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Childhood Revisited – Matthew 19:13-30

Jesus has just been through a fairly intense experience, in conflict with the Pharisees and Saduccees who were trying to blunt his popularity and healing a child who was afflicted with a demon. His disciples were no doubt agitated and on edge – angsty, anxious and bad tempered. When parents come with their children to be blessed, they react badly and rebuke them harshly.

But Jesus keeps his composure, as he always does, and calls out that we all should come as children to him.

Then the rich young ruler comes, asking what good deed he needs to do in order to inherit eternal life. And this time, it’s Jesus who reacts harshly. “Why ask me about what is good?” But he gives him an answer, and Jesus pays lays out the basic commandments. The young man feels secure in his behavior there, so Jesus pushes further – give up everything material and give it to the poor. That’s too much for him and he walks away. We can imagine prayer lamenting the loss of all those resources, but Jesus knew what he was doing.

Jesus had points to make, throughout this story. The first of these is that Jesus receives the humble. When Jesus says we must become like little children, he does not mean innocent or good – we know that kids aren’t really either of those. Children, though, are clearly aware of their dependence on others, and we need to be reminded of our own. We need to remember that we are not omniscient or entirely capable. We are limited in our ability to show goodness and grace. We are ultimately dependent on God for food, sustenance, emotional health and well-being, our relationships and more. The sooner that we acknowledge that, rather than trying to act as if we’re were independent, the sooner we step into the life of faith.

Then, in contrast, we see Jesus interact with the rich young ruler, seeking the magic bullet to guarantee his ticket to heaven. Jesus points him back to the 10 commandments, but he wants the “secret menu.” When Jesus won’t give it to him, he starts to feel good about himself. But Jesus knows his heart, he knows that there is something there that stands in the way of truly following God. “Go become poor for the poor.” And the man walks away, his true value system unmasked.

This is not blanket instruction for all the wealthy – contrast this with Jesus’ interaction with Zaccheus (though note that this, too, resulted in generous giving) – and is ultimately not about wealth. Instead it’s about whatever in our lives and hearts we put before Christ. Just as with the children, we are called to humility.

Jesus follows up with a final point that he shares with his shell-shocked disciples. For those who follow him, he brings extraordinary blessing. The greatest reward, the privilege to walk with Him and see God, he doesn’t even touch on – instead, he meets them in their struggles. Anyone who sacrifices for him will see 100x returns. But it’s a long term investment, and we’re not always good at those.

The key to our journey is humility, rightly ordering our hearts, rightly remembering the promises of the God who will give us “more than we all our imagine.” We are so focused on making our best lives now that we neglect the focus on the life to come. But the key to following Jesus well is to put Him in the place of preeminence.

We in the church know how to talk about loving Jesus but aren’t always good at determining if it’s really true. Jesus call for us today is, as ever, confession and repentance, and a daily commitment to making Him preeminent.

-Sermon Notes, Jeff Sickles, Snohomish Evangelical Free Church, Snohomish, WA, January 2, 2022

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Sanctification – Ezekiel 37:23-28

This passage may seem familiar – it’s a reiteration of themes first brought up earlier in the book, but with further developments.

He begins with the assertion that the people of Israel will no longer be defiled by idols – not only representations of pagan deities, but anything that our hearts are likely to put ahead of God, even good things. God promises to, in the fullness of time, remove these temptations from the people of Israel. Likewise, they will be rescued from the backsliding that was the hallmark of their relationship with God since Sinai.

Ezekiel is telling us that the sanctification of God goes beyond the elimination of sin but rather retools things all the way into our minds and hearts.

God makes a covenant promise to bring about this sanctification, as well as to unify the people of Israel and to drive the land to increase its abundance.

But we have hints here that this means more than material blessings – a promise of an everlasting covenant, God’s sanctuary among His people forever. On this side of Christ we see how this covenant is fulfilled in His life, death and resurrection, as well as His body, the Church. We are given all these promises and filled up with all manner of good things. Not all of that itself is fully realized, but one day it will be.

The discussion of the sanctuary among His people is a new addition the Ezekiel’s discussion here, a call back to Moses and the creation of the tabernacle, as well as to the temple of Solomon. These buildings were pictures of God’s presence with His people, but also discrete connection points for His presence and the center of His worship. With the coming of the Holy Spirit, each believer becomes that connection point and that center of worship. And that worship goes far beyond singing, but to all that we do that express the worth of God. His sanctuary is in the midst of us and in the midst of our day to day reality, and He is deserving of all that reality bending towards Him.

