🦁 Lent 1-5

Readings: Psalm 77; Job 4:1-21; Ephesians 2:1-10. 

Reflection

Good morning. This is Tim Tribble, broadcasting from Sacramento, California. Today's readings are some 77. Joke Chapter four verses 1 to 21 and the Ephesians chapter two, verses 1 to 10. Our song this morning is titled In the Day of Trouble. Seek the Lord. It's the choirmaster, according to Jonathan, a psalm of Azoff. So this is not a song of David. There was a time when everybody thought that the Psalms were all written by David. They weren't. And this is one of them that wasn't. This is some of us of a.S.A.P. And this is talking about the relationship and seeking God. And when you're in times of trouble, we need to seek God all of the time. But God is there, especially when we are in trouble. We have a tendency when we are in troubling times, we don't ask God for help. We try to handle things on our own and it doesn't work out real well many times. So this is a reminder that we need to see God in the day of our trouble. 

In Joe chapter four, we have the continuation of the story of Joe. And there's some interesting things here. So this gentleman, El Falls LP, ACL Falls. The Terminate is a front. One of the three friends of Jobe. The other two are Bill Da and Zafar, who tried to comfort Jobe after Jobe, you know, had this breakdown and, you know, made the statement, the statements that he did, the complaints he has back in chapter three and IL Falls is one of the first ones to speak. And he's trying to console Jobe, but he's telling Jobe how this is probably you must have done something that's that is upset God, God's pissed at you. You've done something to upset God. So God's punishing you. 

And this is an example of someone responding with the world's wisdom to suffer. And we always figure when you when, when something bad happens, we go, Oh, they've done something wrong. I spent over 20 years in emergency management responding to, you know, earthquakes, fiery floods, tornadoes, all it. There's always people there's always some religious people. It crosses different faith. There's not just Christians to do this, that this is because God is mad at the whole thing. Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. And I was like, really? People? That's not the way it works. God was getting back at those people in New Orleans for their lifestyle, their lifestyles, like really. But people do that what it is sometimes the innocent suffer. You don't have to be guilty. You know, we have there's a state of shit happens, right? We've all heard that. And that is a very, very true statement. Things happen. They just do. It's life. And God can use a suffering to strengthen the believer's life and change the life of others. I want you to think about that for a moment. We have brothers and sisters who are coming back from Afghanistan and Iraq, and they have various physical and mental injuries. How inspiring are they? How inspiring are they? Then they come back and they tell their stories and share their stories, and they motivate and inspire other people because, you know, this happened to me as it was horrible. But we made it through and I'm here now and they're able to do this and I can do that. You know, I'm able to help others. And that is the huge things because something happens, you know, it may be that there there's a bigger plan that God has. And it doesn't mean God caused. It doesn't mean that God is angry at us or any of that type of stuff. But what it means is God can use this for us. 

Then in Ephesians, in our reading today, is titled Grace Through by Grace Through Faith. The Ephesians is the book of letter that Paul wrote to the Church in a place called Ephesus. Ephesus is an ancient city. It used to be in ancient was ancient Greece because Greece used to have part of the landmass that is now Turkey. So it is now in Turkey's central Aegean area and the remains are still there and so it's been around since the 10th, 10th century B.C. They had the church. There's one of the churches Paul planted. This is how they spread out after the Pentecost. And they pointed to 70 and they went out. And Paul, you know, had this Paul Saul moment and all that on the road to Damascus. These were all these people went out. So they planted all these churches. They went out spreading the word of the way. That's what Christianity was originally called was a Roman emperor. And I can't think of the guy's name right now. I'll get it someday and tell you it was a Roman emperor. They actually came up with the word Christian before they were known as followers of the way. So we are followers of the way. And they went and spread this. So they're in these right into the church in Ephesus. 

And this is again saying that you can't work your way to heaven. Yes, you have faith. Faith is what gives you God's grace. Your faith in God is what gives you grace. In verse five, By grace you have been saved. Verb in verse six and raise this up with him and sees us with him in heavenly places. Encourage Jesus. But it's not. You can't work your way to heaven. You cannot be good enough to get into heaven. If you could be Jesus wouldn't have needed to come. We would not have needed, needed Jesus to come down on Earth, have his ministry to be crucified, dead, buried and resurrected. Wouldn't happen. We didn't need that. We cannot work our way into heaven. It doesn't work. There is. It works. You need to have works as a sign of your faith. But it is your faith. It is your faith in God. That is what saves us. And that's a real important distinction. One thing I would talk about what's love was, you know how you define love and when. What is love? Me? If you keep telling someone I love you, you're in the relationship, I love you and you do something horrible to them. But I love you and you do something horrible to them again. You know that cycle you probably don't love them. If you say you're Christian and don't act like one, you're probably not a Christian, but it's not the works that save us. The works come because of our faith. So if you truly love someone, you're not going to hurt them. If you truly believe in God and have real good faith in God, you're not going to hurt. You're going to act a certain way and live your life a certain way and then that's where the grace is. That's how we get God's grace is through our faith in God. And that faith in God giving us that grace motivates us and guides our path and our lives and how we act. And those are the works, but it's not the work that I can do this on my own if I'm a good enough person. It doesn't work that way. I'm in.