is not for the faint of heart; we have to deny ourselves, carry a cross, focus on the eternal, and use the gifts that God gave us for God's glory in our daily lives. We have to place our commitment to God above everything else. 

Jesus wants to save us, to be sure. That's what he's all about and why we call him "Savior." It turns out that what he most wants to save us from is ourselves. Jesus has no problem asking people to give something up for the Kingdom of God because he will give it all up for all creation.

Fresh vs. Stale Water - Pastor Johnnie Simpson Jr.

Jeremiah 2:4-13 

4 Hear the word of the Lord, you descendants of Jacob, all you clans of Israel.

5 This is what the Lord says: “What fault did your ancestors find in me, that they strayed so far from me? They followed worthless idols and became worthless themselves.

6 They did not ask, ‘Where is the Lord, who brought us up out of Egypt and led us through the barren wilderness, through a land of deserts and ravines, a land of drought and utter darkness, a land where no one travels and no one lives?’

7 I brought you into a fertile land to eat its fruit and rich produce. But you came and defiled my land and made my inheritance detestable.

8 The priests did not ask, ‘Where is the Lord?’ Those who deal with the law did not know me; the leaders rebelled against me. The prophets prophesied by Baal, following worthless idols.

9 “Therefore I bring charges against you again,” declares the Lord. “And I will bring charges against your children’s children.

10 Cross over to the coasts of Cyprus and look, send to Kedar and observe closely; see if there has ever been anything like this:

11 Has a nation ever changed its gods? (Yet they are not gods at all.) But my people have exchanged their glorious God for worthless idols.

12 Be appalled at this, you heavens, and shudder with great horror,” declares the Lord.

13 “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.

As an elected official, I have learned more about water in the past few months than I ever thought. I am learning about treatment plants, flood planes, floodways, dredging, drainage, ditch grades, and a whole bunch of other water-related topics. I had the opportunity to visit a cistern on a field trip recently. A massive structure that could hold 15 million gallons of water when filled, they decommissioned it in 2007. The city found a better way to store and process water, so they moved on to that. I think we all think about water; we need it to survive, prepare food, clean ourselves, and clean our places; water is essential to us. Water is vital to the people of the Bible as well. 

In By Water and By Spirit

"Water provides the central symbolism for baptism. The richness of its meaning for the Christian community is suggested in the baptismal liturgy, which speaks of the waters of creation and the flood, the liberation of God's people by passage through the sea, the gift of water in the wilderness, and the passage through the Jordan River to the promised land. In baptism, we identify ourselves with this people of God and join the community's journey toward God. The use of water in baptism also symbolizes cleansing from sin, death to old life, and rising to begin new life in Christ. In United Methodist tradition, the water of baptism may be administered by sprinkling, pouring, or immersion. However it is administered, water should be utilized with enough generosity to enhance our appreciation of its symbolic meanings."

We see a passage about water here in Jeremiah. 

Jeremiah the prophet spoke on behalf of God for an incredibly long and anguished number of years, from the time of King Josiah (640 to 609 B.C.) through the fall of Jerusalem to Babylon (586 B.C.) and beyond. Despite tremendous opposition, including plots against him, he persisted in speaking this divine word, which compelled him from within to speak (20:9). Prophets don't always say what you want to hear; they will tell you what you need to hear.

Jeremiah 2-3 reads like a lawsuit, and God has summoned the House of Jacob. The people of God got used to success and left while the getting was good. God led the people through all kinds of disasters, and they still left God. 

The chosen people of God have chosen other gods; they shunned God's purposes, even if it meant shunning God's provision. Now whatever provision they have made for themselves ran out. Jeremiah called out everybody, priests, prophets, politicians, and everyday people. There were people in all camps that had turned away. God wants to know, "what did I do wrong that made you all turn away?"

The people went looking for something other than the Almighty, and that, Jeremiah says, is precisely what they have: gods who are no gods. Gods who cannot hear or answer prayer, who cannot save them, now that calamity is upon them, and trouble has come their way. Change and chance can happen to us all, and everything we thought was worth something could be worthless in the blink of an eye.

At the time of the writing, Babylon is either just about to take Israel over or has already done so. When the opposing army tries to take over a city, they cut off communication to other places, they cut off supplies, and they cut off water. The town has no more connection to running water, but that is ok because they still have cisterns with water they saved.

Cisterns were a big part of daily life in the ancient Middle East, this was a desert climate, and there was no such thing as indoor plumbing. A cistern is an underground storage tank that collects runoff from the roof in the rainy season. In the height of summer, the cisterns offered their accumulated supply through many thirsty days. Cistern water didn't taste the best; water from a stream or brook was far preferable—but it could still sustain life.

