Tim's Sermon Notes

Psalm 107 is an answer to the call in psalm 106 for God to save His people. We meet four groups along the way – wanderers in the desert, prisoners in chains, fools who got themselves in a mess, and sailors at sea.

Each one calls to God, and each one God saves. We are shown by this Psalm. God is good. God is faithful. We celebrate this weekly by observing communion.

God is a God who saves. Paul tells us that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, just as we see in this Psalm. There is foreshadowing of Christ’s salvation even in this passage. The wanderers in the desert seek water, and we know that Christ is the eternal source of living water.

As Augustine wrote, “Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.”

Note, though, that each of these groups is in trouble because of their own choices. The wanderers went out perhaps unprepared, the prisoners rebelled, the fools were foolish, the sailors went out into the chaotic sea. Each of them was responsible for their own predicament – it would be easy to let each of them endure the consequences of their action. But each of us is ultimately the same in that way – we all make choices that put us into trouble and distress, and God offers His help to all of us.

We have a God who saves, and a God who listens. We can take all our anxieties and fears before the King of the Universe and leave them there. We don’t carry it anymore, but give it to the Lord who is good, whose love endures forever.

Charles Spurgeon wrote many years ago, “In all your troubles through this year, look to God and be saved.” We have many troubles through this year – but we can look to God.

We should also be thankful for the many times God has brought us through our troubles. Our gratitude should erupt our is us in humble worship – give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. We have a reason to sing and worship and tell the stories of God’s faithfulness.

-Sermon Notes, Bart Hodgson, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, June 7, 2020

Right now society seems like it is on fire, between disease, police killings, riots, looting – but as Christians we are called to serve as a bucket brigade, each doing our small part to put out the fires.

Paul’s words here to the Philippians can help us understand how to do that. It starts with his exhortation to conduct our lives in a way that’s worthy of the gospel. The term “conduct” here comes from the same root as “politics” – it is about how we live in community with others. Our interactions with others should point those people to Christ.

Paul doesn’t know whether he will be able to join them in person (sound familiar?), but wants up know that they are united, like a troop of soldiers or an athletic team. This means a giving up of our personal ambitions in support of the team. As Christians, we sometimes think we’re playing singles when we are supposed to be playing doubles.

Paul continues using picturesque language, urging the Philippians not to be alarmed in the way that a horse can be spooked. Even though they are being persecuted, the ill intentions of their oppressors will be turned back on them.

But that does not mean that such oppression will not come. In fact, Paul writes that suffering is set before us as a task in the same vein as believing. We cannot get one without the other, and in fact each one feeds into the other.

We are not called to go out of our way to seek out suffering, but if we are living a life the way we are called to, we will experience suffering, for the sake of Christ.

That means we are also called to tenacity, and to a unity within that tenacity, supporting each other within the church, and ultimately supported by the power of God.

Today is a good day to recommit ourselves both to the work of God and to our brothers and sisters who we serve with.

-Sermon Notes, Mahlon Friesen, Seed Church, Lynnwood WA, May 31

Paul tells the church at Philippi that the problems he had run into – most specifically his imprisonment, probably in Rome – is being used for good. He calls out directly the influence that he has been able to have in the imperial guard.

Paul adopted the perspective we should all take, even when we cannot see the specifics of what God is doing. “When you can’t see His hand, trust Heart.” There’s not a perfect comparison between COVID19 and Paul’s imprisonment, but we can certainly apply the same perspective of “Christ-colored glasses.”

Paul goes on to write about another challenge, that a set of Christians were preaching Christ with wrong motives, in fact trying to show up Paul, possibly some who had been with the church at Rome for a long time and resented Paul rolling in and speaking like an authority. Paul’s response to these people also was “Christ-colored”. As long as there is no false teaching or mistreatment, Paul says to celebrate the work of God, even if done through those who disagree with us or who act with wrong motives.

We are called to address all our issues and conflicts with that perspective. This is especially true within the church. We should approach all relationships with the same open hands and God-centered view.

We prefer the love that occurs among friends we have chosen. But we are called to love even those who we have not chosen, even those we may not get along with. The church is explicitly a place for us to exercise those muscles and to love even those wet may not have natural affection for, or may outright dislike.

