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Lights in the World (Philippians 2:12-18)

Posted on by Gregory Crofford

Note: I preached this sermon on January 4, 2026 at Beacon of Hope Community Church of the Nazarene (Moon Township, PA)

Read Philippians 2:12-18 in the New English Translation (NET)

(12) So then, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence but even more in my absence, continue working out your own salvation with awe and reverence,

(13) for the one bringing forth in you both the desire and the effort – for the sake of his good pleasure – is God.

(14) Do everything without grumbling or arguing,

(15) so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God without blemish though you live in a crooked and perverse society, in which you shine as lights in the world

(16) by holding on to the word of life so that on the day of Christ I will have a reason to boast that I did not run in vain nor labor in vain.

(17) But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice together with all of you.

(18) And in the same way you also should be glad and rejoice together with me.”

prayer

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INTRODUCTION

Today is the first Sunday of 2026. Many of us have faced challenges in 2025, and 2026 promises to be another year with its own share of challenges, even hardships.

When we find ourselves in that place – facing real obstacles but still hopeful – Paul’s letter to the Philippians speaks to us.

Paul didn’t pen this epistle in a comfortable palace but in a dark and chilly prison cell. Four words found in Philippians 1:13 stand out:

“I am in prison.”

It’s important, though, to read further in verse 13. There, Paul doesn’t just say “I am in prison” but he adds: “I am in prison for the sake of Christ.”

Our sovereign God is able to take the worst of our circumstances and use them to advance divine purposes in our world. Our suffering has meaning as part of a larger story, the Story of God.

Just a minute ago, we read Philippians 2:12-18. In this passage, Paul’s hardship in prison is still there in the background, but he turns now to other themes. He refuses to make his letter a “Woe is me.” Instead, good pastor that he is, his thoughts and concern – to use his words in 1:1 – turn to “all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi.”

The very fact that the early Church chose to include Paul’s letter in what we now call the New Testament is a testimony to its usefulness and timeless themes. It spoke then, and it still speaks.

Let’s look today at 3 commands that Paul gives:

  1. Work out your salvation.
  2. Be blameless and pure.
  3. Celebrate together.

WORK OUT YOUR SALVATION

Let’s not forget that Paul is writing not to an individual but to a group. He’s saying:

“Hey all y’all, work out all y’all’s salvation.”

Reuben Welch had it right when he titled his book: “We really do need each other.” John Wesley often preached on this passage, and he entitled his sermon:

“On Working Out Our Own Salvation”

Christianity is a group endeavor. No, we can’t save ourselves, but when God saves us by his grace, it is also God who enables us by his grace to continue in the walk of faith.

Look again at v. 13: “for the one bringing forth in you both the desire and the effort – for the sake of his good pleasure – is God.” The NIV is even clearer: “For it is God who works in you…”

There’s a proverb from Ghana that captures this idea of cooperation. Picture the marketplace where women are often walking with large trays of colorful goods balanced on their head. The proverb advises:

“Make up your tray then we’ll help you put it on your head.”

We do our part and God does God’s part. We work and at the same time God works inside us, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The New English Translation captures the ongoing nature of salvation. The end of Philippians 2:12 reads: “…continue working our your salvation with awe and reverence.”

A ten year old might speak of giving her heart to Jesus at a Vacation Bible School when she was five years old, and the church says “Amen!” But if that same girl – now a grown woman of 50 – shares just that testimony and nothing new from the 45 years afterward, everyone will wonder: What has God been up to in your life since then?”

The Disney film “Finding Dory” has good advice: “Keep swimming.”

God saved me; God is saving me; God will save me.

Past, present, and future – That’s relationship. It started at some point, it’s still deepening, and one day our faith will be sight.

Work out your salvation.

BE BLAMELESS AND PURE

After talking about salvation, Paul gets really practical. Let’s read v. 14 – “Do everything without grumbling or arguing.”

Why? See verse 15: “so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God without blemish…”

Here we find the second command. Not only are we to work out our salvation, but we also are to be blameless and pure.

Don’t grumble. Don’t argue.

Some English words sound like what they are: “mur-mur” “back-biting”

Our children were pretty contented kids growing up, but occasionally like all children they would gripe about this-or-that. That’s when we’d jokingly say:

“Would you like some cheese with your WHINE?”

Or maybe if a young child falls at the playground and it’s apparent they’re not hurt but just tearfully seeking attention from their grown-ups, we ask:

“Should I call the WAM-bulance?”

We all laugh and they go back to playing with the other children, none worse for the wear.