One attraction of the self-devised cisterns we construct to sustain our lives is that we feel we can control them. We like to control what is around us; even if we aren't in control, we want to feel like we are in control. The people lost their access to moving water, so they depended on the cisterns; the cisterns are going empty and are cracked, and now you need fresh water again. 

What is truly an abomination to the Lord? What in our behaviors is an abomination to the Lord? We tend to look for "abomination" in our neighbor's behaviors or foreign behavior. The speck in our neighbor's eye keeps us from seeing the beam in our own. The people thought they could survive and thrive without God and look where it got them.

Remember God's track record

God brought them out of Egypt, God had them cross the sea on dry land, God kept them in the wilderness, made sure they had something to eat, and God brought them into the promised land. God is the same yesterday, today, and forevermore and the God that did all of that is the God that is with them in their troubles. God has a track record and proof of performance; if you stick with him, he will provide for your needs. 

Return to God

It is never too late to return to God. Call on his name, confess your sins, turn it all over to God, and he will take you back. The text says what God wants us to say, look at what God has done for you. He has done it before and will do it again. You are in the family, God loves you, and there is nothing you can do about it. 

Run to the Living Water

Living in an active relationship with the life-giving God of the Scriptures brings obligations: the patient work of worship and prayer, acting compassionately and working for justice. It is when we participate in the redemptive work of God—keeping promises, welcoming strangers, forgiving debts—that we drink from the fountain of the living God and discover a quality of life both sustaining and sustainable. 

Jesus at the well with the woman of Samaria

John 4:13-14

13 Jesus answered and said to her, "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life."

Be not dismayed whate'er betide,

God will take care of you;

Beneath his wings of love abide,

God will take care of you.

God will take care of you

Through everyday o'er all the way

He will care for you

God will take care of you

Through days of toil when heart doth fail

God will take care of you

When dangers fierce your path assail

God will take care of you

God will take care of you

Through everyday o'er all the way

He will care for you

God will take care of you

The Original Cloud - Pastor Johnnie Simpson Jr.

29 By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned. 30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the army had marched around them for seven days. 31 By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient. 32 And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, 33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies.35 Women received back their dead, raised to life again. There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. 36 Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— 38 the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground. 39 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, 40 since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.

12 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

July 1976 felt like a momentous time for the people of the United States. That month, we celebrated the 200th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and its inspired American Revolution. During that same time, another event happened. This event didn't make the newspapers, and most Americans had no idea it was happening. But it would change their lives forever.

At a meeting of the Homebrew Computer Club of Palo Alto, California, a 25-year-old electronic engineer named Steve Wozniak unveiled a new computer. He and his business partner, Steve Jobs, had just invented it. Its plastic keyboard poked up through an opening in a wooden case. They called it the Apple I. It was the first commercially successful personal computer. In 2021 an Apple I computer sold at an auction for $400,000. The collector who bought it wanted an Apple I because it was a piece of history.

It's hard to imagine our lives without personal computers, including desktops, laptops, tablets, or those powerful smartphones we carry in our pockets or purses. When computers first came out, the computer room would be as big as this sanctuary, and now you can fit some inside a breath mint box. When computers first came out, storage was a problem; hard drives and disk space took up a lot of space; now, we can save our data to the cloud. The internet and the World Wide Web arrived and connected us in ways we couldn't have imagined just a few years before. Everything syncs to the cloud automatically. You don't have to worry about losing your family photos or documents. They're out there, safely stored away in the cloud!

But cloud computing, on which so many depend, is not the original cloud. That distinction belongs to another cloud — one that's equally invisible, more mysterious, and harder to wrap our minds around. We read about it in Hebrews 12:1: "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses …."

A great cloud of witnesses surrounds us, says this anonymous apostle. And who are these witnesses, this vast cloud of people who surround us on every side? The preceding verses lay it all out for us.

The author writes to us about the faith held by Abraham and Sarah, Jacob and Joseph, Moses and the whole company of wandering Israelites, and even Rahab.

There's a list of other, unnamed faithful ones as well: people who suffered mightily to keep the faith. Some "suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned to death; they were sawn in two, killed by the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, persecuted, tormented — of whom the world was not worthy" (11:36-38).

Many of us see our nation as the home of rugged individualists: the lone cowboy, strong and self-sufficient. Our homes are our castles. Our idea is to make our way in the world, to rely on others for nothing. Far too many distrust yearning for the community as a sign of weakness.

