Today, I am featuring a sermon by Aaron Turner, Outreach Pastor of Midtown Church, PCA in St Louis, which he gave at his church two weeks ago. 

The sermon is almost a treatise on slavery in Scripture, but he also shows how American slavery was not biblical or indefensible, recognizing that Scripture does not always say things we want to hear.  

I recommend this message heartily.  

Aaron Turner’s Sermon

Blessings,

C. Stanley Morton, Pastor

“I am beyond excited about this great opportunity to share the word of God and become part of the church family at Crown and Joy Presbyterian,” Addison said. “It is my heart’s desire to be involved in cross-cultural ministry, and Crown and Joy epitomizes that precisely. My wife, Sonya, and I look forward to coming on board and getting to know everyone.”

Pastor Addison, who came to faith at a young age, assumed his first pastorship in 1994. While living in South Florida, Pastor Addison worked full time as a law enforcement officer. Although he enjoyed serving and protecting his community, he soon realized Christian ministry was his ultimate calling.
This is fitting for someone who literally grew up in the church and delivered his first sermon at age 23.

Pastor Addison loves traveling and learning about various cultures and seeks to make multiculturalism an integral part of his approach to ministry. He is passionate about church leadership and has a natural disposition for community building.

Pastor Addison holds two master’s degrees – a Master of Divinity from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Phoenix. He earned his bachelor’s degree in professional studies from Barry University.

He and his wife, Sonya, have been married for nearly 34 years. They have two adult sons, a “daughter-in-love” and two grandchildren.

“Whose Story Will You Follow?” by Karen Ellis

Be Blessed Greatly!

The Seven Deadly Sins and Spiritual Formation Lecture at Covenant College by Rebecca DeYoung. Follow along with these slides.

“Whose Story Will You Follow” podcast by Karen Ellis, published on April 1, 2022 on The Gospel Coalition.

“Bonhoeffer in China: An Interview” by Yu Jie, originally published on March 21, 2017.

The videos from Dr. Diane Langberg’s presentation, “The Church as a Refuge,” presented at Stony Point Presbyterian Church on October 1, 2022. Session One: Understanding Power and its Abuse and Session Two: Systemic Abuse

Here is a video recording from our Sept. 14, 2022 Spoken Word Night. You can follow along with the lyrics here.

Christian NGOs

The following websites are Christian Non-Government Organizations (NGO) that work in nations that persecute Christians across the world.  The organizations spread the gospel, support local churches and work through networks to save lives of Christian adults and children threatened with or impacted by terrorism, human rights violations,  abductions, sexual abuse and various forms of inprisionment, labor camps and slavery.  You may contact them for prayer requests, donations or other types of involvement.  

International Christian Response

International Christian Concern

World News Group 

World News Group has a half hour news podcast called The World and Everything In It

Voice of Martyrs

Open Doors 

Ed Welch’s article “God Scares Me To Death,” gives helpful thoughts and ideas to consider in the presence of grief. Whether in the midst of your own grief or if witnessing grief in another, I recommend this article to you for consideration. Blessings!

“God Scares Me To Death,” by Ed Welch. (Published through CCEF on September 2, 2021)

C.S. Lewis said, “It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

We are too easily satisfied, too easily filled, too easily consoled. On the opposite side of the coin, we are too easily ruffled, too easily disappointed, too easily crossed. I don’t mean to downplay the trials and suffering we all go through, and that some are currently experiencing. But one of the things that sets us apart from the world is that we can praise and thank God in the midst of those trials and sufferings, not just when they are over.

“Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.” – Ephesians 5:17-21

Gratitude is not just a feeling; it is a discipline. As with any discipline, the more one does it, the better they become at it. We need to give thanks always, not only when we feel thankful, but also when we don’t. One neat thing about practicing thankfulness is that it fosters more thankfulness. It opens our eyes to more areas of blessing, at once both expanding our gaze outward to see the big picture and focusing our gaze inward on the details of all we have to be thankful for. 