There will be scrapes and bruises. After all, Paul never asks us to physically withdraw from this world, but he does admonish us to live clean lives despite the crooked and perverse influences around us.

In 1987, Tipper Gore entitled her book: “Raising PG kids in an X-rated society.”

Sometimes we glorify “the old days,” but that book is now almost 40 years old. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Being Christlike is a challenge in every generation. Christians are still called to be salt and light, to “change the world” as the saying would have it, but I wonder:

Instead of changing the world, has the world changed us?

Yes, the world can be dark, but Jesus, the Light of the World, turned to his listeners and said: “You are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14). Perhaps Paul had the Lord’s words in-mind when he reminded the Philippians in v. 15 that “you shine as lights in the world.” And how is it that we shine? How is it that we, as followers of Jesus, stand out in the moral darkness around us? There it is in verse 16: “by holding on to the word of life…”

Let’s face it: To be blameless and pure in our day-and-age is to be counter-cultural. To do that, to really shine God’s light, a passing knowledge of the Bible won’t do. What’s more, we can’t just cherry-pick the promises of God and ignore the Bible’s tougher teachings, which include what F.F. Bruce used to call “the hard sayings of Jesus.”

Dietrick Bonhoeffer ministered as a Lutheran pastor in Germany during the Second World War. After he was involved in a plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler, the Nazis eventually marched the pastor to a scaffold. They hung him naked just a few days before the Allied forces liberated the prison camp where Bonhoeffer was captive. Earlier, Bonhoeffer famously wrote:

“When Jesus calls a man, he bids him come and die.”

To be blameless and pure in any generation involves sacrifice. Paul said in v. 17 that he was being “poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith.”

That’s hardly a popular message in an age when we don’t want to know what we can do for God. We want to know what God can do for me. Nonetheless, sacrifice is a message we must hear again because it lies at the heart of our Cross-based faith.

CELEBRATE TOGETHER

Paul instructs us: Work out your salvation. Secondly, he calls us to be blameless and pure, holding on to the word of life. Finally, the apostle insists: Celebrate together.

In verse 17, Paul lightens the mood. From the somber image of sacrifice upon an altar, he pivots to celebration:

“I am glad and rejoice together with all of you,” he writes. “And in the same way you also should be glad and rejoice together with me.”

As a hospital chaplain, I quickly learned that there’s a lot of pain on the various wards. It’s the man who sits in the darkness, refusing to turn on his light as week-after-week he waits for a heart transplant. It’s the young parents tearfully processing the devastating news that their 6 month old baby boy has a terminal brain tumor. The pain goes on-and-on, and as a chaplain, I quickly learned to mostly just sit in silence with people who suffered, to “bear witness” as my chaplain mentor called it.

Yet I remember the day when sitting with someone in sadness became a lesson misapplied – good practice, wrong moment.

My mentor and I visited with a man in his early 20’s who had fought cancer for many months. On that day, however, he’d received positive news. The latest test showed that his cancer was in remission! And that’s where I went wrong. Instead of pausing in that moment and rejoicing with him, I pivoted back to the overall journey, back to the hard parts, back to the sadness. Later, my mentor corrected me in private:

“Greg, make sure to celebrate what there is to celebrate.”

Yes, wrote Paul, he was being poured out like a drink offering, yet even then, Paul says: “Rejoice with me!” He would not let the sadness consume the joy.

So I ask you: Despite the tough times, what do we have to celebrate today?

We lived to see 2026. Praise the Lord!

We have a roof over our heads and enough to live on today, to meet our needs. Celebrate!

We have people who love us and care for us, including this church family. Thank you, Jesus!

To celebrate is not to deny the reality of our hardships, but it is a joyful acknowledgment – lest we forget – of what is going well.

There’s an old saying: “I’d rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints.” Singer Billy Joel then added: “The sinners are much more fun.”

But the apostle Paul’s having none of it. He writes: “Rejoice together with me.” In 2026, let’s rediscover the joy of our salvation.

CONCLUSION

Our sermon title today is “Lights in the World.” Are you ready to shine in the new year? To shine, let’s…

  1. Work out our salvation together;
  2. Be blameless and pure, holding on to the word of life;
  3. Celebrate together.

-Transition to Holy Communion-

Posted in sermons & addresses

On Love, Fear and Hate

Posted on by Gregory Crofford

1 John 4:7-21 (Christian Standard Bible)

This sermon was first preached at Beacon of Hope Community Church (Moon Township, PA) on October 26, 2025.