Sociologist Robert D. Putnam has spent much of his life studying this hyper-individualistic national trait of ours. In a recent book, The Upswing, he mentions the research of social psychologist James Pennebaker on how our preferred pronouns reveal our deepest values as we talk with others.

Pennebaker has analyzed how often people use "I" instead of "we." He has found that people in the strongest marriages use "we" more often than those with strained relationships. He has also found that the most deeply self-confident people are generous in their use of "we"; it's insecure who favor "I." Moreover, frequent use of "I" is correlated with the risk of depression or suicide, and it's a more reliable marker for depression than words like "sad."

We must understand that we are in this together, and our faith connects us. The substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. We exercise faith all the time, even outside of our religious habits. We go to bed and wake up in a house we didn't build, eat food many of us didn't grow, drive cars we didn't engineer, on roads we didn't make, with other drivers we didn't train. We go to doctors and take medicine we didn't make and trust other professionals when provided with little to no information. 

Faith allowed the people of Israel to walk on dry land when Pharaoh's army chased them. Faith allowed the people to walk around the walls of Jericho until they fell. Faith is why Rahab helped the people of God take the promised land. Faith helped Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets. Over and over again, the Bible gives us stories of people who won because they had faith, faith to conquer kingdoms, received promises, and survive in a lion's den. Faith helped heal the sick, raise the dead, put out fires, and scare armies into running away. Faith gave the people victory. Some had names; some did not. These were not perfect people, but they had a heart for God and faith. Faith can lead to some amazing results, and faith can lead to courage in rough situations.

The text lets us know that faith isn't only for the good times, but faith also held the people together during the bad times. Faith held people while they suffered mocking, flogging, and prison. Faith kept the people while they were wandering in the desert, and faith kept the people while they were destitute, persecuted, and tormented. Faith is not just for bright days and fun nights; faith is what we hold on to when the doctor tells us they have bad news, faith is what we hold on to when money is low and bills are due; faith is all we have when it seems like everyone around us is gone. When you have fake friends, you still have faith; when you have real enemies, you still have faith. 

Faith has a long memory and profits from the experiences of those who came before us. Faith can be understood within the bigger picture. Trusting God is the best approach for everyday people, every time and every place. 

The same God that was with the people who succeeded and was with the people who were suffering is with you during your trials and tribulations. 

We can do it because we can look to Christ. After all, Christ was willing to endure for greater glory. Jesus was a pioneer and perfecter of our faith, and Jesus gives us what we need to run the race with perseverance. 

When running a race, joy isn't found in something other than the race; instead, it's located at the end of the race for those who complete it. In chapter 10, the author says Christ came to do the will of God (10:9), which included perfection through suffering, even the suffering of death (2:10; 5:9). Consequently, he endured the cross knowing that joy lay beyond the act of completing the will of his Father.

Having completed this race, Jesus now sits on the right hand of God, referring to Psalm 110:1, which is evoked throughout the letter (1:3, 13; 8:1; 10:12). Jesus, then, is the prime example of faithfulness. He endured a horrible death and attained an unparalleled position of honor. The author turns to Christ as the climax of all his examples of faith to encourage the audience to stay steadfast until they complete their race. 

He is enduringly strong; He is immortally graceful.

He supplies strength to the weak. He's available for the tempted and 

the tried. He sympathizes, and He saves. He is our guard, and He guides. He heals the sick. He cleanses the lepers. He forgives sinners. He discharges debtors. He delivers the captives. He defends the feeble. He blesses the young. He serves the unfortunate. He regards the aged. He rewards the diligent, and He beautifies the meek. 

Jesus is Mary's baby. 

He was born in someone else's cradle, rode to town on someone else's donkey, gave himself up for someone else's sins, and was placed in someone else's tomb, but got up on the third day with all power in his hand. 

The Need for Clean - Pastor Johnnie Simpson Jr.

1 The vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah son of Amoz saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

10 Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom; listen to the instruction of our God, you people of Gomorrah!

11 “The multitude of your sacrifices— what are they to me?” says the Lord. “I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.

12 When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts?

13 Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations— I cannot bear your worthless assemblies.

14 Your New Moon feasts and your appointed festivals I hate with all my being. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them.

15 When you spread out your hands in prayer, I hide my eyes from you; even when you offer many prayers, I am not listening.

Your hands are full of blood!

16 Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong.

17 Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.

18 “Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.