There are many benefits to practicing gratitude. It can reduce stress and anxiety by releasing hormones in our brains that regulate our responses to stressful and anxiety inducing situations and thoughts. It can help facilitate better and deeper sleep. A grateful person is more hopeful and grounded. None of us can add a single hour to our life span by worrying, but practicing gratitude improves our physical and mental health. God tells us to be thankful in everything, not because it is impossible or because He is trying to manipulate us into blindly accepting anything He throws at us. He tells us to be thankful because it’s good for us and it helps us be more engaged in our lives and His kingdom. He is a good Father who gives good gifts to His children, and one of those gifts is gratitude.

The book of Deuteronomy is Moses recapping all that God has done for the Israelites: delivering them from slavery and Egypt, crossing the wilderness, feeding them daily, keeping their clothes intact, protecting them from enemies, etc. He also is recapping all the ways Israel has rebelled against and disobeyed God. They are about to enter the Promised Land and Moses desperately wants them to remember who they are and who God is, because he knows the consequences that will come if they don’t. They will forget everything God did for them, go after other gods and seek self-reliance, and experience God’s wrath as a result. We humans are forgetful creatures, and we forget quickly. So Moses tells them to remember all that God has done for them.

“You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth.” Deuteronomy 11:18-21

How do we practice sincere gratitude and thankfulness? 

First, remember. 
Remember who God is and who you are in relation to Him.
Remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you.
Remember that He is the One who has sustained and led and fed and clothed you thus far and He will continue to do so.
Remember where strength truly comes from.
Remember that you are chosen and loved,
not because you are the most talented or most strong or most clean—
you are the least of these.
No, you are chosen and loved because He chooses and loves you.
All this is an unmerited, un-repayable, unbelievable gift.

Second, express it visually and vocally.
Write what you are grateful for in your journal. 
Make it part of your conversations with friends, coworkers, neighbors, strangers. 
Include it in your hourly, daily, and weekly prayers.
Have a gratitude jar or board in your house where people can write down things they are thankful for. Pick a day each week to read them aloud with the family.

Third, start today and make it a habit.
Gratitude is easy to start, which also means it is easy to stop if we don’t practice it daily. 
If you like to schedule your days, write it into your schedule. 
If you aren’t on the scheduling train, set a daily recurring reminder on your phone or put up sticky notes around your house.

“And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” – Colossians 3:15-17

Show gratitude for the big things and the little things. One can be thankful for sunlight flooding through the windows; for the wind blowing through their hair; for all green lights on their way to work. Show gratitude for the easy things and the hard things. Thank God that it doesn’t go the way we planned because His plan is better; that we aren’t in control because we see the hurt and evil humans inflict on each other; that though we are weak and foolish He is always strong and wise. There is much to be thankful for, if we will only take the time to notice.

(for more passages on gratitude see Col. 1:11-14, 2:6-7, 4:2; 1 Thes. 5:16-18; Phil. 4:5b-7)

What happens when the poor who are ready to quietly move forward to work with their hands (meaning exercising their own resourcefulness) trusting God to make their efforts prosper toward stability meet the rich person who is generous, and ready to share (gifts, job opportunities, skill development, social capital)?  The poor person or family tangibly experience God’s delivering grace on that journey from the drama of poverty and from various forms of dysfunctional dependency toward God wrought sanctifying stability.  The rich person or family experience release from the idolatrous bondage of mammon, from the deceptive certainty of riches, from the temptation of pride to the reality that it is more blessed to give than to receive, laying up untouchable treasures in glory.  They are actively laying aside a weight (Heb 12:1) that could ensnare them on their pathway towards salvation and relationship with Jesus, something the rich young ruler was not willing to cast off.  

In these days, the rich person can not only impact individuals in poor communities directly, they can do so through institutions that work in these under-resourced communities.  These kinds of person to person or person to community institution interactions are far richer, more beneficial and provide greater opportunity for people development and spiritual transformation than the bureaucratic interaction that characterizes government transfer payments from anonymous workers to recipient mailboxes.  

