Many of you saw or heard that Erika Kirk has forgiven the assassin who killed her husband, Charlie. I have heard people say, how can she do that. To understand how, we must know what biblical forgiveness is. Jesus prayed forgive us our debt as we forgive our debtors. When someone hurts or harms us they have incurred a debt to us, to forgive is to release that person from their debt. It is a  decision to no longer hold a wrong against that person. It is a matter of the will and not of emotion. In fact, the emotional fact that I have forgiven someone comes much later, as I have to constantly remind myself that I have forgiven that person.

To forgive a person who has hurt me, I must trust God and know that vengeance is His. If the person is a Christian who hurt me, I ask myself how much more must Jesus suffer to satisfy me. If the person is not a Christian, I ask how much more hell will that person have to endure to satisfy me. The answer is nothing more, for either Christ has, or they will from God pay for any harm they have done to me.

Forgiving people is a sign that I have been forgiven When I truly understand how much God has forgiven me in Christ and the mercy he has shown me, it makes it easier and desirable to show mercy to others. Forgiveness in the long run is also what is best for me. If I continue to hold onto hurt, it will lead to bitterness. Bitterness has often been described as drinking poison and hoping it kills the other person. Unforgiveness leads to bitterness and bitterness only harms me. Forgiveness does not mean that the person who harmed me does not have to suffer consequences, they just don’t have to suffer any from me.

I remember planting a garden with my dad. Every year, no matter how careful we were, weeds would grow up in our garden among the plants. Whenever we weeded the garden, dad would say make sure you get the roots, otherwise it will grow back. There is a weed growing in our culture today, and if we are to get rid of it, we must get to the root of the problem. There is so much vitriol and hatred in our culture as witnessed by rejoicing over the assassination of Charlie Kirk. I do not expect everyone to mourn his passing, but I never thought there would be so much glee. From where did this come from.

We could point to the proliferation of violence in media. Movies, television, online, gaming, and even music are filled with violence. When the young Ukrainian woman was killed on the train in Charlotte, there was a time that the video of it would not have shown on the news because it was too violent, but now it shown at all times of the day. We could point to the glorification of death. Death is now simply a choice whether it is for the preborn or the infirmed. We are at the point now that I am hearing people argue for abortion for sex determination. When life is not valued, death is not abhorred.  When you add these to the dehumanization of people through social media. People have been reduced to a sound bite, a post, or a video clip. All of these do not provide context for what is being said nor do they paint a full picture of who a person is. It is easy to hate a straw man, it becomes harder when we see them as a person.

We may not be able to remove these roots from society, but we can remove them from our own souls. We can work hard not to be desensitized to the violence that is so prolific in our media. We can choose to value all life and we can choose to love our neighbors as ourselves, by not demonizing those who disagree with us.

The American Bible Society recently reported that nearly half of American Christians (45%) have not attended church in the past six months. That is a very sad statistic and it makes us wonder what it means. It reminds me of a question that I often hear, Do I have to go to church to be a Christian? And my answer is always the same, you don’t have to do anything but trust the finished work of Christ to be a Christian. But if you really have trusted Christ you will want to go to church.

This week, we celebrated Labor Day. For many Labor Day is just a long weekend, one last vacation before fall. Growing up, Labor Day was the last day of summer vacation before the start of school. It was also the Jerry Lewis Labor Day telethon to raise money for muscular dystrophy. Labor Day is a holiday that began in the late nineteenth century, when labor activists pushed for a federal holiday. This day was to be set a part to recognize the contributions of American workers.  The day is designed to celebrate the achievements of the American worker to make our nation strong and prosperous.

However, as a Christian, work does not have to be a labor but a joy. It can still be difficult and hard but it can bring joy. Colossians 3:23-24 says, “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.”  We can have joy in our work if we do it for the Lord, serving Him and not men.

If I asked you who the Apostle Paul was, most people would know him, especially Christians. The same is true for Christian men and women of history such as Augustine of Hippo, Martin Luther, Amy Carmichael or Corrie Ten Boon. But if I asked you who Tychicus was, most would have no idea. He is mentioned in Scripture a few times and he was important in the life of Paul, but his is not a household name. Tychicus is mentioned 5 times in the New Testament and he had a role as a messenger and encourager He is described as a “beloved brother,” “faithful minister,” and “fellow servant in the Lord,” In Colossians 4:7.

You do not have to have a great name in order to make a difference. Tychicus made a difference because he was a messenger. A messenger does not create the message nor does he have to be eloquent in delivering the message, he only has to deliver the message accurately. We are all called to be messengers. We have all been given the message from God about His Son Jesus and all we have to do is tell other people about Him. If we do that faithfully than we will make a difference in someone else’s’ life. We can also be an encourager. An encourager builds people up rather than tears them down. An encourager does not have to have the right words for sometimes the greatest encouragement we can give someone is to simply be with them. If we seek to be an encourager we can make a difference as well.

I like the lyrics from the Williams Brothers, “I’m just a nobody, trying to tell everybody about somebody who can save anybody.”  I do not have to be famous but I can make Jesus famous by being an encourager and a messenger of the good news that Jesus can save anybody. I hope that you will commit yourself to being a Tychicus by telling others of Jesus and encouraging other people.

I have a stenosis in my lower back. This means that nerves get pinched and irritated to cause pain. It is not bad enough for surgery, so I have been doing therapy. The main point of physical therapy is to do nothing for my vertebrae but to stretch my muscles so that I strengthen certain muscles in my back and hips to help reduce my pain. Stretching muscles in the lower back and hips can help alleviate back pain by reducing muscle tension, improving flexibility, and promoting better spinal alignment. Tight muscles in these areas can pull on the spine and contribute to pain and discomfort. Stretching can counteract these effects, provide relief and improve overall mobility.  Let me be honest stretching some of these muscles make me sore, because they have not been used as much because of the pain I have had. But as they say no pain, no gain.