19 If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good things of the land;

20 but if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword.” For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

I have noticed cleaning technology has changed. I remember growing up and washing dishes by hand; now, I enjoy the benefits of a dishwasher and a washer machine that I don't have to run and add fabric softener in at the right time. In dealing with the pandemic, I have seen all kinds of new devices that keep people and things clean to prevent us from spreading germs. 

Today you have washing machines you can program and connect to the internet and robotic vacuum cleaners that sweep floors without you even getting off the couch. Some computers and applications will tell you the status of the cleaning device and if any parts need repair. We have come a long way from scrubbing clothes on washboards and running them through a wringer. No matter how much cleaning technology has changed, we still need to clean things. 

Speaking through Isaiah, God has opinions about his people and how they need cleaning.  Isaiah's name means Yahweh is deliverance, Yahweh will save, or Yahweh has saved. Isaiah is considered a major prophet and the first book of the major prophets because Isaiah lived around 150 years before Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Isaiah had a vision from God. Isaiah wrote to a people around a political expansion, the cities became more urban, and the gap between the wealthy and the poor increased. 

People turned from God, things got bad, then things got worse, and Isaiah is begging the people to turn back toward God, truly turn back toward him and not for play. Israel was conquered and oppressed during this time, and even though people were oppressed, they still found a way to oppress others. When I say they turned from God, it did not look like they turned away to an outsider. These people still gathered for worship and did all the ceremonial tasks of a believer; they just didn't live a life for God outside of the church. They came to church, could recite all the liturgy in the hymnal, and sing the songs without cracking open the book. They could recite scripture at the drop of a dime and go as long as you wanted them to. The people had the right actions, just not the right intention. If you take those same people out of the church, you would not even know they were saved. 

The people had empty worship, and God hated it. God said they were like Sodom and Gomorrah; this phrase was synonymous with destruction back then. Mentioning those cities by name became another word for disaster. For example, if someone were to say a town got Hurricane Harvey'd, now most of us in the Gulf Coast of Texas wouldn't need further explanation. 

People like to think that Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed for a specific sin and that sin was around sexuality; however (Ezekiel 16:49) tells us that the cities were not destroyed because of sexuality; they were destroyed for greed and injustice. 

49 "'Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. 50 They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen.

When these sacrifices were made, the person making the sacrifice was supposed to do the action with faith, believing that through their obedience, the wrath of God against sin would be mitigated. One of the problems was that people got more focused on the ritual and the patterns than the relationship with God. God is tired of the emptiness of rituals, sacrifices, and burnt offerings. God told the people don't act like you genuinely love or obey me; you just go through the motions. I hate it and don't want it anymore. We have to do more than talk about it. Isaiah is telling us to take action. We cannot just sit around and talk about what needs to be cleaned; we have to clean it. 

STOP doing evil

Isaiah tells the people to wash, make themselves clean, remove the evil doings, and stop doing evil. What does it mean to stop doing evil? I think it starts with caring about more than yourself. I would learn in history classes about the evil things people would do to others, enslave people, pillage, and take whatever and whoever they wanted. One common thread with all that behavior was that the oppressors didn't see the people they oppressed as human. They only cared about themselves and nothing else. We are all created in God's image, and if we want to stop treating people horribly, we first have to think about more than ourselves and see the other side as someone created in God's image.

LEARN to do good

It is never too late to learn to do good. No matter your age or academic aptitude, there is always time to learn to do good things. The adage says the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, the second best time is now. We can always find time to do something new. You learn new things by getting exposure to new things and new people. If we hang around the same people, doing the same thing, we will get the same results. God wants us to learn how to do the good stuff, not just do the same things. 

SEEK justice, DEFEND others

Theologian James Cone said that God is on the side of the oppressed. We cannot be Christians outside of community, and we cannot take social justice out of the Bible. The Bible is full of instructions to defend the widow and the orphan, to welcome the stranger, and to take care of people who need help taking care of themselves. If you can't see that in the Bible, it might be because you have lived your life as pharaoh instead of the people calling for freedom, you have been the Babylonians instead of the people in captivity, or the Roman empire instead of the people following the way. God has been there with the people at their lowest, helping them to get out, and that is what we are called to do as believers. 

The good news is that even though we are dirty now, Isaiah tells us how to get clean; it's not too late to get clean. The text says that they will be like the snow. The people have been handling bloody things, and God wants to make them like the snow. They shall be like wool. We get wool from sheep and young sheep, lambs. 

Isaiah 9:6

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.

And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Rich Toward God - Pastor Johnnie Simpson Jr.