INTRODUCTION

I was a little boy, maybe 6 years old. There was a bad thunderstorm one summer night, and I cowered under the bed covers. My mother heard me call out in fear; she came to my bedside to comfort me. “Don’t think of the loud thunder,” she advised. “Think of something you love, like ice cream cones.”

The “love” part was probably more the love embodied in my Mom coming to comfort me than it was in any sugary confection. Even if my mother borrowed a scene from “The Sound of Music,” the lesson endures. To drive out fear, I had to latch on to love.

TRANSITION TO SERMON

We’ve just read a passage from 1 John, the letter that John Wesley called “the deepest part of Holy Scripture” (Works 22:13, 352). Just like my mother made love tangible when she came to my bedside to console me during a storm, so Jesus made God the Father’s love tangible when he came and lived among us.

Let’s consider three truths drawn from the deep well that is 1 John:

  1.  God is the source of all love.
  2.  A loving God sent Christ to reconcile us.
  3.  Perfect love casts out fear.

GOD IS THE SOURCE OF ALL LOVE

Sometimes pop singers hit the nail on the head. Dionne Warwick made the lyrics of Burt Bacharach and Hal David memorable:

“What the world needs now
Is love, sweet love
It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of
What the world needs now
Is love, sweet love
No, not just for some, but for everyone.”

It’s an interesting song in-part because it’s actually a prayer addressed to the “Lord.” She sings: “Lord, we don’t need another mountain.” Then later, she adds: “Lord, we don’t need another meadow.” What do we need? We need love, and by saying “Lord,” Bacharach and David quietly acknowledge that God is the source of all love.

This comes across clearly in 1 John 4:7 – “Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.” John is echoing the teaching of Jesus in Matthew 7 where he talks about false prophets. How can we know whether a prophet is genuine? Look at their fruit. If there’s good fruit, you know the tree is good. If there’s bad fruit, then the tree itself is bad.

The same principle is operating when it comes to love. Wherever we see love and its positive fruit, we can be sure that God is at-work. Rick Williamson in his commentary on 1 John insists: “Love flows from God through people, whether or not that person acknowledges God. Even atheists and agnostics are part of God’s work in the world when they act in love” (1, 2, & 3 John, New Beacon Bible Commentary [2010], 152). In theological terms, this is God’s prevenient grace, the grace of God that comes before our salvation. We don’t have to call what is good bad simply because it exists outside of a profession of Christian faith. If it’s good, it’s of God. God is the source of all love.

When Charlie Kirk was murdered, his widow, Erika, stood at her husband’s funeral and tearfully told the world about the assassin: “I forgive him.” It takes nothing away from the beauty of Mrs. Kirk’s statement for us to admit: Only God’s love could allow anyone to say that. On our own, we are powerless to love completely, yet even in the most excruciating circumstances, with time, we can tap into God’s reservoir. God is the source of all love.

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Faith for Anxious Times

Posted on by Gregory Crofford

Psalm 94:16-19

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from the New International Version (Zondervan, 2011).

This message was preached at Freedom Pine Run Church of the Nazarene (Freedom, PA) on 10/13/24.

Click on page number at bottom to advance to next page.

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INTRODUCTION

We live in fearful times. In less than a month, we’ll have an election that everyone agrees will be historic, no matter the outcome. Overseas, new wars are waging and we wonder how long before the fire spreads. Hurricanes and floods lay waste to places considered safe from such disasters. It can all seem so overwhelming; we just want to turn our head toward heaven and say: “Maranatha – come, Lord Jesus.” While we work, awaiting his return, in the middle of so much fear, how can we practice spiritual resiliency? How do we cultivate a faith for anxious times?

TRANSITION TO PSALM 94: VENGEANCE BELONGS TO GOD

Psalm 94 can help us. The psalmist certainly lived in anxious times of his own. In fact, the overall tone of the psalm is dark. It begins with a prayer for vengeance: “The LORD is a God who avenges. O God who avenges, shine forth” (v. 1).

Here we learn something about God’s character. God doesn’t wink at evil; the LORD is not morally neutral. In fact, beginning in v. 4, the psalmist paints a contrast between God and evildoers. Unlike our loving God, the wicked are arrogant, boastful, and oppressive. Rather than lifting up those who are most vulnerable, they target them with special cruelty. Who are these vulnerable individuals? Look at v.5 – it’s the widow, the foreigner, the fatherless. When shamed, it’s almost as if evildoers reply: “So what? Who cares?” In verse 7 they insist: “The LORD does not see; the God of Jacob takes no notice.” But I ask you: Is God really an ally of those who abuse others? The answer is obvious: Not at all. On the other hand, the Psalmist calls out sinister rulers. These are powerful people, but they wield their power for unjust and selfish ends. Verse 20 asks the LORD: “Can a corrupt throne be allied with you – a throne that brings on misery by its decrees?” The answer is apparent: Not at all.

