Cornerstone of Righteousness
Speaker
Pastor Tim Clowers. Juniper Church - Knoxville, TN.
Scripture References
Matthew 6:9, Psalms 25:4-5, Psalms 31:1, Ephesians 6, Hebrews 13:1, 2 Corinthians 6, Psalms 68:5
Key Takeaways
Knowing the Bible, being able to quote scripture, and memorizing facts, is not the same as knowing God.
Putting on the armor of righteousness means we are to stay in right standing with God. Staying away from sin that separates us from God.
We want you to become self-feeders – milk of the word just won’t cut it when you’re an adult. You need the meat of the Word as scripture tells
-
Okay. You know, I will say that being a dad has been a great joy of my life. Now, before I get started today, I'm gonna tell a joke. And the reason I'm gonna tell a joke. So let's get into this joke real quick.
It says two elderly, it says two elderly Southern women were in a church service sitting on the front row in what they call a pew and listening to a fiery preacher. When the preacher condemned the sin of stealing these two women, they cried out, amen, brother.
Amen, amen. And then when the preacher condemned the sin of lust, the ladies yelled out, you preach it, Reverend. And when the preacher condemned the sin of lying, they jumped to their feet and they hollered, right on.
Tell it like it is preacher. And then when the preacher condemned the sin of gossip, they got very quiet, one turned to the other and they say, well, he's quit preaching and all he's doing right now is he's just meddling.
Well, those are some real words. There's a point to the reason, or there's a reason that I told that story and we'll hopefully we'll finish the sermon with a crescendo telling you about that. So I want everybody to stand your feet again.
This is exercise on Father's Day. We're gonna read the Lord's Prayer. This is Matthew chapter six. We're gonna read verses nine all the way to 13. And one thing I want you to focus on, and it says, our Father in heaven, our Father.
Okay, the purpose of this is for number one, it's two things. I want you to understand this is a prayer to your Father. If you see him that way, and hopefully by the end of the sermon, you will see him that way.
And number two, this is a prayer to him. And if you don't have this prayer memorized, which is four verses, I'm gonna challenge everybody in this room that if you don't have this prayer memorized by tomorrow night, memorize it.
Everybody raise your right hand after me. This is I solemnly swear to raise my hand out of obedience to the pastor and memorize this set of verses. All right, ready read, our Father in heaven. Kingdom come, will be done on earth.
Give us today the food we need and forgive our sins. And don't let us yield a temptation, but rescue us from the evil one. All right, give somebody a high five next to you and take your seat. So I'm going to read to you verse 14 and verse 15, which comes directly after this prayer.
It says this, and when you pray, make sure you forgive the fault of others so that your Father in heaven will also forgive you. Wow, he says, we have to forgive others so that he may forgive you. So we're still in the context of this prayer.
But if you, and this is verse 15, it says, but if you withhold forgiveness from others, your father withholds forgiveness from you. Life is full of people that you come in contact with that will hurt you and that will disappoint you.
True? Come on, somebody. So in saying that, I want to say happy Father's Day. I know I've said that once before. And I also want to say it to the ones that have lost your father and the ones that desire to be a father and the ones that are grieving the loss of your father.
You know, the Bible says in Psalm 68 and verse 5, to the fatherless, I want to say this to you, to the fatherless, to the ones that maybe want to be a father, to the ones that are grieving the loss of your father.
The Bible says in Psalm 68 .5, he said, he is a father to the fatherless. Everybody say that with me. He is a father. Come on, let's really say it with our mouth and our heart. He is a father to the fatherless.
That's what he is. One of the unique things about that particular verse is, you know, that is a, it's a promise from God of who he is. Not who he wants to become, not who he aspires to be. He is a father to the fatherless.
That is who he is. Bottom line. Come on, somebody. Now, that's just kind of the way that I talk up here. Whenever I say, come on somebody, that means just act like you liked what I just said or something and say amen or something like that.