Luke 12:13-21

13 Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” 14 But he said to him, “Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?” 15 And he said to them, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” 16 Then he told them a parable: “The land of a rich man produced abundantly. 17 And he thought to himself, ‘What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?’ 18 Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ 20 But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21 So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”

Because of my education in business, I don't consider myself the most brilliant investor, but I know enough to be dangerous. Because I know enough to be dangerous, I stay away from certain things people sell, pretending to be investments. One of which has been cryptocurrency. 

Investors tout cryptocurrency as the currency of the future and are lining up to invest now before they become more valuable. But there is a problem: cryptocurrency is highly speculative. Just like real currencies, cryptocurrencies generate no cash flow, so for you to profit, someone must pay more for the currency than you did. This is what's called "the greater fool" theory of investment. 

We cannot put our money into things that won't last; we have to put money into something that will help the greater good. 

Jesus talked about money a lot in the Bible, but we don't talk about it a lot in church. 11 out of 40 of Jesus' parables mentioned money. In the Gospel, according to Luke, money is mentioned an average of once every seven verses. I recall many people getting worked up about Creflo Dollar and his comments on tithing recently; I did not participate in much of the back, and forth because I knew a hard fact, most people don't tithe. The average giver in the church gives somewhere around 2 percent to 2.5 percent of their income. 

Tithing Statistics 

• 5% of churchgoers tithe (Church Development).

• 1.5 million people tithe out of the 247 million U.S. citizens identifying as Christians (Sharefaith).

• 77% of tithers give more than 10% (Health Research Funding).

• If every Christian tithed 10%, faith organizations would have an extra $139 billion yearly (Health Research Funding).

• The giving preferences of those who tithe are almost evenly split between eGiving (27%) and traditional giving (28%) (Vanco Churchgoer Giving Study).

Average Giving Per Person in church

• The average weekly giving amount per churchgoer is $17 per week (Health Research Funding).

• That's $73.67 a month per giver.

• That's $884 a year per giver.

• U.S. Christians collectively make $5.2 trillion annually—nearly half the world's total Christian income (Health Research Funding).

https://www.vancopayments.com/egiving/church-giving-statistics-tithing?fbclid=IwAR0Ptlftjf0p2FsSYQ00VNtR02jrn5lmmLtUWMD-Cdb4KY5ogOZ0K03FJME

Jesus has been preaching to the crowd in Luke chapter 12, and a young man comes up wanting Jesus to resolve a dispute between the young man and his brother. Resolving disputes was common in the Bible; Moses did it, and there is also a book called Judges. The Book of Deuteronomy 21 tells us how the sons are supposed to divide an inheritance, and it seems like the young man in front of Jesus did not get his fair share. Jesus doesn't make a judgment or rule but instead takes the time to teach the people not about money but priorities. 

The rich fool in the parable had a preoccupation with possessions, put too much security in self-sufficiency, and was under the grasp of Greed. The rich fool thought he knew the future; he thought they would only get better because things were good now. Other people have this same thought. A large corporation turns a profit this year; they expect even more profit next year; if they don't get the increased profit the following year, someone is getting fired. We always expect tomorrow to be greater than yesterday, and so did the rich fool in the parable. 

Jesus was not anti-rich; he was anti-greed. "Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions" (v. 15). The first warning, "Take care," is a Greek word meaning "to see," as in to understand and comprehend. Jesus is saying, "You don't get it! Open your eyes and guard against Greed in all its forms." Security was important in ancient times when thievery was common and easier than today with all our hi-tech protection options. "Peer into the darkness; make sure no one is lurking in an alley with a baseball bat. Keep your wits about you. Do not let Greed grab you by the throat and rob you of your life."

This is Jesus' meaning: Greed is a detour that quickly becomes a one-way street to a dead-end road. There's no cul-de-sac; you can't turn around. Once greedy, always greedy. This is the dark, dirty little secret about avarice: Once it's grabbed you, it's got you, and you're hooked. You will always be unhappy; what you have will never be enough. No wonder Jesus says, "For one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions" (v. 15).

The alternative to Greed is generosity — like the widow whom Jesus and the disciples watched as she donated the temple. She taught the disciples that generosity is more than an amount — it's an attitude. It's measured not by how much we give but by how much it costs us. "Truly I tell you," Jesus said, "this poor widow has put in more than all of them; for all of them have contributed out of their abundance, but she, out of her poverty, has put in all she had to live on" (Luke 21:3-4).