This sanctuary picture is the polar opposite of the idolatry from earlier in the passage. Those things we put ahead of God are the things we are called to lay down at the feet of Jesus. A heart of worship, yielding everything in our lives to Him – that is our response to these promises and to their fulfillment in Christ.

But even that response is the work of God, because as Ezekiel states here, He is “the Lord who sanctifies Israel.” Peter puts it this way – “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

– Sermon Notes, Jeff Sickles, Snohomish Evangelical Free Church, Snohomish, WA, December 26, 2021

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The Divine Gift – Ezekiel 34:23-31

Every year, there is an annual conference of a summit of Nobel peace prize laureates. They discuss things that can be done to create a more peaceful world. It’s fascinating that this is not reported on more. They give out an award every year to an entertainer who has made an effort towards peace. It’s strange we don’t hear more about this, but the better news is that we know someone even more qualified to speak on the topic of peace.

Ezekiel here calls ahead to the peace brought by the Prince of Peace, the Christ. Ezekiel lays out three key principles regarding this peace.

First, God will appoint a shepherd. The image of shepherd was poignant and powerful to the people of Israel, with its roots in herding going back centuries. Abraham, Jacob, Moses, David – all worked as shepherds. Beyond that, God Himself is spoken of as the shepherd of Israel all across the law and prophets, most notably perhaps in psalm 23. The import of the imagery here is difficult for us to grasp in our environment and culture. It may help to consider the more recent image of a cowboy – romanticized, rough and rugged out in the wild, but rough-edged and not always pleasant to be around.

But Ezekiel lays out here that God will appoint a shepherd, a king in the mold of David – the perfect leader who will care for his people. Peter later calls Jesus the “chief shepherd”.

Who we follow is important. We can follow others, follow ourselves, or follow Christ. Who do we go to first, who is our instinct to rely upon?

But God does not stop at supplying a leader – he also supplies abundance and security. No fear of wild animals, abundant crops, plenty of provision and rescue from their enemies. Abundance of security, of prosperity, of freedom. Stephen Covey coined the concepts of the Scarcity Mindset versus the Abundance Mindset – seeing life as a series of investments rather than costs. That is extra-true for us who follow the God of the universe, who owns the cattle on a thousand hills. We have been given life – abundantly! It does not get smaller when we live some of it. When we do grace and righteousness and kindness they do not get smaller, but rather gets bigger.

If we don’t see that, it may be because we spend more time considering what we don’t have rather than what we do have. We should live in the abundance of grace and forgiveness and goodness we are given.

Finally, God restores His presence. “And they shall know that I am the LORD their God with them.” This is the source of all of the other blessings. What does this presence look like? It looks like Immanuel, God come as the person of Jesus Christ to reconcile His people to Himself. He has made peace so we might be at peace with God.

The people of Israel understood that there was a cost to reconciliation, because they performed sacrifices that clearly painted the picture of the great sacrifice was to come. That cost was the death of the Son, but the result was the presence of God directly with us.

We should pause regularly to appreciate the presence of God. God is with us! God brings the wholeness of shalom – not merely the absence of conflict, but the fullness and goodness and well being we were originally made for.

We can be at this kind of peace because we live every day in the presence of God.

This Christmas, how do we refresh that presence and receive that peace?

– Sermon Notes, Jeff Sickles, Snohomish Evangelical Free Church, Snohomish, WA, December 19, 2021

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Sin at Christmas – Ezekiel 16:59-63

A Lifeway survey in 2016 indicated that 67% of Americans believe that they are sinners, but 75% believe that little sins don’t condemn us. Among evangelicals, those numbers were 75% and 53%. Better, but far from ideal. Why are we talking about sins when discussing Christmas? Because to understand the immensity of Christmas we must understand the immensity of salvation, which means we must understand the immensity of what we are being saved from.

Ezekiel here is discussing that very thing here. God has judged the people of Israel for their sins and sent them into captivity. When we begin to make sin insignificant, we open the door to disaster. We can see that in American culture, where we are always seeking others to blame for the choices that we make.