Even if it's boring or nerdy, you know. So there's this lady, her name is Lisa Bevere. She is a Bible teacher and she's a really good author. And before she got married, she gave a quote that I heard just recently.
This is something the Lord told her personally, and she stated it out loud and I heard it recently. And it said this, Lisa, you never go after healthy men because you don't have a healthy relationship with your father.
So from this point forward, I'm going to be your father. So that tells us a gap in society. We can even see it that when we don't have a healthy relationship with our father, our natural father, if we're not in a good relationship with our heavenly father, we can be bent on making bad choices and maybe choosing things that aren't the best for us.
And he's, and one of the things I want you to know about knowing him as your heavenly father, if you don't have an earthly father or if you do have an earthly father, the priority is to know him as your heavenly father because he can provide things that an earthly father can't.
He can be there in the morning, sitting right beside you at the kitchen table, helping you or encouraging you, eating breakfast that, hey, you're gonna do great today. Or maybe in your quiet time, you are trying to have a conversation with God.
He's there encouraging you to listen to me. I will give you guidance and I will give you instruction. Or maybe when you're outside washing your car, he is right there with you. Or when you're trying to parent your children or maybe correct them, he is there to help you parent your children.
He is there in every step of your life, but you gotta let him be that father that he needs to be in your life. And we can't put someone else in the place where only God is supposed to be because he could provide for us what we need.
And the only thing that really puts us at a distance and makes a gap between us and God, what creates that gap most of the time? When we walk around and we know there's a gap between us and God, that thing that creates that big gap in our life is sin every single time.
I mean, do I have to spell it out? I think we all know what sin is. Drinking way too much when we know we shouldn't. Sex before marriage and homosexual lifestyle. I mean, the gossip as the, you know, the hallelujah sisters, they didn't like the sin of gossip being called out on it.
Those are the things that creates a gap between us and God. You know, maybe your dad, He didn't treat you right. And maybe the pain of the past of your relationship with your father is, it's a sting.
It's a reminder, especially on a day like today, it hurts. And I wanna encourage you, if you have that encounter, whether you're a male or female in the room is, do your best to forgive. Cause that can only hinder your relationship with God and your relationships in the future and your relationship with your children, if you want children and the children that you have now.
You know, there's children all over the world that have absent fathers. And maybe that's where, if you don't have children or when you have, maybe you have time now, it's you can give to somebody who doesn't have a dad.
Maybe your dad, there was a point in your life where maybe he denied you, maybe he didn't claim you and he wasn't there for you, didn't do what he was supposed to do. And maybe that's been a cycle that's continued in your family lineage, but you know what?
Stops right here, if you want it to stop, you've got to break that curse and no longer allow that curse of a father not being present. Where does it start? It starts with you right here, right now, if you didn't have that in a father, it starts with you making the determination that I am going to be the kind of man that God wants me to be.
I am not a perfect dad by any stretch of the means. Just ask Caitlin, we'll ask her to rise. You know, forgiveness is hard, it really is, but that's what God commands us in the book of Matthew chapter six, verses nine through 13.
He commanded us to forgive. It's hard to forgive your dad when he didn't live up to the natural, the earthly, the godly things that he was supposed to do, right? It hurts, it stings, man, I know, I'm sure.
So in going through the word as Jackie and I, as your pastors is, well, let me just say this. If you want it to stop that curse of a lack of fatherhood, if you are parenting, if you want it to stop, you've got to make that determination and get to know your heavenly father.
And that's where I want to encourage you to let Jackie and I become your spiritual parents, to lead you. We are not your heavenly father, but we are spiritual parents, if you will allow us and listen to the word and allow it to soak in.
We can't teach you everything. And that's where, like, if you consider this prayer, God, as a Bible, when little Abe, is little Abe, is he back in the back? Or is he, he's right there. So little Abe, he needs his mommy right now.