In the face of such evil, there are a couple courses of action possible. First, it’s important to notice what the psalmist does NOT do. He does not himself presume to play the role of avenger. That role belongs to God alone. In Romans 12:9 we read: “Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay, says the LORD.”

Yet it’s interesting to me that Paul is quoting Deuteronomy 32:35 when he could have quoted Jesus. In fact, Jesus takes it one step further than Paul when he calls us not only to avoid avenging ourselves on others, but to pray for them. Our Lord Christ teaches in Matthew 5:43-45:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” 

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Act justly, love mercy, walk humbly

Posted on by Gregory Crofford

This sermon was preached at Beacon of Hope Community Church (Moon Township, PA) on 8/25/24.

Coconut tree heart rot disease

All Scripture quotations are from the New International Version (Zondervan, 2011).

Read Micah 6:1-8

Prayer

INTRODUCTION

They call it “heart rot disease,” and one type is “brown rot.” You can look at a tree that appears to be perfectly healthy, yet inside, damage from fungus has already begun. The hemicellulose and cellulose begin to break down. The wood becomes dark brown and brittle, then when it dries, it makes the tree far less flexible. A strong wind can easily topple a tree suffering from brown rot. Indeed, the silent tree killer is rotting from the inside out. (Source: https://aaatrees.net)

TRANSITION TO MICAH: NATIONAL “BROWN ROT”

In the book of Micah, the fig tree is presented as a sign of prosperity and well-being. In Micah 4:4, the prophet envisions a time when “everyone will sit under their own vine and under their own fig tree, and no one will make them afraid, for the LORD Almighty has spoken.” Yet that is a vision of the distant future; in the present, the prophet instead sees nations that—like a tree with brown rot – are rotting from the inside out. Again and again, the prophet speaks of moral decay that manifests itself numerous ways. What are some of the evil actions that the leaders of both Samaria and Jerusalem are trafficking in?

SINS OF THE LEADERS

 The first sin was idolatry. Micah 1:7 says that the LORD will break to pieces all her idols. Idolatry was a perennial problem for God’s people and had been from the start. God knew that when his people came into the promised land, they would discover those who worshipped other gods. Micah 5:14 mentions Asherah poles. Asherah was a Canaanite goddess often worshipped alongside Baal. It’s no accident that the first two commandments of the Decalogue – the “10 words” or commandments that God gave to Moses on Mt. Sinai – focus on gods (small “g”) and how they have no place in the worship of the people of God (capital “G”). “You shall have no gods other than me,” the LORD commanded, and “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them” (see Exodus 20:4).

A second sin is fraud. Micah 2:2 talks of those who confiscate property that doesn’t belong to them. Not just in Micah’s time but in our own, what makes for generational wealth is land and houses. To take these away without cause is to rob not only the present generation, but all generations to come. The tenth commandment forbids the people of God from coveting what doesn’t belong to us, yet they had forgotten the LORD’s directive.

A third sin – and you could add more to the list – is profiting off one’s position, corruption. Micah 3:9-12 warns: “Hear this, you leaders of Jacob, you rulers of Israel, who despise justice and all that is right; who build Zion with bloodshed, and Jerusalem with wickedness. Her leaders judge for a bribe, her priests teach for a price, and her prophets tell fortunes for money. Yet they look for the LORD’s support and say, ‘Is not the LORD among us? No disaster will come upon us.’ Therefore because of you, Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, the temple hill a mound overgrown with thickets.”

Micah realized that the moral decay was far advanced. If these and other sins had weakened both the northern Kingdom (as represented by Samaria) and the southern Kingdom (as represented by Jerusalem), was there any hope? What solution does Micah propose to solve the problem?

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Two things: Agur’s plea (Proverbs 30:7-9)

Posted on by Gregory Crofford

INTRODUCTION

What is most important? It’s a great question. We all have to decide what we value most in life, what is the “pearl of great price,” to use the words of Jesus, the things that count the most, that really matter.