“Whatever became of sin?” The psychiatrist, Karl Menninger – no friend to the church – asked this forty-two years in his book of the same name as he watched the shift of personal responsibility away from the individual. He wrote:

The word ‘sin,’ which seems to have disappeared, was a proud word. It was once a strong word, an ominous and serious word. It described a central point in every civilized human being’s life plan and life style. But the word went away. It has almost disappeared—the word, along with the notion. Why? Doesn’t anyone sin anymore? Doesn’t anyone believe in sin?

Menninger warned that should the concept of sin disappear, so too would the concept of a moral society. We see some of that in the passage here, but we also have the concept here of a covenant.

God was in covenant with the people of Israel – as He is with us today through the work of Christ. He enters into this because of His great love for us. Not because of our own capacity or lovable nature, but because of His person and love.

Ezekiel calls forward to this atonement here, in verse 63 —God Himself will reach into the world and bring His children into the Eternal covenant by covering over their sin.

But if we minimize that sin, we minimize the atonement and we minimize the wonder of God’s grace in that atonement. If we understand the weight of our sin, we understand the incredible grace that we have been given.

Jonathan Edwards is most known for his sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”. But most of his sermons were about grace – why did that Sermon loom so large? Because that clear statement of the horrors of sin and judgement provide the context for the mighty, overwhelming grace that Edwards was so passionate about.

In Dynamics of Spiritual Life, historian Richard Lovelace presents a history of spiritual renewals in light of biblical models. His conclusion is that the unifying thread of revivals across time is a clear understanding of the depth of sin.

Christmas is not small and sentimental, Christmas is robust and strong because Christmas is the inbreaking of God’s love into the darkness of our sin. The wonder of Christmas is the wonder at our salvation from that darkness.

– Sermon Notes, Jeff Sickles, Snohomish Evangelical Free Church, Snohomish, WA, December 5, 2021

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Hope When the World is Shattered – Ezekiel 17:22-24

597 BC was a bad year. That was the year the temple of God in Jerusalem was destroyed by the Neo-Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar, and the kingship overthrown. As individualistic Americans it may be difficult to understand the immensity of what this would mean to the Jewish people. Their communal identity was entirely enmeshed with those two institutions, themselves more closely linked than we can truly grasp. Losing both of them in one day would have left the people utterly broken. What hope is there when your world is shattered?

That is the context into which Ezekiel is speaking here, telling the parable of cedar trees – the kings is Judah – and eagles – the kingdoms of Egypt and Babylon. The kings switch their allegiances and are destroyed, a picture of the fickleness of the people themselves, changing their allegiance from the God of their fathers to the idols of the world.

But then Ezekiel speaks to something greater here in verse 22, reminding the people that they are not alone. It’s something greater that calls forward to the coming of the Holy Spirit, the indwelling of the God of Abraham who is with us in all that we do and everywhere we go. We are never alone.

But God is not only present, but He is active. He is the active force in these verses, hammered home at the end – “I the LORD have spoken, and I will do it.” All this, in the midst of the destruction of everything that made up the identity of His people, He promises to act, to fulfill the promise that he made to David.

Note that this is God acting and no one else. Often we feel or behave like any change or success is on our shoulders. But even when He is gracious enough to pull us into the work He is doing, the work and responsibility and success is still God’s. He may work quietly and slowly at times, but He is always working and when He brings it to fulfillment, it is amazing. “He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it.”

This passage also promises more about the nature of the Christ who would come – “Birds of every kind will nest in it.” More birds than only those of Abrahamic descent, but all kinds, from every land. The kingdom to come will be a global kingdom, fast beyond the boundaries of David and Solomon, fulfilling the promise made to Abraham to bless all nations through his line.

Imagine yourself as a bird in the shade of Jesus Christ. We have been made free through Him, made children of God through Him. Looking back, we have the same hope that Ezekiel had when looking ahead.

How do we practice this hope actively? By seeking joy in the midst of suffering. By persisting in prayer. By seeking the peace of God and resting in him. By patiently enduring trials. Through humility on victory. Hope it’s not merely an attitude or emotion, but it is a discipline, and it is a promise.

As Jeremiah wrote around the time of Ezekiel, “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for wholeness and not harm, plans to give you a hope and future.'” That hope came in the form of Jesus Christ and is offered to us if we come and shelter ourselves beneath his branches.

– Sermon Notes, Jeff Sickles, Snohomish Evangelical Free Church, Snohomish, WA, November 28, 2021

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Meet the Church – Philippians 2:1-11

It is easy for us to take the opportunity provided by church for granted. It is easy to treat our church as a social function, when in reality we are called to a radically relational community in which we are called to make our attitude that of Christ Jesus.