Jesus doesn't pull any punches; the word used for a fool in the text not only means without reason, senseless, foolish, or inconsiderate. The word for fool is closely related to the word which refers to the diaphragm and midriff and the breathing process — inhaling and exhaling. It's as though Jesus is saying to the fool: "You big bag of wind! You're partying like there's no tomorrow when in fact, for you, there's no tonight. This very night, your soul is required of you. It's over."

Luke 12:13–21 invites us to place our trust in something more durable than the volatile fluctuations of a global economy. Instead of banking on more and larger storage barns, God invites all into the eternal economy of Christ's grace and mercy. That is good news in every season of the year. 

Being rich and possessing an abundance of belongings isn't the problem. Forgetting God - forgetting to get down on your knees and thank God, the giver of life and all things - is the problem. Jesus notes the irony. The man thinks he is the creator of his wealth. Jesus says, "Not so." It was the land that produced the abundant crop. The rich man had little to do with it. God gave him his blessings! 

Being rich toward God entails using resources to benefit one's neighbor in need, as the Samaritan did (10:25–37). Being rich toward God includes intentionally listening to Jesus' word, as Mary did (10:38–42). Being rich toward God consists of prayerfully trusting that God will provide for the needs of life (11:1–13; 12:22–31). Being rich toward God involves giving alms to establish a lasting treasure in heaven (12:32–34).

Ecology for Christians - Pastor Johnnie Simpson Jr.

Colossians 2:6-19 NRSV

2:6 As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, 

2:7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

2:8 See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ.

2:9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,

2:10 and you have come to fullness in him, who is the head of every ruler and authority.

2:11 In him also you were circumcised with a spiritual circumcision, by putting off the body of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ;

2:12 when you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.

2:13 And when you were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses,

2:14 erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross.

2:15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it.

2:16 Therefore do not let anyone condemn you in matters of food and drink or of observing festivals, new moons, or sabbaths.

2:17 These are only a shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.

2:18 Do not let anyone disqualify you, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, dwelling on visions, puffed up without cause by a human way of thinking,

2:19 and not holding fast to the head, from whom the whole body, nourished and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows with a growth that is from God.

I get fascinated with the process of development as I get older. I think about what goes on behind the scenes before we see the big show. When I listen to a musician play an instrument, I wonder about the hours of practice they put in before the performance. When I see an actor on the stage, I wonder how long did they rehearse? I will look at a business being successful or relocating to a new city, and I wonder about the negotiations that took place to get the company there. 

Why? Because I learned that no matter where you see someone standing, they did not get there by themselves and did not get there overnight. We are looking at a finished product without knowing how much work it took to get there. 

For that very reason, I appreciate trees more now than I did in the past. I have learned that trees work together. Suzanne Simard, an ecologist, has studied trees extensively and discovered that underground, trees communicate with one another with their roots and fungus underground. Trees in the sunlight send nutrients to trees in the shade. Trees will let other trees know if there are bugs nesting in them so that the other trees can produce more sap to keep bugs from climbing the other trees. 

Mycorrhizal (Mike oh rise ah) networks create a community in the forest. In them, a fungus assists the trees by helping to supply their needs, and the trees help the fungus by providing it with sugar. 

The bottom line is this: Trees are not competitive organisms. Instead, “each tree invests in the well-being of the forest as a whole

When Paul was writing to the followers of Christ in Colossae, the apostle Paul sounded a great deal like a forest ecologist: “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him” (Colossians 2:6-7). Christians are not to live as isolated individuals but to be rooted in Christ, nourished by Christ, and built up in Christ. Paul was writing his letter to the Colossian church because deceitful philosophies were going around and other views on how religion was supposed to operate. People were promoting the deceitful philosophy that the knowledge of God was supposed to come from within the individual. Paul, however, is saying that knowledge of God comes from God. 

Paul is preaching against the myth of the self-made person, the rugged individualism, and the thought that we all suffer alone and the only way out is to do it yourself. Paul says that we have to do more than just live together; we ought to communicate and help one another on the Christian journey. 

Paul is saying this Christian Journey is not an individual journey but a communal one. We are in this together, with one another, loving and helping one another. Not only are we supposed to work together, but we are supposed to work together right now. Paul says not to worry about ascending to God. Paul wants the church to take action right now to help your neighbor live in gratitude. 

We begin by being rooted in Christ. Nothing is more important than Christian formation, which starts in childhood and continues until our lives on this earth end. Most of this happens in the home, where parents are challenged to show their children. Christlike love and spouses are to be as faithful to each other as Christ is to the church. The church can help families do this by assisting them to form the qualities that Paul lays out for the Colossians: “compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience” (3:12).

