Ancient Cliff Notes
Everyone's Burden
Tongues
Pentecost
#3 Seeing Our Neighbor
series: Neighbor(ing)
title: Seeing Our Neighbor
teacher: Jacob Bender
date: March 5, 2017
scriptures: John 8:3-11, Genesis 2:9, Genesis 3:4-5, Genesis 3:17, Genesis 3:22-33, Psalm 106:23, Ezekiel 22:30, Revelation 22:1-4
#8 Thou Shall Covet
Series: Realities
Title: Thou Shall Covet
Teacher: Jacob Bender
Date: November 8, 2015
scriptures: Exodus 20:1-17, Psalm 19:10, Psalm 68:16, Proverbs 5:18, Philippians 4:11-14, Romans 7, Hebrews 12:2
In English, the word covet, is a bad word. In English it means “a yearning to possess or have something.”
I have heard it put this way, it is an inward grasping for something… something that is not yours... It means you don’t have something, and you yearn for it. Maybe we think we are nothing without it. We hear that word, and right away we default to the Ten Commandments. Right away, we think, this is a bad word. This is something that we must not do. Ever. Under any circumstances. I think that the word we typically associate to it is the word jealousy. Or the word envy… and where the command as a whole may be getting at that, those things are not the same as coveting, in the way it was written on the tablets. Not at all.
The Hebrew word written on the tablet that we translate as “covet” is the word “chamad” (huh-mad). And “chamad” (huh-mad) is a good thing. Its a beautiful word that demonstrates a satisfaction with what God gave you. The word “chamad” (huh-mad) means “Delight.” or “To take pleasure in.”
So when you say that you are coveting something, if you are actually quoting the tenth commandment, you are saying that you “Take delight in that thing.”
I covet my wife. I absolutely covet my wife. I take delight in her. In fact, as the days go by I hope and pray that my delight for her only grows and grows.
I covet my children.
Honestly, you should covet (chamad) your friends. Your friends carry a lot of weight. They are very valuable. You should delight in the fact that you have them. You should delight in your relationships. They are gifts.
To say you chamad something does NOT mean you are jealous of it, it means that you delight IN IT.
What you should not do, is covet your friends house.
What you should not do, is covet what your friends have.
God has given you specific things in this life that are tailor made just for you.
For your life.
For your family.
and to not delight in those things would be a slap in the face to the God who gave them to you.
You see, the problem lies in when you covet what is not yours. The command does not say Thou shall not covet.
Thou shall covet.
Thou shall certainly covet.
But thou shall never, ever covet what belongs to someone else.
RESOURCE NOTE: the website referenced today to help you with your studies is www.blueletterbible.com
#9 Gentleness
Series: The Fruit of the Spirit
Title: Gentleness
Teacher: Jacob Bender
Date: August 30, 2015
scriptures: Luke 22:24-30, Isaiah 55:8-9, Acts 17:6, John 14:6, Acts 24, Luke 22, Matthew 5, Psalm 37:1-13, Proverbs 15:1, Romans 12:19, Acts 7:22, Exodus 2:13, Exodus 3:1, Exodus 4:1-12, Acts 7:22, James 4:6, 1 Corinthians 9:22, Revelation 5:1-10, Isaiah 29:19
William Barclay wrote in his Daily Study Bible, that the Greek word praotēs (the word that we translate as “Gentleness”) is the most untranslatable word of all of the Fruit of the Spirit, so tackling its meaning is no small task. So, here is my best try at explaining it.
Gentleness can also be translated as “meekness.” And we know that the “meek” shall inherit the earth. But who, or what, are the meek?
When Jesus says this (Matthew 5:5) he is quoting Psalm 37 when King David says “The Meek shall inherit the land.” When King David wrote this, the Hebrew word that he used is the word”anawin”
Primarily, unlike the other words we have been studying, anawin is not a word used to describe a moral or even necessarily a character trait.