It may seem strange to have an attitude commanded – we see commands as being about outside actions. In reality, God tells us that what he cares most about is in fact the inward parts, the attitude, the thoughts.

Paul wrote this to a group of people he knew well, whose faces he could picture in his mind. He opens with rhetorical questions, each of which he knew his readers could answer strongly in the affirmative.

He then, again appealing to their personal relationship, tells them how to bring him joy – by being unified in their community and ministry.

Paul warns then against rivalry and competition. Those do not build up the body of Christ any more than they can build up a marriage. We are to focus on the needs of others, not ourselves alone. The Christian life is not a solitary mission. We cannot do discipleship alone. We cannot love without involvement with another. Discipleship is built into all our relationships, especially within our families but also in our church body.

It will cost you time, and that’s something we have a hard time giving up. But we are called to be involved in the spiritual needs of others – in fact, it is simply assumed throughout the New Testament.

Paul gives us the model we are to use, though – that of Christ. Despite being equal to the Father, despite being far greater than all of humanity, Jesus submitted to the will of the Father and to the degradations of humanity and a criminal’s death. This is the model we are given for our relationships with others in the church.

We can’t arrive at these concepts truth reason and philosophy, but rather depend upon the revelation of God through Paul, and the life of Christ on earth. This Christological statement walks us through the incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, glorification and return of Jesus Christ. These concepts can’t be derived from general revelation, but rather they are the work of the Holy Spirit through the words of Paul as he sought to disciple the church at Philippi.Consider what the Holy Spirit can do through you as you share your own life with the body of Christ!

Look to Christ as the model for fruitful discipleship in the church. Look to the inspired scriptures to continually refresh our theology and our directive to represent Him in our relationships with others.

– Sermon Notes, Steve Morgan, Snohomish Evangelical Free Church, Snohomish, WA, November 14, 2021

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What is Grief if not Love Persevering? – Lamentations 3

English psychiatrist Colin Murray Parkes wrote “The pain of grief is just as much a part of life as the joy of love; it is, perhaps, the price we pay for love, the cost of commitment.” We can see the truth that is in this statement in the third chapter of Lamentations, the center point of the book, traditionally by Jeremiah, grappling with the fall of Jerusalem.

Grief is part of our experience of life. “Life is pain… and anyone who says differently is selling something.” We learn something when we accept that the life we live in is peppered with grief and will end in grief. This is a truth that we want to ignore but that scripture implores us to address head on.

The book of Lamentations does so forcefully. Jeremiah and those around him have watched the temple – the connection point between the creator of the universe and His chosen people – be destroyed by pagans, who have slaughtered those people and scattered them across their sprawling empire. The sorrow goes even deeper, though, with all this coming as a judgement against the people of Israel for their sin.

In this life, we all bear the consequences of sin – toil, death, suffering, loss. Our hearts break when we lose what is meaningful to us. Grief is an expression of what our heart loves, but also of the eternal perspective God has placed in our hearts.

Some people seem to think that sorrow and grief are an indication of a lack of faith. But we see from Jesus’ tears at the tomb of Lazarus that this is not the case. Our grief and loss and death and evil is an awareness that something in this world is not right. There is something broken, something wrong, and our hearts know this at their very core.

How we handle our grief matters. Jesus calls us to walk well in our grief, and when our grief aligns with the heart of God it is more a sign of weakness or doubt but rather entering into the process of life. Jesus grieved, Paul grieved, David grieved, Jeremiah grieved, Moses grieved and all who came before us grieved.

Grief happens in a larger context. Grief is a result of the Fall, but there is a bigger story than that. Grief is for but a moment because we do not grieve apart from God and His truth. In grief, God has provided us with two tools. One of those is patience – the author of Lamentations did not live the 70 years it took for God’s people to come back to Jerusalem. The other is the promise that God is faithful.

We will one day walk in wholeness because of the blood of Jesus Christ. This is why Paul can tell those in 1 Thessalonians that we do not grieve like those who have no hope. We experience the grief now, but it is a reminder that we have a future of wholeness. Our grief is not hopeless, but rather a lifeline to eternity. God is with us and working His God and perfect will. There is Joy on the other side of our grief.

If we are in Christ we grieve with hope.