Paul also puts this perspective towards the very questions of life and death. He wanted his entire life to both be centered on Christ and to center others on Him. And not just his life, but ultimately his death. “To live is Christ and to die is gain.”

How we live determines what death means. Money, power, pleasure, fame are all things that “to live is” could mean, but in each case death means a loss of all of it. Some Christians live as it that verse was flipped – “to live is gain, to die is Christ.” Life is whatever we want it to be, and Jesus is just a life insurance policy.

But that’s not what we are called to – we are called to live for Christ, and are promised that our death will mean even more of Him.

– Sermon Notes, Mahlon Friesen, Seed Church, Lynnwood WA, May 24, 2020

Shared experiences bind people together across time and space. The COVID19 pandemic creates a globally shared experience, while here in Philippians, we read of experiences we share with the early church and the church in Philippi in particular.

The prayer that Paul prayed for them applies to us as well. He begins with love, the central truth of God, who is Himself love. Specifically, Paul asks for love bounded by knowledge and discernment, like a river that rises, with cliffs on either side, channeling it where it needs to go. Love must have boundaries – but it must still be love. It is easy to err on either side of that, but Paul prays that the Philippians will indeed learn to love and love well.

Likewise, if you want to know what to pray for your spouse, children, parents or self, that their love grows in knowledge and discernment is a great place to stay because it is a lifelong journey. We are all facing the need to apply our love intelligently as we approach all the various circumstances we run into. As it says in Frozen 2, we are called to “do the next right thing”. The difficulty can be knowing what that right thing is. “There are two sides to every issue, but there are two sides to fly paper, too.”

But why does it matter that we make wise, right choices? Verse 10 tells us – in order that we may be pure and blameless. The word for “pure” here means “tested by sunlight” like a piece of clothing being looked at in the light.

Similarly, we ourselves are going to have a moment of testing when we come before the throne of God.

So pray that we grow in love, pray we make wise choices and pray for growth of character.

Paul did not tell this to the Philippians purely for theoretical purposes. We know from later in the letter that there were real conflicts between members of the church. Love isn’t theoretical, it must be practical to be real. And that means it is messy and complicated – and that’s why we turn to prayer, just like Paul did.

We can also consider this goal of helping other people love well in our own behavior. Do our actions help people love better, in knowledge and discernment? Or do they somehow lead them to sin and unkindness? We cannot be responsible for the actions of others, but we should always be seeking to be the kinds of people who make others better.

– Sermon Notes, Mahlon Friesen, Seed Church, Lynnwood WA, May 17, 2020

Paul starts off this letter making it clear that the letter is going up be about Christ, and that all believers are unified in Him.

The next section is Paul expressing his thankfulness for the Philippians. Ancient letters often started with a note of gratefulness for the recipients, but Paul’s gratitude goes so deep.

Some of this is the bond between Paul and the Philippians, driven by the partnership they have had together in both spiritual and material things over the past years, even as he has not been in Philippi for some years.

All this works together with the grace of God to bubble over in the joy that permeates this letter. Paul yearns for the Philippians with “all his guts.” It’s a reminder that church is about more than the worship or the teaching, but it’s about the connections between people, the love of Christ working its way out and through and among the people of His church. People are not God’s Plan B, but the primary mechanism by which He accomplishes His will. We are brought together to learn to love in real life – not always easy, but if eternal worth.

This also means there is value to building true relationships within the church, not merely acquaintances who we say hi to on Sunday. Once of the silver linings of this quarantine is that we are learning not to take our relationships and interactions with people for granted.

The church of the Philippians was started by a ragtag group, starting with people as varied as the businesswoman Lydia and the rough-and-tumble jailer who nearly committed suicide. God used his sovereign plan to bring His message to people who would never have heard of except for the twisting, turning, entirely unpredictable path that Paul’s journey took.

We can take encouragement from this, as our own paths are plenty twisty in these difficult times.

Getting back on track! More notes to come.

The overall theme of the epistle to Titus is that Christians should maintain good works, and much of the book is devoted to the disguising of organization and behavior to that end.

That overall message us emphasized here at the end of the letter, both in direct words and in the glimpse we get of Paul and his ministry.

