This week I had a new experience that I hope I never have to repeat—cleaning the drainpipe under the kitchen sink. When water was draining very slowly out of the sink, I knew that something was wrong. After an initial attempt to clear the pipe was unsuccessful, I brought out the big guns—a 15-foot plumbing snake and a PVC pipe cutter. Working from the basement, I opened up the pipe and began searching for the clog. After a little while, the clogged material was out of the pipe—some of it was on the floor and some of it was on me. I’ll spare you the details, but suffice it to say that the smell was simply wretched—one of the worst smells I have ever smelled.

While working on the drain, I thought of Isaiah 64:6—“All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.” In the same way that working on that pipe was gross and made me feel unclean, my sins make me unclean in the sight of our pure and holy God. And this sin problem is universal: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one” (Rom. 3:10-12) and “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). So when Solomon asks in Proverbs 20:9, “Who can say, “I have made my heart pure; I am clean from my sin”?” the answer is clearly no one.

But someone might claim that we can also do a lot of good things to win God’s approval. Can’t the good just outweigh the bad and make us acceptable to God? Such a view falls woefully short of the Biblical teaching about the extent to which our sin has infected us. Isaiah corrects such a misunderstanding when he declares that “all our righteous acts are like filthy rags”! Even our best is not good enough to earn God’s approval. Paul, speaking of the human condition apart from Christ, gives us words to express our anguish when we realize that even what we would call our “righteousness” can never do anything to restore God’s favor or earn his salvation: “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out… Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:18, 24).

Your sin makes you unclean and your righteousness is like filthy rags, but there is one who gave his life in order to make you clean and give you his perfect righteousness. So we do not despair, because Jesus came to die for sinners. Praise God that “…he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy…” (Titus 3:5).

Whether it’s your phone, your keys, your wallet, or something else, we all forget things from time to time. One summer during college, I forgot about the syllabus for a summer internship. I panicked when just a few days before the end of the internship I remembered the syllabus and discovered to my dismay that there were requirements for the internship that I had not been meeting, plus there were two books to read and write book reviews on! Not a good feeling! Thankfully, the due dates were not until several weeks into the following semester, so in the end, it all worked out. Sometimes forgetting is humorous, other times it is an inconvenience, and sometimes it has unchangeable consequences. But is anything more tragic than forgetting the Lord?

Deuteronomy 8 reminds us of the terrible danger of forgetting the Lord. Moses warned the people of Israel, “Take care lest you forget the LORD your God by not walking his commandments… lest when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up and you forget the LORD your God… Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ You shall remember the LORD your God…” (Deut. 8:11-14, 17-18).

These verses teach us that we must not forget the Lord. We forget the Lord when we do not obey his commandments. And as Moses warns the people here, luxury and ease can predispose us to this kind of self-sufficiency and forgetfulness. We also forget the Lord whenever we take credit for the blessings we have, as if our own power or strength have earned those blessings for ourselves. Brothers and sisters, it is possible to forget the Lord even while continuing to go through the motions of Christianity, so take care lest you forget the Lord.

In order to not forget the Lord, we need to guard our heart. Moses makes it clear that forgetting the Lord is a heart issue. Twice here in these verses he mentions the heart. Forgetting the Lord may show up in your life as apathy or disobedience, but it stems from a prideful heart (“lifted up” vs. 14). So guard your heart, because it is the measure of who you are. Never ignore the ‘little’ indicators that your heart is spiritually unwell. You may know things about your heart that you think no one else knows, but God knows. Take steps to guard your spiritual “heart health” by eating spiritually “heart-healthy” foods, a.k.a. a balanced spiritual diet of the Word of God, prayer, and corporate and private worship, as well as other spiritual disciplines. In a word, invest in your personal spiritual life and in this way, guard your heart so that you do not forget the Lord.

In Acts 13-14 we read about what was arguably the first Christian missionary team. “While [the disciples in Antioch] were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’ Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off. So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus” (Acts 13:2-4). For some time, these men traveled to islands in the Mediterranean and throughout parts of modern-day Turkey. What did these missionaries do on their mission trip? “When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra… strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:21-22). Eventually, though, it was time for this missionary team to return to their sending church. Luke tells us that “…they went down to Attalia, and from there they sailed to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work that they had fulfilled. And when they arrived and gathered the church together, they declared all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles” (Acts 14:25-27).