That’s the frame of mind that Agur is in, when we read Proverbs 30. His name means “gathered,” and he the son of Jakeh meaning “pious.” In his life, we can imagine that Agur gathered a lot of things, but what things are the most important? “Before I die,” he prays, “LORD, grant me just two things.” First, let me forsake fraud and lying, and secondly, give me what I need, my “daily bread.” Let’s look at Agur’s “two things.”

I. FRAUD AND LYING

In Proverbs 30:8, Agur prays: “Keep falsehood and lies far from me.” The King James translates “falsehood” as “vanity.” It stems from the Hebrew word shaw, which indicates anything that is morally worthless. The Common English Bible uses the word “fraud” – “Fraud and lies – keep far from me!” The Hebrew word for “lies” is kazab. It refers to deception and the act of lying. Underlying this moral teaching is the understanding that God does not lie. Numbers 23:19 reminds us, through the prophecy of Balaam: “God is not human, that he should lie.” The basis of holiness is that we are to emulate God; God is our pattern, so if God does not lie, then how can we?

This carries over to the New Testament. Acts 2:44 says that “all the believers were together, and had everything in common.” The early Christians at Jerusalem lived off the proceeds of land that they sold individually, donating the proceeds to the group.  One example appears in Acts 4:36-37, where it’s noted: “Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means ‘son of encouragement’) sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles’ feet.”  Acts 5 tells the fearful story of Ananias and Sapphira. They sold a piece of property, but held back part of the money for themselves. When Ananias brought only part of the money to lay at the apostles’ feet, Peter immediately confronts him. “You’ve lied to the Holy Spirit.” He then revealed what Ananias had done, and concludes in verse 4: “You have not just lied to human beings but to God.” When he heard this, Ananias fell down and died. Three hours later, his wife, Sapphira came in, unaware of what had happened to her husband. Peter asked her: “Is this the price you received for the land?” When she replied “yes,” Peter said: “Listen! The feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also” (Acts 5:10). Saphirra falls over dead, and they buried her next to her husband. The story concludes with these words in verse 11: “Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events.”

I don’t think any of us sets out to become what the late psychiatrist M. Scott Peck called “the people of the lie.” I do think, however, we can get into some lazy habits, and sometimes unwittingly model to our children what is less than truthful. For example, your granddaughter picks up your cell phone when it rings and says “hello?” It’s a friend of yours, she says, and you reply: “Tell her I’m not home.” There may be other times when telling the truth might seem embarrassing, but is that a reason to lie?

When I was in my early teens, “Sue” and her husband, “Jeff” watched me and my brothers for several days while my parents were away at an annual conference for my father’s work. Sue had laid her purse and a few things down on the desk in our living room, and nosy boy that I was, I saw a what looked like a square plastic holder containing little pills lined up in a row. I’ve never seen anything like it, and was curious. “Mrs. so-and-so” I asked, holding up the birth control pills, “what are these”? She could have made up any kind of story at that point and I wouldn’t have known any better, but to her credit, she answered truthfully, at a level I could understand. “Greg,” she said, “those pills prevent me from having a baby until Jeff and I are ready.” I put the pills down, satisfied with her answer, and having learned something new about human biology. I went back to playing with my little brothers. In retrospect, I’ve always appreciated that Sue answered honestly, and she modeled for me how we can be honest with our children in ways that are age appropriate.

In Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, he urges: “Above all, don’t lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love.”

We live in a day and age when honesty in is short supply. Especially during an election season, all kinds of claims are made about one’s opponents. Some are true, but many are plain false, or at least have been taken out-of-context. Other times, we may see a claim come across Facebook or other social media, saying that we as Christians should be angry because in some way our rights are being infringed. An example of a false claim is that Mark Zuckerberg is going to ban the Lord’s Prayer from Facebook, so Christian, it’s your duty to post up the Lord’s Prayer! It took just 15 seconds to Google the claim, and an article from Reuters, dated January 17, 2022, debunks the rumor. Meanwhile, it has been shared more than 500,000 on Facebook! Worse, it’s a resurgence of a rumor from 2020, when it was also debunked. What does this to our witness as Christians? It certainly leaves the impression that we’re uninformed, or paranoid, or at very least, too lazy to fact check before we bear false witness. Mark Twain once said: “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes.” He’s in good company. Agur prayed: “Before I die, do not refuse me two things. First, keep falsehood and lies far from me.”  

II. GIVE ME ONLY MY DAILY BREAD

Besides keeping him far away from fraud and lying, Agur asks the LORD for a second thing, in Proverbs 30:8 – “Give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the LORD?’ or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.”