But eventually, maybe it's six months, Abe's like, okay. Brooke, mom, I need some applesauce or I need some chunks of food because this milk just ain't cutting it. I need some sustenance, you know what I'm saying?
And so that's hopefully what we've been able to communicate to you guys is become self feeders. And we're gonna get to that in just a moment too. Self feeders, that means if this is the Bible, you've got to go home and dig into the truths for yourself.
And a month ago, I said, create a time, create a place and create a plan to get to know your heavenly father. I gave you that teaching of how to get to know God. And so when it's all about, oh gosh, I don't know if I got enough out of that teaching.
Well, take that teaching, go to the word and feed yourself because I can't be an adult feeding an adult. Because if Abe's 21 and Abe expects me to get a meal and feed it to him with a fork, I mean, Abe, come on, I guess, sorry that Brooke didn't do her job.
It's no pun intended. I'm sorry that Brooke didn't do her job teaching you how to make a meal and get a fork and a spoon and feed yourself. But hey, you're an adult, you got to learn how to feed yourself.
Come on, somebody. Look at that. Y 'all responded. Good job. So if you want to be the best father and mother, I mean, I just want to encourage you, teach your kids the fear of God. Teach them the fear of God.
And when it comes to being self -feeders, think about a bird. This may be a weird analogy, but let me just read you this caption I got to hear. When a baby bird is born, they sit in the nest for a period of time.
And then when it's time to get out of the nest, they get out of the nest, because they can't sit there forever, right? So once the juveniles leave a nest, it's no longer their home, but that doesn't mean that they're forgotten by their parents.
Mom and dad are still nearby keeping watch. Though the young are scattered, they're always chirping so parents can easily find them. When the parent appears with a tasty insect or worm in its beak, the juvenile waves its wings and opens its beak and pleads for the food, right?
That's kind of a role. It transitions from an infant to adolescence to childhood to a teen, and go take care of yourself. Go move out and do this thing that's called life, right? That's what our role is.
So have you ever woke up early in the morning by birds? And you ever put the pillow over your head, and you're like, gosh, the noise of those chirping birds, it's annoying, right? Like, well, I wanted to sleep till 6 .30 or 7 today, but 5 .45, you know?
And birds are not only greeting you in the morning hours. What they're doing is they're singing to you the dawn chorus. It's called the dawn chorus. And we may think it if, oh, it's beautiful, and yada, yada.
Well, what that is, according to the research that I did, is it is nothing more than the male birds asserting dominance, trying to attract a mate and also establish their territory. And some of you may thought it's the early bird who gets the worm.
No, that's not it. So, Christy, go ahead and play that video for me, if you would. This is earlier in the week. Will you turn that up a little bit more, Isaac or Zach? Okay, that's good, Christy. So do you get the point?
The birds are there. They've got this chorus going. There's this one little fella in particular. He was particularly loud. And all I did was get my video camera and not record it. It seemed really loud.
So I'm going to read to you in Psalms 31, and we're going to read verses 1 and 2. But before I read that scripture in my Bible, there's a heading above Psalms 31, and it says, in times of stress, depending upon God requires complete commitment.
That was the heading in my Bible. If you want to depend on Him, it requires complete commitment on our part, not a half -hearted commitment or a sometime commitment or a two -time -a -week commitment.
It's a full commitment. Verse 1 in Psalms 31, and you, O Lord, and you, Lord, I have taken refuge. Never let me be put to shame. Deliver me in your righteousness. Turn your ear to me. Come quickly to my rescue.
Be my rock of refuge, a strong fortress to save me. So that word righteous, mentioned right here in scripture, that is defined as what is right, what is just, what is normal. But it also means, in this particular context of scripture, it means judgment.
Not by you judging him or her judging her, it is God issuing judgment. So in the old covenant, becoming righteous or in right standing with God, the process looked a little bit different. It wouldn't be like, oh God, I'm so sorry, I repent.