The funds of the rich cannot eradicate poverty, no matter how much top-down bureaucracies redistribute resources extracted from them.  The fallen human condition and the reality of sin will undermine such efforts again and again.  Further, God has appointed a day when all things will be made new and sorrow and crying will pass away.  But as Jesus healed many people short of eliminating disease from the earth, God can and will use the generosity of the rich to bring relief and development to the poor short of eradicating poverty from the earth while the poor provide opportunity for the rich to be spiritually transformed, secure a good foundation for their future and take hold of that which is truly life.  Hallelujah!

For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money. Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here I have made five talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here I have made two talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’ But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Matthew 25:14-30

I have come to realize that every one of us has been gifted with a talent or talents by God, each according to their ability. God knows we have varying capacities, personalities, and abilities. So, He gives us talents based on what He knows we can handle. This is not a reflection on our worth, but rather it is a reflection on God’s care for us. 

Sometimes, the talents we are given may not be obvious to us, and they may not feel like talents at all. When God told Moses to go and lead the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, Moses held back because he did not speak well. God reminded him that He had created man’s mouth and He would be with Moses. Still Moses said he could not do it, so God provided Aaron to speak for Moses. Three times, Gideon asked God for a sign that He would be with him as he led Israel to defeat Midian, and God graciously showed him each time. God will always equip us for what he has called us to do. This may come in the form of people to join us, or in the boldness that comes from knowing God is with us. Sometimes, the talents God gives us to steward are big and visible, like leading a country. Sometimes, they are invisible to the world at large, but that does not make the impact of our stewardship any less valuable or lessen our responsibility to steward it well. Whatever the size, whatever the range, whatever the visibility of our talents, God will be with us to equip and guide us.

I don’t believe God gives us talents that we won’t be able to use. We may not be able to use them right now, but we will be able to use them. If we don’t see how we can actively use them, we need to think of ways to invest them so that we are still working on building them up, rather than burying them until we get around to using them. We don’t have to wait until we can do something big for God before we can use our talents.

A person’s reward is not based on how many talents they are given at the beginning, but on how they use, or do not use, those talents. The servant who started out with five talents doubled their talents, and so did the servant who started out with two talents. When the master returned and saw what they had done, he told each of them “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over little; now you will be faithful over much. Enter into the joy of your master.” The issue arose with the servant with one talent, not because he had fewer talents than anybody else, but because he mishandled the responsibility of the talent he was given. Verses 24-25 tell us why the servant mishandled the talent. He was afraid of losing the talent, or of using it incorrectly, so he thought it would be better to bury it in the ground. In the end, what he feared came true. He lost his talent because he did not handle it responsibly, though it was not in the way he expected. We have a choice. We can use our talents and use them well, or we can not. If we choose to bury them, we will live lives full of fear of man and terror of God. The giver of gifts is also the bringer of justice. If we choose to use them well, God will reward us and we will see Him working in our lives and the world around us in powerful, life-changing ways.

What are your talents? Is there a talent you have buried out of fear? How are you investing in your talents? Where do you think God is calling you to use those talents?

I want to use my talents for God’s glory. I want to use my talents responsibly, not bury them for fear of failing God or failing in front of others. I want to hear at the end, when I stand before my master, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.” 

I just talked with someone this morning about how Eastern religious practices are making their way into the church.  Why would that happen?  Perhaps it is because as Burk Parsons writes, people are looking for the “fresh and new.”  Today’s entry is short and may not be profound.  Or is it? 

A reminder to stand in the faith once delivered that is good news to both the poor and successful.

“The Way” by Burk Parsons

There is a struggle we all have between biblical joy and circumstantial happiness.  How do we respond to circumstances that are dry, hard and/or traumatic and seem to never end?  This entry on true joy speaks into this challenge.  Certainly there are situations of clinical depression or situations that make us cry out to God in despair as many of the Psalms capture.  Yet there is this framework of understanding in His Word that opens our eyes to joy that is beyond circumstantial happiness that our culture embraces. 

That is what this week’s devo is about. 

May you be edified!

“What is True Joy?” by Jeremy Pierre

C. Stanley Morton, Pastor