I like how the Common English Bible puts it: “Give me just the food I need.” It’s a reminder to the Jewish people of how God provided manna for them on a daily basis in the wilderness. They were instructed to gather only as much as they needed, and not to stock pile it. In Exodus 16:20, some disobeyed Moses’s clear directions, and kept some overnight. In the morning, it was full of maggots and started to smell. Only on Friday were they to gather enough for Friday and Saturday, since Saturday was the Sabbath and God provided no manna on that day.

When we come over to the New Testament, Jesus affirms the daily bread principle when he teaches his disciples to pray: “Give us this day our daily bread.” He seems to be quoting the words from Agur in Proverbs 30. It’s a reminder that we are to come to the Lord on a daily basis, to bring him our needs, physical and spiritual.

Agur is aware that danger always lies in the extremes. Get your eyes on prosperity and the blessings it brings, and soon money becomes your master. It becomes an end in itself and not a tool for providing for your own necessities, then seeing who else is in need. Your 43” TV works just fine, and has for a long time, but everyone at work is talking about their 70-inch TV, and you feel left out. I’ve learned that 2-word response to every sales pitch: “I’m good.” But if the prosperity Gospel – the teaching that following Jesus means you’ll become wealthy – is false, its opposite, the poverty Gospel, is equally wrong. God is not glorified by children who go to sleep at night on an empty stomach. A worker and his family are not ennobled by keeping them at poverty wages, maintaining a minimum wage that cannot pay for rising rent and food costs. Agur fears that if he is too poor, he will be tempted to steal. In short, we need not too much, nor too little, but the right amount to live with dignity and to commend the Gospel.

As holiness people, I believe we have something to offer in this area. When we come to Jesus and begin to live like him, some old habits will fall away. Some of those habits cost money. It’s not cheap to smoke, and lottery tickets aren’t free. If we begin to live cleanly, as the Holy Spirit gently guides us, we may be like Helen, who I pastored in Missouri years ago. When she came to the Lord, I didn’t need to tell her to quit smoking. She decided to do it on her own. “Pastor,” she said, “I’m going to save the quarters I would have spent on cigarettes and keep them in my change purse.” I later heard how proud she was when the day came that she’s saved enough to take a trip she’d always wanted to take, but she’d never had the money before. Now she did.

When you say the word “thrift,” it almost has a musty, old-fashioned smell to it, yet thrift if a word right at home with Agur’s proverb. John Wesley, the co-founder with his brother, Charles, of Methodism, opposed extravagance. Toward the end of his life, he noticed a strange phenomenon. As the decades passed, Methodists were moving up the social ladder. When they started to live in ways that pleased God, they began to prosper. John Wesley was concerned that they would begin to depend – like the rich man in Agur’s proverb – upon their wealth, and forget God. And so Wesley wrote a three-point sermon: 1) Earn all you can; 2) save all you can; 3) give away all you can. His advice at the close of the 18th century is still valuable today.

CONCLUSION

Agur was thinking about what was most important in this life. He desired just two things. “Before I die,” he said, “keep me away from fraud and falsehood. Secondly, he asked the LORD to provide not too much, nor too little, but just the amount that he could live in dignity, commending the Gospel to others, honoring God’s name through his actions. May the Lord grant that our prayer is like that of Agur’s, and may the LORD help us to live it out.

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All Scripture quotations are from the New International Version of the Holy Bible (Zondervan, 2017).

Image credits

bread – CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

“lies” – Sotos, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Posted in sermons & addresses

Gospel glaucoma: Luke 4:16-30

Posted on by Gregory Crofford

This sermon was preached at the Freedom Pine Run Church of the Nazarene in Freedom, PA on 12/31/23. All Scripture references are from the New International Version.

INTRODUCTION

Last year, I had an eye exam. All the tests that the optometrist put me through to check my vision were high tech and impressive. I’m glad that my eyes are still strong and have no ailments that she could detect, other than my ongoing farsightedness, which requires me to wear glasses to read. The experience got me thinking about what ailments can affect our sight. One condition is glaucoma. According to my optometrist, glaucoma is tunnel vision. Little by little, and usually with a person not even noticing, peripheral vision – everything off to the left and right – begins to disappear. Soon, vision deteriorates until all a person can see is limited to a narrow band in front of them.