Now I’d like to retell this story about a missionary team with a modern twist. In 1989 in southern California, a young Christian man shared the gospel with another young man who was in the Air Force. That young man accepted the gospel and began preparing for a lifetime of ministry and service in the church. More than a decade later, these same two men set out on a missionary journey together—their destination: Guatemala. For years, the men labored in cities across the country. When they had preached the gospel in one city and had made many disciples, they began new mission works in other cities. Everywhere they went they were strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. From time to time though, they return to visit their sending churches in the States. When they do, they gather the church together and they declare all that God has done with them, and how he has opened a door of faith to the Guatemalans. 

That “modern twist” is of course the true story of Hawatthia and Byron and Mission Guatemala. We’re grateful to have had Hawatthia with us this past Sunday and my prayer is that we will be inspired by his example and devotion to the cause of Christ. And like the disciples in Antioch who sent Barnabas and Saul out into the mission field with prayer, let’s send him on his way with much prayer.

Let’s face it—life is complicated. We believe in right and wrong, good and evil, and absolute truth, but it’s not absolutely clear in every situation what is the right choice and what is the wrong choice. Absolutes don’t always translate cleanly to real-world application. That’s not to deny the existence of absolute truth or God’s revealed will as the standard for morality, it’s just to recognize that sometimes it is very difficult to know how to apply our knowledge of right and wrong to a specific situation that we find ourselves in.

For example, a preacher might tell the congregation to love each other with a Christ-like love. When the Bible commands us to love one another, it speaks not primarily of a feeling, but a resolve to selflessly act in the best interests of another person. This leaves a man sitting in the pew wondering how to apply this to his situation at work. He is the CEO of his company and he knows that another man in the same church owns a smaller company in the same field. A third, larger company has just moved into town, threatening to take over the market. The CEO knows that if his company is going to survive the pressure brought by the larger company, he will have to tighten things up and reduce his prices. But in doing so, he might put his smaller competitor (his brother in Christ) out of a job that he has spent years investing in. What is the loving thing to do? He has a responsibility to his own employees and their families, but he also wants to do the loving thing for his brother in Christ who owns the smaller company. He wants to do the right thing, but it’s not immediately clear what “the right thing to do” is.

We should not think of life—with all its messiness and complexity—like a standardized test, as if every situation we find ourselves in has four options labeled A, B, C, and D, three of which are completely wrong and one of which is completely right. God is not interested in his people merely “knowing all the right answers” in an ideal world. He wants his people to be growing in Christlike virtues and learning how to live out those virtues in a wide variety of complex and ever-changing situations. God didn’t give us a book with a million rules for every single scenario in life. Rather, he invites us into a relationship with him, showing us who he is, who we are without him, and who we are supposed to become in Christ. So pay close attention to your heart and your motives. Strive to become more like Christ and exhibit the same virtues that he perfectly embodied. That won’t magically give us all the answers in every situation, but it will equip us with the character and virtue we need to navigate the situation in a godly way that glorifies the Lord.

For just a minute, think about how crucial farmers are for our way of life. We are so accustomed to buying food (including fresh food) year-round in grocery stores that we almost forget how much work went into planting, harvesting, and transporting our food. Think about how difficult it would be if you had to grow your own food to survive. Even though modern technology has made huge changes in the farming industry, farming is still hard work. Farmers have to be part engineer, part biologist, part chemist, part weatherman, and part businessman. There is a lot of book-knowledge and wisdom from experience that goes into being a successful farmer. Farming is hard work.

In 2 Timothy 2:3-6, Paul wanted Timothy to understand that living out his call as a Christian would be challenging and would require self-denial, focus, and diligence. The three analogies he used make his point come to life in vivid pictures: “Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. Think over what I say, and the Lord will give you understanding in everything” (2 Timothy 2:3-7). 

A few years ago, I visited the home of a preacher in a beautiful valley in central Washington. As we walked around his property, he showed me his small orchard of fruit trees. He explained to me that his fruit trees have been a living parable for his ministry. He planted the orchard the same year that he began his ministry at the church where he still preaches more than 20 years later. The fruit trees on his property remind him that his life as a Christian and as a minister is not about quick flashy growth but about long term, sustainable growth. The farmer knows that to have a harvest at the end of the season he must give consistent, diligent effort for months. And in the case of orchards, it may be years before the trees mature and begin bearing much fruit. Similarly, Paul wants Timothy to know that he must be in it for the long-haul. Just like a farmer works diligently for months or even years for a harvest, we must give ourselves to the Lord’s work with diligence. And because we ultimately lean upon the Lord’s strength and not our own, we can trust that he will bless our efforts with fruit—maybe not in outwardly visible ways like numerical growth, but at least in growth in Christlikeness in our heart and in the hearts of Christians around us. Like the hardworking farmer, let us work diligently for our master so that when he returns he finds us faithful and we can find our eternal rest in him after our labors on earth are done.