Then we communicate with each other. Like the fungal fibers, we carry information between different parts of the body of Christ. This is done best in face-to-face conversation, but it can be done carefully and gently through other forms of communication as well. We must be willing to speak to one another, not just the pastor. It is much easier for 100 people to have conversations with one another than for the pastor to have 100 different conversations. 

“Faith communities speak lovingly but truthfully to their members,” wrote journalist Robin Givhan in a column about congregations. “In that way, they are, one hopes, like family. None of that is possible without a willingness to take a risk, to open oneself to a wounded ego, slings, and arrows, a broken heart.” When we do this, we try to take people at their word and avoid being judgmental. We make room for everyone’s flaws and failures and try to build each other up.

Then we nourish each other and sacrifice for each other. Mycorrhizal fibers carry water, carbon, and nitrogen from tree to tree. In the same way, we are to carry encouragement, guidance, and support from person to person. We do this when we lift the spirits of people who are feeling discouraged, mentor teenagers, struggling with their faith, and support people who have lost their spouses.

As members of the Christian community, we invest not only in the welfare of individuals but in the well-being of the church as a whole. This involves gifts of time, talents, and money given in support of the mission and ministry of the church. In all of this, we follow the sacrifice of Jesus, who was killed when people “put him to death by hanging him on a tree” (Acts 10:39). Growing deeper and larger: That is “a growth that is from God” (v. 19). We grow deeper when we study and reflect on the Bible, when we ask the Holy Spirit to help us pray “with sighs too deep for words” (Romans 8:26), and when we enter deep-spirited friendships with people around us.

But we also need to grow larger by planting seeds in the community around us. We do this by sharing the gospel through podcasts, blogs, and live-streamed services of worship, and we do it by knocking on doors and getting to know our neighbors. And we do it best by sharing the love of Jesus with our family members and friends.

Just Words - Pastor Johnnie Simpson Jr.

Psalm 52

1 Why do you boast of evil, you mighty hero? Why do you boast all day long, you who are a disgrace in the eyes of God?

2 You who practice deceit, your tongue plots destruction; it is like a sharpened razor.

3 You love evil rather than good, falsehood rather than speaking the truth.

4 You love every harmful word, you deceitful tongue!

5 Surely God will bring you down to everlasting ruin: He will snatch you up and pluck you from your tent; he will uproot you from the land of the living.

6 The righteous will see and fear; they will laugh at you, saying,

7 “Here now is the man who did not make God his stronghold but trusted in his great wealth and grew strong by destroying others!”

8 But I am like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God; I trust in God’s unfailing love for ever and ever.

9 For what you have done I will always praise you in the presence of your faithful people. And I will hope in your name, for your name is good.

Something I've been working on is watching what I say and resisting the urge to say something right away. There are meetings where I will purposely let multiple people speak before I provide my input, and there are situations where people ask me for advice, and instead of giving them direct advice, I ask questions. The reason is that I am working on controlling my speech and being more measured with my words. I want to get the most bang for the buck when I speak; to do that; I realize I have to spend a little more time thinking about what I want to say and how I want to say it. I spend time reading psychological counseling and business leadership/coaching books, and they say the same things; less is more. The tongue is powerful, and we should care how we use this organ. It is amazing what one of the smallest organs in our bodies can do. 

Just think of what the tongue can do. It's more flexible than any other part of the body. It can enlarge, it can contract, and it can twist itself into any number of shapes. The tongue is essential to the digestive system. When we eat, it churns food around in our mouths, coating it with saliva. Then, when we swallow, it pushes the food on its way down the throat to the stomach. The tongue is also home to our taste buds; it tells our brains whether food is sweet, sour, salty, or bitter. The tongue is an early warning system, helping us avoid harmful foods and leading us toward foods that foster health.

The tongue resembles a muscle in many ways — mainly composed of muscle tissue — but it doesn't function like any other muscle in the body. It's not anchored to bone by ligaments like the muscles that move the skeletal system. The tongue moves freely on its own. The tongue has another, completely different purpose besides its essential role in the digestive system, and it's our principal organ of speech.

We all can be better about controlling our tongues or controlling our speech. I know I am not the only one who has had something happen and later thought, "I wish I had not said that," or maybe, "I wish I would have said this." We are all at some level, thinking or rethinking what we let come out of our mouths at a particular time. We can all think of someone we feel does not talk enough, or maybe someone we think talks too much. 

A woman known as a harsh critic of other people once told John Wesley, "Mr. Wesley, my talent is to speak my mind."