GOSPEL GLAUCOMA

In Luke 4, Jesus met a group of people who suffered from gospel glaucoma. They lived in the very town where Jesus grew up, the town of Nazareth. This was a tiny farming village, perched high on a hill, with probably only 200-400 people living there. It’s little wonder that when Philip told Nathanael about Jesus of Nazareth, Nathanael replied: “Can any good thing come of out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46). As descendants of Abraham, they were confident that God’s blessings were for them, but didn’t seem to realize that their spiritual outlook had become too narrow. Jesus was determined to help them understand that they were suffering from tunnel vision. To help focus our thoughts, let’s answer three questions raised by the story of our Lord’s rejection at Nazareth:

  1. What is the gospel?
  2. Who is the gospel for?
  3. How can we broaden our spiritual vision?
Continue reading “Gospel glaucoma: Luke 4:16-30” →
Posted in sermons & addresses

On fear and perfect love

Posted on by Gregory Crofford

1 John 4:7-21 (NRSV)

By Greg Crofford

This sermon was preached on January 8, 2023 at Norwin Church of the Nazarene, Irwin, PA.

INTRODUCTION

Jay Withey, 27, got caught in a terrible snowstorm in Buffalo, NY the weekend of Christmas. According to a report on CBS Mornings, Jay knocked on the door of several houses where he saw lights, and even offered $ 500.00 if he could stay the night on the floor. Every time, he was turned away. He went back to his car, and picked up two strangers who huddled with him. They ran the engine for heat, until the gasoline was gone. Desperate, Jay noticed a light on in an elementary school, and broke a window to gain entry to the warm building. He then went out back out into the storm several times, inviting others into the building, including some elderly. They found food in the cafeteria and sheltered overnight until the storm subsided the next day. Jay left a note for the school principal, apologizing about the break-in and accounting for what they had eaten. School authorities released his note to the public, along with photos from school security cameras showing people wrapped up in blankets around cafeteria tables. It soon became clear: Jay was no burglar. He was a hero, and had bravely saved two dozen lives.

TRANSITION TO 1 JOHN 4

It’s a wonderful story because it has several angles. Why did Mr. Withey have to break into the school in the first place? Why wasn’t the school just open to begin with, as a storm shelter? That’s certainly a good discussion to have, maybe at the next meeting of the school board, or Buffalo city council. But today I’d like to look at this story with a happy ending through the lens of fear and love. Faced with a stranger at their door, people had to decide: Do I let him in, or do I turn him away? What emotions are at play in-the-moment that push us in one direction or the other? Today, let’s look at those two words – fear and love – in the light of 1 John 4:7-21, then we’ll finish with three recommendations that can help us both individually and as a church live out the Gospel.

FEAR

First, let’s talk about fear. There are types of fear that are healthy. For example, we know that there are evil adults who prey on children. It’s normal and necessary for parents to teach their children about “stranger danger.” A second healthy type of fear is reverence or respect. This is what we mean when saying we should “fear God.” It’s a good thing to be God-fearing, and when I look at our society today, we need to recapture our respect for God.

1 John 4:18, however, is about another kind of fear altogether, one that is unhealthy. The Greek word for “fear” in this verse is phobos. This is where we derive the English word “phobia.” Webster’s Online Dictionary defines “phobia” as an “exaggerated usually inexplicable and illogical fear of a particular object, class of objects, or situation.” An example of this might be the fear of heights (acrophobia) or the fear of tight spaces (claustrophobia). Notice that fear is illogical. It doesn’t make a lot of sense when you analyze it. Instead, it just wells up as an emotion in the moment. Fear can paralyze us. That’s why a lion roars first before it attacks a gazelle. It paralyzes its prey by instilling fear, giving the lion time to pounce. A second response to fear is withdrawal. It’s a defensive response, like a clam closing up or a crab scurrying behind a rock on the ocean floor. It’s the little West African boy who lived on the remote island who apparently had never seen a white missionary before. When he saw me and another missionary coming down the trail, he jumped into some reeds and peeked out at us, his eyes big.

John says in the same 18th verse that “fear has to do with punishment.” The believer need not fear the day of judgment. According to verse 17, on that day, we can have boldness. How so? If we have asked God to forgive us our sins – the wrong things we have done or the good things that we’ve refused to do – then we have been adopted into God’s family. We can have confidence because God has transformed us and sealed us with the Holy Spirit (see Ephesians 4:30).

John is never satisfied to stop with the human/divine aspect, the vertical dimension. Having looked ahead to Judgment Day, he returns to the present and considers the human/human dimension, the horizontal aspects. What does it look like in our relationships with each other when fear is allowed to dominate? Beginning in verse 20, John answers this question. He writes: “Those who say, ‘I love God’ and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen” (1 John 4:20, NRSV).  Like a weed, when fear takes root, love is choked out.