At least right here in Psalms, the Psalm that Jesus is quoting in “The Beatitudes,” Its more to describe a group of people. The word I want to use is counter culture but that really doesn’t do it justice… It is more like the voiceless. It is the people who lack the social status, the power, the money. Its the poor, the vulnerable, the outcast, the marginalized. They are the people with no voice. They don’t control anything, they are not Caesar, and never in a million years would they even be able to gain the ear of Caesar for him to hear even their most valuable petition.
These are the people who are the least likely of everyone, to ever inherit any sort of kingdom, or any sort of authority, they are in no succession of royalty and will never have the throne and yet they are the ones who Jesus says, in quoting the Psalmist, will inherit the earth.
And that leads us to the New Testament, where we have Jesus quoting this amazing Psalm in Matthew 5, and in the Greek language that the New Testament is written in the word Matthew used there is the word praÿs
Blessed are the praÿs for they shall inherit the earth.
Which is the same word (different tense) that Paul uses when he is listing the fruit of the spirit, that modern bibles translate as gentleness, and The King James version translates it “meekness” it is the word praotēs, that “most untranslatable of words” according to Barclay.
It seems, by definition to be pretty self explanatory. If you were to search the meaning the words you would immediately find are: gentleness, mildness, or meekness, but where it comes from gives us a little different perspective.
The word comes from a wild animal, that has been tamed. (see Barclay commentary, Matthew 5:5) – For example, a couple of months ago we partnered with a great church from Down River and did “Bless Fest” in Patton Park, and it was awesome. And all of my children, including my one year old daughter, were able to ride on horses. They were thrilled, they absolutely loved it.
But how is it that both my three year old AND even my one year old, tiny daughter, could ride on a horse that weighed 50 times as much as they do… A horse that was completely capable of at any moment throwing her off of its back and crushing her… Yet it didn’t? and we trusted it not to?
Because it had learned to restrict its power.
But not only was it holding back on what it was capable of, but it had learned how to hold back so well, that it’s first instinct was now nurturing. It’s first instinct was to gently walk with the child on its back. It’s first instinct was to be gentle even though it was the largest and strongest creature in whole the place.
That concept is where we get the word gentleness from. What Paul is saying, essentially, is this: make yourself like the anawin. Maybe you have the strength, but God gives grace to the humble…. Because it is the people who are broken for Him that He can use.
With that, I encourage you to watch the whole sermon or read the PDF if you would like to learn more about “Gentleness” and what it means for us today.
#8 Faithfulness
Series: The Fruit of the Spirit
Title: Faithfulness
Teacher: Jacob Bender
Date: August 23, 2015
scriptures: 2 Timothy 2:13, Genesis 15:6, Exodus 17, Romans 4:3, Galatians 3:6, James 2:26, 2 Corinthians 8:1-7, John 13, 1 Peter 2:2-5, Mark 14:32-42, Luke 22:44, John 12:27, Galatians 5, John 18, Hebrews 13:8
Faithfulness, as Paul uses it in Galatians 5 when listing the Fruit of the Spirit, is the Greek word pistis and it means “The character of one who can be relied on.”
The hack on the “Ashley Madison” website that was released this week was a pile of evidence (30 million users of evidence) as to how much our society does not value faithfulness. How much we lack pistis. The thing that bothered me so so much, and still does, about this website and the fact that it had so many users, is this: we have grown so incredibly numb to what a covenant even means in our society, that we have millions of people literally getting on a website and strategically looking for ways to break their promise to the person who is supposed to be their closest and most valued friend in all the world, and that is literally beyond my comprehension. The fact that this sight even existed, much less gained that much traction, is absolutely devastating to me.
But one thing that we have to remember in this extreme example of where we are as a society, is that we, as Christians, are citizens of a different kingdom… and we have been trusted with the gospel… the joy news that the war is over, that a new kingdom has been established, and that everyone is invited.