"Madam," Wesley replied, "God wouldn't care a bit if you would bury that talent."

Words are the common coin of our social relationships. Sometimes we belittle them, disparaging political speech as "only rhetoric." We complain about trivial "small-talk" conversations, not realizing how subtly they function as the glue in many relationships.

Yet, words can be so compelling. Just think of what it means to hear someone say, "I love you" — or to hear that same person say, "I never want to see you again." Words can be as airy and insubstantial as dust motes floating in a sunbeam, or they can be deadly daggers, running us through to the heart.

Psalm 52 is what biblical scholars call a "psalm of imprecation." The target of the singer's righteous rage is anonymous, but it's not hard to discern that this enemy — "O mighty one" — is powerful. This adversary is treacherous in spirit and relentless in battling people of faith: a villain who loves evil and delights in "plotting destruction." Sometimes we need to verbalize our gripes and issues. Psalm 52 mentions a no-good, down, and dirty person. Someone who was a conniving politician that lied his way to the top, someone who loved evil more than good, someone who had a lying tongue, someone who trusted in riches and sought wealth. 

To understand Psalm 52, you have to go back to first Samuel chapters 21 and 22. David was on the run for his life, hiding from Saul. While David was hiding, Doeg told Saul where David was hiding. Doeg snitched on David; scholars believe David was talking about Doeg when he mentioned all those bad things about them. 

David was on the run for his life, and the priest Ahimelek helped David and gave David a sword and some food. Saul called for Ahimelek and got mad that Ahimelek helped David, so Saul had his conniving snitch/politician Doeg eliminate all the priests, women, and children in that town. 

Be careful of political leaders or leaders in general who want to punish the pastors, priests, and prophets that don't blindly follow their program. God is not beholden to a political party, and a politician that tells you otherwise is lying. Politicians and political parties switch sides and platforms at the drop of a dime, so they can't always be aligned with God.

We don't have to get revenge. The psalmist says that God will break them down, and God will snatch them from their tent; it may look like they won for now, but if we just wait a bit longer, the righteous will see victory in the end. Won't he fight your battles? Won't he make your enemies your footstools? You have joy in sorrow and hope for tomorrow when you know it is not your battle to fight. 

David says he is not going to trust the words of man; the psalmist says they will trust in God's steadfast love. We need to depend on God and God's love. The righteous reward is being grounded in God and connected to the source. We can choose to live for ourselves, or we can choose to live for God. The psalmist is like a green olive tree in the house of God. I have learned that green olive trees grow year-round in different conditions, and they don't get bothered by pests. 

David is going to trust in the words of God, not man, stay connected to the source, which is God, and not let the pests bother him. I can only think that some of what David lived in Psalm 52 rubbed off on his son in Proverbs 3 because the father says, "I trust in the steadfast love of God forever and ever," and the son says, "trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not to your own understanding" we have got to stay connected to the source. 

I like the word in verse 8; some translations say unfailing love, some say loving kindness, some say steadfast love, and some say mercy, but the Hebrew word they use is hesed. We know hesed whether we have ever said the word out loud or not. Hesed is a solemn promise, a covenant, a devotion, a willingness to not only feel someway but make a record about it. 

Hesed is when I used to take my son to get haircuts, and they would be a problem; he would scream, cry, kick out of his chair, and try to grab the clippers, something about them and the haircut experience bothered him. So, when he got a little older and could understand, I would make a promise to him. I would say, son, if you don't kick out the chair or don't scream or throw a fit, I will take you to the toy store, and I will get you some candy after we leave the barbershop. So little Johnnie would repeat to himself all the way to the barbershop; I am the haircut champion, I am not going to scream, I am not going to cry, I am not going to kick out the chair. Johnnie would say this over and over until we got to the barbershop, and then he didn't scream, cry, try to grab the clippers, or kick out of the chair. After we both got our haircuts, I would take him to the toy store and buy him something, and then we would get lunch, and he would get what he wanted, usually ice cream or a cookie. 

That promise I made to my son on the spectrum who does not like people touching his head was hesed; I, as a father, went on record with my commitment to my son because I had hesed for him. Your heavenly father has gone on record with his promises to you. 

God has given us tongues to use as tools of righteousness. The words we fashion, using those tongues, can serve the cause of justice or injustice; of kindness or callousness; of compassion or exploitation; of love or hate. In choosing our words, may we choose wisely!

Once we have chosen wisely, we can be thankful; the psalmist says that he will thank God forever, not for just a little bit of time but forever. Forever is a long time, but that is how long God loves us and how long we should praise him.