Eat the Word, Not Spit It At Others (Revelation 10:8-11)

This is my typed recollection of a part of what I preached extemporaneously yesterday. This post could be titled "Take the Word. Eat It. It is Sweet and Bitter."

Yesterday (9/29/13), I preached on the Seven Trumpets (Rev 8:1-11:19) with the title of The Two Kingdoms, and the theme of "The Kingdom of This World Becomes The Kingdom of Christ." In a vision John was told to take and eat a scroll that was in the hand of the angel (Rev 10:8-9), which he did (Rev 10:10), and then he was told to prophesy (Rev 10:11). This is similar to what Ezekial was told to do (Eze 2:8-3:3, 10). Though the scroll Ezekial ate tasted as sweet as honey in his mouth (Eze 3:3), it caused him to be deeply distressed (Eze 3:15).

In my sermon I explained four aspects of how to prophesy, i.e., how to communicate Christ well through Scripture.

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C.S. Lewis on How To Write

C. S. Lewis on Writing (#4 is most explanatory):

1. Always try to use the language so as to make quite clear what you mean and make sure your sentence couldn't mean anything else.

2. Always prefer the plain direct word to the long, vague one. Don't implement promises, but keep them.

3. Never use abstract nouns when concrete ones will do. If you mean "More people died" don't say "Mortality rose."

4. In writing. Don't use adjectives which merely tell us how you want us to feel about the thing you are describing. I mean, instead of telling us a thing was "terrible," describe it so that we'll be terrified. Don't say it was "delightful"; make us say "delightful" when we've read the description. You see, all those words (horrifying, wonderful, hideous, exquisite) are only like saying to your readers, "Please will you do my job for me."

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What Sad Words Before One's Death

Before his death, philosopher and agnostic Bertrand Russell said, "There is darkness without, and when I die there will be darkness within. There is no splendor, no vastness anywhere, only triviality for a moment, and then nothing."

I love quotes because words reveal what is in a man. Russell's words about death reveal plainly in eloquent words what his view of death is: It is darkness and nothingness.

Contrast Russell's sad words with Dietrich Bonhoeffer who is considered a martyr for his faith. When facing his untimely execution at age 39, he said, "This is the end --- for me the beginning of life."

Russell was a brilliant man. Here are a few of his quotes:

"No one gossips about other people's secret virtues."

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B.L.E.S.S. Others

1. Begin with prayer.
2. Listen (James 1:19).
3. Eat together.
4. Serve them (according to their needs*).
5. Share your Story.

*Consider these needs:

1. Body needs.
2. Labor needs.
3. Emotional needs.
4. Social needs.
5. Spiritual needs.

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Incessant

Being incessant simply just works for some people!

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Half Faith is No Faith (Judges 17-18)

"Judges For You" (by Tim Keller) has helped me share gospel lessons from the book:

• Faithful But Flawed (Judg 1:1-2:5),
• Gideon (Judg 6:1-8:35), who starts well and ends badly, and
• Samson (Judg 13:1-16:31), the womanizer and sex addict whom God choose from birth.

They teach us:

• how compromise always devastates us,
  
• how success often leads to pride and makes us worse, and
  
• how God bears with our fallen humanity and depravity---only by his grace.

The last 5 chapters are particularly graphically brutal, violent and bleak---so much so that they are hardly ever taught in church or preached on. It shows the reality of a life without God, even though the people act and behave religiously, and even call on God's name. But it is everyone doing "as they saw fit" (Judg 17:6; 21:25).

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God's Love May Be To Keep You Weak

Does God want to weaken you? Paul, the great apostle, was given a "thorn in the flesh," a messenger of Satan, to torment him and to keep him from becoming conceited because of surpassingly great revelations that he received from God (2 Cor 12:7). Despite endless speculation, this thorn is not specifically known. God's specific intended purpose was to keep Paul humble and weak, so weak that his only recourse is to rely entirely on God's sufficient grace (2 Cor 12:9).

Generic thorns and a particular thorn. Every Christian who has any degree of self-awareness is surely conscious of some unbearable thorn in their own flesh, which feels like torture and which thus weakens and frustrates them. Common thorns might be laziness, lukewarmness, lust, licentiousness, liberalism, legalism and loneliness, from which all people/Christians experience to varying degrees. My particular thorn might be anger, exasperation, impatience and the incessant desire to retaliate against others--like Dirty Harry. I know that apart from marveling and grasping at the glory of the gospel of God's grace (Ac 20:24), I am completely helpless and powerless to restrain myself. Thank God for such a thorn that is surely nothing but his magnificent, magnanimous, mysterious and marvelous grace to me.

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