I wanna make things right. I'm so sorry for doing what I did. Well, the process looked a little bit different in the old covenant. It was a process to be put in right standing with God. And what David was doing, this is King David who wrote that particular passage of scriptures, he was crying out to God to be judged by him as a man and as a king.
In other words, he was saying, judge me, oh God, for my actions and my choices. I wanna be in right standing with you, judge me. In other words, he is saying, there are consequences Lord and I realize it for my actions.
But judge me, make me right. That's a big reason why in the New Testament it cries out or it says that David was a man after his own heart. Do we cry out to God like that when we miss the mark or when we make mistakes, when we say something we shouldn't say or maybe we did sin this week.
Verse nine and verse 10 says, be merciful on me, oh Lord, in my distress, my eyes grow weak with sorrow, my soul and body with grief. Verse 10, it says, my life is consumed by anguish and my years of groaning and my strength fails because of my afflictions and my bones grow weak.
So here in this, as it's kinda wrapping up that particular chapter, it's like David, he's pouring out his soul in his time of weakness. He's given it all because he doesn't wanna go that direction anymore.
He's like, God, this is me, I'm messed up. I'm anxious, I've got anxiety, I've got fear, I've got depression, I'm sinning. It's like, help me. It's like, he's trying to get it all out because he wants to be right with God.
So earlier in the week, around 4 .30 one morning and I laid there for about 20 to 30 minutes and right at five or a little bit before five, I just couldn't get up because I know the Lord was talking to me, wanting me to get up and so I get out of bed and I go downstairs to the kitchen and I get some of that heavenly bean juice poured and made just right with my monk fruit sweetener with some cream and it's just like,
God can talk to me even better when I have my bean juice first. Just kidding, it's not necessarily true. And so that's where I started just sipping my coffee, open up my Bible, started just being quiet, knowing my God.
And in the midst of that, I hear these loud birds and I'm thinking, that is very loud. I'm sitting in my chair and I hear this dawn chorus, which I didn't know that's what it was. And I went outside and recorded it and as soon as I stepped outside and started recording them, he said these words, cornerstone of righteousness.
And the word righteous is mentioned over 500 times in the Bible, which seems to indicate that there is a growing concern if something's mentioned in the Bible more than 50 times. That means God is trying to get our attention.
That means he wants us to be in right standing with him. So we got to remove what takes us away from that. It takes us away from being in right standing with him. You know, Ephesians chapter six and verse 14, it says, stand your ground, put on the belt of truth.
Last week and the week before, Jackie did an amazing job in presenting. In one sense, it's like how to prepare yourself for every day. How to prepare yourself every day. And sorry, I went away from that scripture.
It says, stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God's righteousness. So a police officer, an FBI agent. people that their job is to protect us. When they go into something or into a dangerous situation, what do they put on?
A bulletproof vest. So to be in right standing with God, that means we have to put on that breastplate of righteousness. And when we choose not to put it on, what can happen? We're subject to being killed.
Maybe not physically or literally, but it could lead to that. So it's important that we put ourself in a position where we are in right standing with God. So the word tells us here to put on the armor of righteousness which protects us.
So let me tell you a quick story about this person. This person is Ethan. And Ethan had a daughter. And there was an older child too, that was I think 19 and the daughter was 16. Ethan went through a divorce with his wife and the 16 year old daughter decided to start sleeping around at a young age in high school, I think it was either a sophomore or junior.
And Ethan knew what his daughter was doing, but Ethan decided, well, it's better just to let her go around and sleep with whoever she wants to because she's gonna do it anyway behind my back, whether or not I parent her and scold her and do what's right as a parent.
So that's what happened. And so Ethan's daughter gets addicted to drugs. And over a course of 12 years, Ethan's daughter has two children. One eventually is given up. And then the second one is born and within minutes of being born, CPS took that baby from the mother because the child was born with drugs in their system.