Four people are mentioned here. Zenas and Apollos arrived in Crete with the letter, and Paul asks Titus to help them on their way. Meanwhile, Tychicus and Artemas would be arriving in Crete at some point, and once they arrived it would free up Titus to meet Paul in Nicopolis up in mainland Greece.

Artemas we don’t know much about, but Tychicus is mentioned throughout the New Testament, including in Ephesians, where he is called “beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord.” He may be taking over for Titus so he can go north.

Paul had decided to spend the winter there – note that he himself decided, rather than receiving word from the Holy Spirit or some other revelation. While the latter two are seen throughout Paul’s life, much of the result church was built on the wisdom and decisions of the apostles, guided more subtly by the spirit than we sometimes imagine.

The other pair, Zenas and Apollos, are similar, in that we know more about one than the other. Zenas is a lawyer, probably a Roman jurist, but he is only mentioned here. Apollos is well known, having a major role in the book of Acts where he shows up speaking eloquently but needing training, which is provided by Priscilla and Aquila. He went on to pastor at Corinth as well.

Titus was supposed to help them on their way, a common request in the epistles. It is a very practical good deed, a direct example of the hospitality Paul has earlier called on Titus to encourage.

These small, practical actions are examples of what Paul then tells Titus to impress upon the believers in Crete: devote themselves to good works, especially addressing the urgent needs that would inevitably arise. The church is not there to serve every need, but to strategically and carefully address those of the most urgency and important.

But there are plenty of these. There are always needs to meet, and that is a key role of the Church. We are not just here to learn and fellowship, but also to serve – to “not be unfruitful.”

And we also learn from this passage something about how this is to be done – in community. The believers traveling all came in pairs, and Paul wanted Titus to join him. Paul always worked in a team, and is there with others who also sent their greetings.

We are the same, both working and growing together in community, and supported and prayed for by many others around the country and world – so let’s act like it!

– Sermon Notes, Mahlon Friesen, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, March 8, 2020

Paul instructs Titus here to lead a healthy church by doing a few things. First, to focus on the things that matter. Second, and related, to avoid those things that will not help us move forward with our service to God. And finally, to stop this who are undermining the work of the Church and the truth of the gospel.

In Titus 3:8, Paul calls back to the statement he has just made about the gospel, and the mechanisms for living out good works these he has walked through all through this letter. These are the things that matter that we are to focus on, and the “excellent and profitable” works we are to undertake.

On the other hand, we must avoid that which is unprofitable. The instruction in verse 9 echoes the advice given to Timothy in both epistles Paul wrote to him, in 1 Timothy 1:3-4 & 6:4-5, and 2 Timothy 2:14. There is a place for discussion and debate, but ultimately they completely separate from the vital things of the gospel. It is very easy to get wrapped around quarrels about words.

And there are people out there whose primary goals when entering a church are centered around argument and debate. That is when verses 10-11 come into play – but keep in mind that not every argument or disagreement rises to this level. We cannot let disagreements rise to a level that they distract the church from the work of the gospel.

We see this in Matthew 18 as well – the principle is clear, that we should start at the lowest level possible and then only escalating to involve additional people as necessary – and always with the goal of bringing people to repentance. Ultimately, these behind questions is attitude. If someone listens and has an attitude of humility and grace, there will be no reason for things to escalate. If the attitude is one of belligerence, pride or divisiveness, then it is that attitude which becomes the problem, not the original problem. This was a common problem – see also Romans 16:17.

There will always be disagreements and conflict in church. Our responsibility is to deal with those, one on one at first, rather than just leaving our avoiding the issue.

One of Jesus’ most difficult instructions to us was to seek unity. Most issues that cause division within a church on a day to day basis don’t matter. They are trivial issues that entirely disappear when put in the light of eternity. There are extreme situations that do happen, but the principles remain the same. Focus on the lordship of Christ, and stop or avoid that which distracts from serving Him.

-Sermon Notes, Mahlon Friesen, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, March 1, 2020

Crete was not an easy place to minister. The name “Cretan” was synonymous with “liar.” they were also known as “evil brutes” and “lazy gluttons”. Epimenides joked of his own people that the absence of wild beasts on the island was supplied by its human inhabitants.