What that means for the Ashley Madison hack is this: There are a LOT of hurting people right now, who need the church to be FAITHFUL to them. The reality is, that sin has a cost, and the reality is, that what is done in darkness ALWAYS eventually comes to the light… and that day has come for everyone who was a registered user of that website.
But it is crucial, now, that the church responds by demonstrating the fruit of the Spirit toward the individuals caught in the act of adultery.
We talked during the “Goodness” message, about the woman caught in the act of adultery… and how Jesus petitioned on behalf of those who were guilty. I really believe that the Holy Spirit dropped that little thought on me last week (maybe to prepare my heart for how to respond this week to this news) about what Jesus was writing in the sand. That if he wanted us to know what he was writing…. If Jesus wanted us to know what the Pharisees had to see to cause them to walk away, he would have made sure it was written in the account.
But what if the reason he left it open, was so that we could apply it to our lives? What would you need to see written in the sand, that would make you lay down your stones and walk away… that would make you realize, “I am just as guilty?”
The Ashley Madison website is a reminder to how much our society does not value faithfulness. And the hack release is all the more evidence that what we do in secret will always be brought to the light sooner or later.
But it also needs to be a reminder to the Christian community that in a world that lacks faithfulness, it needs some people who still have it. Peoples marriages are in trouble because of this (obviously, they were in trouble before they got caught) but there is something different that is happening now. Their darkest decisions are now completely in the light.
People who made big mistakes are going to need people who will stand by them, not because what they did was okay, because it is not… But because at the end of the day, we are all just as guilty.
Remember, Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane was Faithful to his friends even though they were not faithful to him. Even though they couldn’t stay awake for one hour, even though he knew that Peter would deny him three times the following day… When the guards came for Jesus, he said (John 18:8) “If you seek me, let these men go.” – He said to the guards, “You can’t take my friends… do what you will with me.” Even in his darkest hour, Jesus’ faithfulness shined so bright. He drank the whole cup of wrath for the price of our sin. All the dregs and seeds and backwash. All the adultery and failed marriages and abortions and lies. All the unfaithfulness. All the works of the flesh that we are all guilty of, sometimes on a daily basis.
Let today be an opportunity for us to be more faithful than we ever have been before.
#7 Goodness
Date: August 16, 2015
Series: The Fruit of the Spirit
Title: Goodness
Teacher: Jacob Bender
scriptures: Ezekiel 22:30, Genesis 1:3-4, Genesis 1:27, Ephesians 2:10, Genesis 2:9, Genesis 3:5, Genesis 6:9, Genesis 15:6, Romans 4:3, Exodus 32, Genesis 6:17-18, Genesis 18:22-33, 1 Peter 2:20-22, John 8
Goodness.
I like to think of goodness as integrity, but with a little more punch. Typically when I think of integrity, one of the main words that comes to my mind is the word consistency. The person that you are in your home when nobody is around and nobody can see, is the same person that we see. You don’t put on a new self for the sake of the public.
But goodness adds on to that in several ways. Goodness is consistently doing the right thing, not just the same thing. It is doing the right thing when you are by yourself, and doing the right thing when you are in public. But it goes even beyond and strikes an even deeper core.
It is doing the right thing whether it is what is best for you, or it its not. Its making the right decision even when its not what you want, and even when it may have a negative affect on your life.
Goodness, as Paul uses it when he is listing the Fruit of the Spirit, is the Greek word agothosune and it means “Uprightness of Heart and Life.” Your noble heart is matched identically by your noble way of life.
As simple as this may sound as you read it in a few short sentences, there is a lot to this concept, and I encourage you to join us as we journey through it in our series “Fruit of the Spirit”
The Mothers, The Midwives, and the Man with no name
Date: May 10, 2015
Teacher: Jacob Bender
Title: The Mothers, the Midwives, and the Man with no name
scriptures: Exodus 1, Exodus 2, James 1:2-4, Leviticus 18:12, Hebrews 11:24, Luke 9:28-36
“Mom’s, you are like Jesus”