And to this day, Ethan's daughter is in her late 30s and it's everybody else's fault. It's everybody else's fault. And I'm sorry that Ethan's father didn't stand up when she was young and disciplined her.
And if you went through that, I'm sorry, but Ethan's daughter is an adult now, she needs to stand up and be who God's called her to be. And 2 Corinthians 6, 17 says, therefore ye, or says therefore, come out from among unbelievers and separate yourselves from them, says the Lord.
Don't touch their filthy things and I will welcome you and I will be your father and you will be my sons and my daughters, says the Lord. So at the end of this teaching today, what do I want you to do?
What am I trying to inspire you to do this morning from this talk? Two things, I want you to know God. I can't know God for you. You may have been a Christian for five years, six months, that you call yourself a Christian.
We live in the South, it's the Bible Belt. We can be in a belt of inclusiveness and yet not being a part of that inclusiveness. It's like you can be a Christian and not know God. Remember that joke I told you a little bit earlier?
Man, I tell you what, those two women that got mad at the preacher because he was condemning them for the sin of gossip, I wonder if they knew God. And remember we talked about what separates us from God.
It's sin. I mean, if I have to get a picture and paint what sin is, I don't think I do. Will you stand to your feet and could I invite the prayer team up? So number one, I want you to know God. I really, really, really want you to know God.
And I guess at the end of the day, maybe there's just one thing that I want you to do. Let me just change my stance on that. I want you to learn how to become a self -heater. I want you to learn how to become a self -feeder.
If this is the Bible, I said that kind of weird, didn't I? Bible, if this is the Bible, that means we need to open it on a regular basis. So if I took, Nolan, would you come over here? Jordan, would you come over here?
So hold that for a second, and you hold that for a second. So if Nolan is the non -spiritual one, he opens the Bible maybe twice a week, maybe once a week, or every, I don't know, once every couple of weeks, and tries to, you know what?
Oh, God, I love you. He gave God a really good tip. He was on his way, and he just didn't prioritize spending time with God. And then we got Jordan over here five times or more per week. He's opening up that book.
He's being very intentional of getting to know his father. And then Nolan over here is not being intentional about knowing his father. Who do you want to be around the most? I mean, it's a fair question.
Who do you want to be around the most? I want to be around this guy. And what separates Jordan from the rest of the world? Because, I mean, you've come across Christians before. They're like angry. They're violent.
And like, you ain't no different than a non -Christian. So why would I want to become just like you? Well, the Bible is very clear. Colossians 1 .15, it says, Jesus Christ is a visible image of the invisible God.
Jesus is not here physically, and neither is God physically, but he is. He is standing right here. He is a visible manifestation of Jesus Christ. And until you get to know God, knowing your heavenly father, you will never become a physical manifestation of God himself.
Because when you look at Jordan, when you talk to him, he sounds like Jesus. He acts like Jesus. He talks like Jesus. That's a lot of pressure. And thank you, gentlemen. All right, everybody, close your eyes.
And we're going to sing one more song. But I want to speak to everyone for just a brief moment. If you have been a Christian for six days or six years, and you don't know God at all, you feel like he is so far away from you or you've recently sinned and you've been doing what you know is not right.
And you want to make it right today. Today is your day on Father's Day to know our father. Slip up your hand really quick. If that is you, anyone in the building, slip up your hand. Every eye closed.
If you want to make things right with God, you want to know God, without a shadow of a doubt, you can say, I know God intimately. He is my God. Slip up your hand and you want to make it right today. Ten seconds.
Nine, eight, seven, six, five, anyone. All right, everybody, look at me. Let's say a healthy prayer to make sure, because maybe you don't want to raise your hand. Maybe that intimidates you. I don't want anybody to see.
Let's say this out loud from our gut boldly. Say, heavenly father, I call on you to be my Lord, my savior. Forgive me of my sin. Help me to know you, God, in Jesus name.