– Sermon Notes, Jeff Sickles, Snohomish Evangelical Free Church, Snohomish, WA, November 7, 2021

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The Greatest Challenge – Matthew 18:15-35

This passage discusses one of the most difficult things we are called to do as followers of Christ, namely forgiving those who have hurt us.

There are five main blocks of teaching in Matthew. This one specifically addresses the community of faith that He is founding, the Church. In this passage in particular, he addresses how to handle sin in the church. Not disagreements or even just conflict, but actual sin.

When we are hurt in this fashion, our goal is to “gain a brother.” He instructs us to go to them, in an effort to create an environment of humility where we can share our heart and they can share theirs, with the end that they are won back to righteousness. We are to partner with God in the process of bringing them back into the fold – the context here is those who have gone astray, along the lines of the parable of the 100 sheep just before.

If this initial attempt is not successful, we are to bring in others. Those others can serve as a check on our own impulses, validating if the sin is real or not and discerning the hearts of those involved.

If that still does not resolve the issue, next you bring them to the church more broadly. If that does not accomplish the goal, then we are to treat them like an unbeliever. But that does not mean a breaking of the relationship – rather a change from brothers in Christ to that of evangelism. We are, from beginning to end here, seeking restoration of the other person’s relationship with God.

Peter pokes a big further. How much do we forgive? The rabbis of the day taught that three times was enough. Peter goes further, with the number of completion, and yet Jesus pushes him even further. There is no end to the forgiveness we should offer, because there is no end to the forgiveness we have been given.

(Note again that the context here is a wayward brother, not someone who remains unrepentant. There is more to say about forgiveness, but that’s the context here.)

Everyone immediately wants to go to the hard cases here, and while that is understandable, it is critical that we first understand the core principle that is being taught. Before we can address the edge cases, we need to understand the central truth Christ is teaching. Namely, we have been forgiven an immeasurable amount and are called to forgive in that same spirit.

The world around us should see grace and forgiveness when they look at the church. This is in some ways our greatest challenge. Let us seek God’s help in carrying it through.

-Sermon Notes, Jeff Sickles, Snohomish Evangelical Free Church, Snohomish, WA, October 31, 2021

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Where Greatness Lies – Matthew 18:1-14

Social science has begun grappling with the impacts of the push to give children higher self esteem, leading to an increase in narcissism broadly.

Jesus in Matthew 18 addresses the question of greatness. When asked who the greatest in the kingdom is, Jesus gives a clear answer about the foundation of greatness – it begins with lowliness and humility.

Many try to take the child concept and extend it in all kinds of directions, but Jesus is clear about what childlike characteristic is important here.

The importance of humility was clear through the Old Testament, from Micah 6:8 to the book of Proverbs to the example of Moses, “the most humble man in all the world.” And yet Jesus comes into the world to find pride and domination ruling the day.

What exactly does this instruction suggest, then? What are the humble aspects of children we should seek to emulate. One is a simplicity of faith. Children are open to hearing about the works of God without the cynicism we gain. Related, children are teachable and curious, asking why constantly and taking things apart to see how they work. Children are dependent and, notably, are not remotely self-conscious about that fact. As adults, we feel and seek self sufficiency but it is ultimately an illusion. We “live and move and have our being” through the active will of God.

Jesus sets the ultimate example of this, despite being the incarnate creator. He tells us “I am gentle and lowly of heart.”

The essential nature of humility is one of the key threads unifying the teaching of the church throughout time. From the church fathers to the doctors of the church to the reformers to the pastors and thinkers of the list few centuries, all are unified on this point. And yet how much time do we spend concerned with our, praying for it or encouraging each other in it?

Jesus then shifts from speaking about emulating the humble to protecting them, warning against leading the young and young believers astray – within context, the sin of pride being the one to of mind.

He then goes on to use shock value to emphasize the evil of sins like pride. Self mutilation was against the law of Moses and would be immediately repulsive to his audience. And yet Jesus clearly sets it up as the superior alternative to remaining in our sin.

Then he moves on again, because what does God do when we do turn away? To answer, he brings in the story of the shepherd who leaves the 99 good sheep to go after the one who has wandered off. Within the context of pride and humility, we see the temptation to be offended like the older brother in the parable of the prodigal son.

God’s heart is for those who are lost – he takes joy in the saved but truly rejoices in those who return after wandering away. Likewise, we are to seek the good of those who are wandering over our own blessings and comfort.