So it’s remarkable that these are the people Paul tosses these instructions about submission to authority to. We are called to be good citizens, seeking as best we are able to follow the laws and obey those who we find in positions of authority over us within whatever human structures we are engaged with.

We can temper this somewhat by looking at the behavior of the apostles in Acts 4, when they clearly state that they will serve God over man when the two are in conflict. But this is never too be our first instinct. We can look to Paul himself for an example of working within the Roman system to accomplish the things of God.

This is a complex question, with many different circumstances and contexts that may lead to very different behaviors and actions depending on those. But we clearly see the basic principles laid out here that we should use as our guide – not merely to submission, but also to “be ready for every good work.”

The story of Daniel and his compatriots is another window on this. When ordered to eat unclean food, they resisted and worked within the system to turn the entire circumstance to their own good. Then, when ordered to worship an idol, they refused and prepared themselves to be martyred for this refusal, before God miraculously intervened.

The police officer pulling us over is not trying to make us worship an idol. City regulations may be onerous and even absurd, but they are not contravening God’s command.

Paul also addresses how we should deal with difficult people who are not in authority. He lays out for key principles: speak evil of no one, avoid quarreling, be gentle and show “perfect courtesy” toward all people. In the latter term, now that it requires an outward demonstration of praÿtēs, a term also translated as meekness and gentleness. It is the same root used in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, “blessed are the meek,” and the same describing Jesus in the prophecy of the humble king riding on the donkey.

All this is an explication of the broader instruction from Christ to love our enemies. Sometimes we like that more vague statement more than this very clear outline that clarifies how we are to do this.

Ken Sande of the Relational Wisdom ministry outlines a method for conflict resolution, working first through our own internal inventory and thought processes, both being aware of ourselves and then engaging with our self, then doing the same with the other people in the conflict, both becoming aware and engaging- and finally doing the same with God.

This also touches on the nature of hard skills versus soft skills, the relational capabilities that are outside of the specific technical expertise. Most of the failures in business, in ministry, in families and elsewhere are not due to a lack of hard skills and technical expertise, but rather a breakdown in soft skills. The value of a person to an organization is not their hard skills plus their soft skills, but rather their hard skills multiplied by our soft skills. It is the soft skills that Paul is instructing Titus in here.

– Sermon Notes, Mahlon Friesen, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, February 9, 2020

We return to Paul’s letter to Titus where the young minister is responsible for congregations all across the island of Crete. In verse 2:15, Paul calls on him to teach all the things that he wrote – how young and old, men and women, slave and free are to behave.

To that end, Paul goes on to instruct him to both exhort and rebuke those who are in his care, and to do so with the command of God behind him.

This is a hard teaching for us today, when if we don’t like the exhortation we get at church, we can just go to one of the ten churches we passed on the way. This was explicitly predicted in 2 Timothy 4:

For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

This is not carte blanche for anyone in authority to be seen as some sort of superior being whose words cannot be questioned. This is about the word of truth from God. It is our responsibility as Christians to separate the wheat from the chaff. Discernment is vital. We can learn truth from people who are, in balance, wrong, and we can hear falsehoods from those who are usually accurate.

We must be open to the exhortation and rebuke from those who teach us, while still being discerning about it.

He is to do this with the authority that comes with speaking the truth of God, and to not let others disregard him. But how does a leader avoid being disregarded? By speaking the truth with boldness and by living a life in line with that teaching of God.

Verse 15 in some ways an outline of what Aristotle wrote the centuries earlier. Persuasive speech, or rhetoric, has three components. First, the logos, the content is the teaching: “declare these things.” Second, the pathos, the emotional of that teaching – the rebuke and exhortation. And finally, the credibility and authority of the speaker, the ethos – “with all authority, let no one disregard you.”

This is true for all of us in one setting or another. If we are parents or instructors or managers, we will need all three of logos, pathos and ethos. And these are things we need to watch for as we long for a new pastor.

We also must consider how we approach the teaching of God we receive on Sundays. First, we should prepare ourselves properly – don’t just stay up late watching garbage on TV Saturday night. We must listen for the truth of God even from a lousy preacher. We must discern where the truth is, and where it isn’t. If we have problems with what we hear, we should discuss it before fleeing to some other church.

– Sermon Notes, Mahlon Friesen, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, February 2, 2020