The Bible says, “above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8). The word earnestly comes from a Geek word that was used of stretching a muscle to its absolute maximum. We are to love one another with an all-encompassing love that stretches as far as it can possibly go.  This may cause us to hurt a bit because we do not use that love muscle as much as we should. We love people who love us, and we love people who act in loving ways towards us and others, but as Peter says this kind of love covers a multitude of sins. This means we are loving people who have hurt us or wronged us. We should stretch our love as far as it can go to be reconciled with our brothers and sisters in Christ.

If you have not used this muscle in a while or you have only used it on people who treat you nice, when you start, it is going to hurt a little. But if you keep stretching your love as far as it can go, you will find that the soreness is gone and you have the ability to love even the unlovable. No pain, no gain.

I grew up in church, for my whole life; I was taught the stories of the Bible. I have heard about Daniel who was sent to the Lion’s Den for praying and survived. I have heard about Joseph and his coat of many colors, and how he was sold into slavery by his brothers. I learned how he rose up in Pharoah’s court and eventually saved his family from famine. I have heard the story of Moses and the parting of the Red Sea, of David defeating Goliath and the Hebrew children escaping the fiery furnace.

I have been taught that these are the heroes of our faith. These are people we should look up to as examples to follow. Be like David and defeat the giants in your life. Be like Esther and know that God has raised me up for such a time as this. As I have grown, I have come to understand that this is not the purpose of these stories. The stories of these men and women of the Bible are not written for us to look at them but to look at God. God is the only hero in the Bible.

Bod uses mean and women who are flawed and frail, who often fail. But the one thing that they have in common is that they believed God. They did not believe God perfectly and sometimes they only believed God one time. But they believed God even with a faith the size of a mustard seed. Without faith it is impossible to please God. So don’t dare to be a Daniel, a Deborah, or a David. Instead, dare to believe God. Even if your faith is small, you never know what big thing He might do.

I was sitting in the courthouse the other day and was staring at the N.C. State seal. On it is the state motto, ‘Esse Quam Videri’ to be rather than to seem. The quote comes from the Cicero’s essay on friendship. In the essay, Cicero basically says in his essay that the number of people who truly possess virtue is less than what it appears to be, so stop pretending. Our state in adopting this motto, had a desire that its citizens to truly possess virtue and integrity rather than just appearing to have them. This is truly an admirable motto for the state to have. We all need to be people of good character in order that we might live as a community. We need to be able to trust one another.

As I was thinking about the motto, I believe that it is vital that Christians understand and live the truth of it. We need to be Christians rather than seem to be a Christian. Jesus told us that this would happen, that there would be people who only seem to be a Christian. He said in Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.  Not everyone who professes faith in Jesus, possess faith in Jesus. They seem rather than to be.

So how do I know that I really am a Christian. 1 John gives us several tests to help us answer this question. Do I enjoy having fellowship with Christ and other believers? (1 John 1:3) Do I admit and confess my sin? (1 John 1:8) Am I obedient to God’s Word? (1 John 2:3-5). Does my life demonstrate that I love God rather than the world? (1 John 2:15) Is there a decreasing pattern of sin in my life? (1 John 3:5-6) Do I demonstrate love for other Christians? (1 John 3:14) There are other tests throughout 1 John so take time to read the book, and if you can answer yes to these questions, you are bearing fruit of the Christian life, for Jesus said, by their fruit you will know them.

I had a most encouraging conversation with a friend the other day. He asked me if I had used the devotional book my dad had written, “A Fresh Sip of God’s Word”*.  I told him yes, but it had been a while. He said that he was using it with his children and how God was using it to speak to him and his family.

When he said that it really encouraged my heart and I immediately thought of Hebrews 11:4, “And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.”  Dad wrote that devotional book over twenty years ago, and he died just a little over a year ago and yet, God is still using it to speak into people’s lives. My dad left a legacy, his faith still speaks today, and his books are merely one of them.

We should all strive to leave a legacy for those who come after us. Hebrews 12:1 says, therefore since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us run the race that has been set before us. Those witnesses are not looking at us run the race, but we are to look at them. When you live by faith, you are leaving a legacy for others to look back on and be encouraged as they run their race. They will see that as you lived by faith, God is faithful to you, and they will know that He will be faithful to them.

 *A Fresh Sip of God’s Word by Don Davis is available at the Christian Supply Shop.”

When we sing the hymns and spiritual songs of the church, we profess what we believe, who we love, and our commitment to the Lord. Songs like Holy, Holy, Holy, teach us who God is. Songs like “Oh how I love Jesus”, simply express our love for Him, and “I Surrender All” help us to declare our commitment to the Lord 

When I was in South Korea, the church sang a song that expressed a commitment that I rarely ever hear the church in America sing. A rough translation of the first stanza of the song is: 

We have one wish until the day the Lord comes again.

The love of the cross of the Lord engraved in our hearts

Make me love my church

Our hearts toward the Lord’s church

Sacrifice and renunciation, poverty and suffering

 Not even death Can stop us

Our church is the hope of this land. 

As we were singing, I couldn’t help, but to wonder could we in the church in America truly sing that song and mean it. My desire is to sacrifice, to renounce everything, embrace, poverty, and suffering, because I love my church and believe that the church is the hope of our nation. If we truly believe that the church is God‘s instrument to bring hope to our world then we would be willing to give our everything to see the church thrive in our land. We are going to see revival and spiritual awakening in our nation, we as the body of Christ must give our all. What are you willing to give?