Jesus calls us to deep and profound humility, because that is where true greatness lies. At the end of the day, greatness is in the eyes of God, and that is what He seeks.

– Sermon Notes, Jeff Sickles, Snohomish Evangelical Free Church, Snohomish, WA, October 24, 2021

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Our Rights Versus Our Mission – Matthew 17:22-27

Mabel Williamson was a missionary to China in the middle of the 20th century. She wrote a book called Have We No Rights, in which she introduced the Chinese idiom of “eating loss.” She wrote of a missionary speaking:

‘You know,’ he began, ‘there’s a great deal of difference between eating bitterness (a Chinese idiom for “suffering hardship”), and eating loss (a Chinese idiom for “suffering the infringement of one’s rights”). Eating bitterness is easy enough. To go out with the preaching band, walk twenty or thirty miles to the place where you are to work, help set up the tent, placard the town with posters, and spend several weeks in a strenuous campaign of meetings and visitation—why, that’s a thrill! Your bed may be made of a couple of planks laid on saw-horses, and you may have to eat boiled rice, greens, and bean-curd three times a day. But that’s just the beauty of it! Why, it’s good for anyone to go back to the simple life! A little healthy “bitterness” is good for anybody!

‘When I came to China,’ he continued, ‘I was all ready to eat bitterness and like it. It takes a little while to get your palate and your digestion used to Chinese food, of course, but that was no harder than I had expected. Another thing, however’—and he paused significantly—‘another thing that I had never thought about came up to make trouble. I had to eat loss! I found that I couldn’t stand up for my rights—that I couldn’t even have any rights. I found that I had to give them up, every one, and that was the hardest thing of all.’

We see a bit of that concept here in the story of Jesus and the tax collectors. Jesus asks us how we respond to the world around us, and shows us how we are to follow Him in that response.

The most immediate takeaway is that we are adopted as children of God. He sets this up with the promise of His death and resurrection, but then it is followed up with this confrontation with the temple tax collectors. Most likely spurred by the pharisees, saduccees or other part brokers, they confront Peter about whether Jesus pays the temple tax. Peter immediately answers yes, but then apparently needs to confirm it with Jesus.

Jesus’ response clearly shows his own self awareness – he is greater than the temple. He is free, and those he has adopted are also free, as Paul writes about so eloquently in Romans.

Note that Jesus uses the term “sons” here, not to exclude women but to illustrate that we are together not only in the family but recipients of the inheritance. All the privileges of sonship are ours. We sometimes don’t properly recognize this – we call Christ the king but often do not reflect on what that means to our own identities. We are children of the king! We are not an embattled minority in the verge of being wiped out.

However, we are also not an entitled majority living a life of ease. We are a royal family with a mission to accomplish, and that is what Jesus explains to Peter here.

We have privileges, but those privileges are to be put aside when they conflict with our mission. Jesus does not want to give offense or become a stumbling block, even to the leaders of the temple who seek to kill him.

We, as Americans, as Christians and in many other ways, have myriad privileges. But we have all eternity to enjoy our privileges – we only have the now for our mission. Anything that creates a offense – a stumbling block or a scandal – must go when it comes up against our mission.

We live in a country built on self-determination and autonomy. We have rights, and Jesus does not can us to despise those rights. He calls us to put them aside for the sake of his kingdom. When we value our rights more than righteousness, we are on the wrong road. When we are more concerned with our liberties than with love, we are not following Christ. When we are more concerned with equality than with evangelism, we have lost the plot.

Paul writes to the Corinthians:

“All things are lawful,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up. Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor… So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved.

1 Corinthians 10:23-24, 31-33

We have a commission – a great one. Anything that creates a stumbling block must go. We are too quick to blow off accusations that the church is full of hypocrites – if that is creating a barrier to someone knowing Christ then we must take it very seriously.

Our tone matters, too. Jesus was never defensive, because he was confident in the truth. Sometimes we believe that the strength of our convictions is proven by the intensity of our communication. Instead, we demonstrate it by our ease of response.

Our mission is to reach the world for Jesus, and anything that gets in the way of that needs to go. Even if it is good, even if it is our right. There are things more important in life than our rights and privileges.

– Sermon Notes, Jeff Sickles, Snohomish Evangelical Free Church, Snohomish, WA, October 17, 2021