LOVE

This brings us to the second major word in 1 John 4:7-21. That word is love. The stores have already marked down and sold all the leftover Christmas items. Have you seen what they put in their place? It’s all about Valentine’s Day! In fact, the first kind of love that usually comes to mind when we use that word is romantic love, from the Greek word eros, from which we derive the English word erotic. A second word for love is philia, or “brotherly love.” So we say “Philadelphia,” the city of brother love. But in our passage, the Greek noun for love is agape. The NRSV translates this noun and its various verbal forms as “love” and as such it appears 27 times in this passage. For this reason, John has been called the “apostle of love.” Agape is the kind of selfless love that originates in God but is exemplified in life-giving interactions between human beings who reflect God’s image. Agape is “love that seeks the welfare of all” (Vines, 1981; see “love”). Michael Curry describes agape as “love that looks outward” (Love is the Way: Holding on to Hope in Troubling Times [2020], 14).

John speaks not only of love, but “perfect love.” Perfect love is love that is complete, lacking nothing. If love were cheese, then perfect love would be cheddar cheese aged to sharp deliciousness. If love were chocolate, then perfect love would be a Hershey’s bar with almonds. If love were athletic ability, then perfect love would be Franco Harris’ “immaculate reception.” Perfect love is love that has reached its ultimate form and cannot be improved.

And so we come to 1 John 4:18 – “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.” As a holiness preacher, I’ve always wondered why this verse doesn’t say “perfect love casts out sin.” John Wesley described God’s work of sanctification in our hearts as “love excluding sin.” Yet here we read that loves casts out fear. Rick Williamson notes that the term for “cast out” (exo ballei) is the same term used when describing Jesus who cast out devils (See Williamson, New Beacon Bible Commentary, 1, 2, 3 John: A Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition [2010], 151).  

What is John saying? Love and fear cannot co-exist in our hearts. If love takes the upper hand, fear will be banished. “Perfect love casts our fear.” But I wonder: Have we sometimes let perfect fear cast out love? Does the media we consume – the news channels we watch, the websites we read, the radio commentary that we listen to – stir-up in us fear of others, or does it encourage love and compassion for others? John teaches us in this passage that when we open our hearts to fear, hatred is never far behind. Likewise, when we open our hearts to love, then God abides within us, and we begin to look just like Jesus. In verse 17, John puts it this way: “Because as he is, so are we in this world.”

THREE RECOMMENDATIONS

So far we’ve looked at fear, and saw that stirring up fear can allow our love to wither and open the door to hatred. We also discovered that love is the antidote to fear and hatred, that “perfect love casts out fear.” Now let’s take a few minutes to consider three recommendations for living out 1 John 4:7-20 both individually and as a church family:

  1. Lead with love. In Mark 10, the rich young ruler came to ask Jesus what he needed to do to inherit eternal life. Jesus didn’t beat around the bush. He told him to go and sell all that he had and give it to the poor, but sometimes we skip right over Mark’s aside about Jesus’s demeanor just before issuing that command. Mark 10:21a records: “Jesus looked at him and loved him.” Jesus always leads with love. In the same way, St. Francis instructed his monks: “Preach always. When necessary, use words.” The old adage is still true: “People won’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” Sometimes I wonder how many opportunities to share our faith we’ve short-circuited because we got preachy before we even earned a hearing.
  2. Avoid enlisting in the latest fear-driven crusade. Most Church historians agree that the low-point for Christianity came between the 11th and 13th centuries when Christian “crusaders” raised armies to take back Jerusalem and the Holy Land from Muslims. The atrocities done in the name of Christ will always be a black-eye for Christianity. I wonder if that same counterproductive crusading spirit lives on today in the various culture wars we’re asked to join? Sometimes it seems like we’re asking non-Christians in our country to behave in Christian ways, when that’s nothing they ever signed up for. Why should they be subject to a Book they’ve never agreed to as their guide, whatever the Bible might be for us as believers? It’s worth asking whether lurking beneath the surface of Christian action against x, y, or z is the fear factor, fear that we are being sidelined in a society that seems less-and-less interested in what we have to say or in supporting the church? I certainly don’t have all the answers; I’m not sure I have any answers about how to win back those who used to be with us but are long gone. What I do know is this: John is calling us away from fear, and calling us back to love. Madeleine L’Engle put it this way: “We do not draw people to Christ by loudly discrediting what they believe, by telling them how wrong they are and how right we are, but by showing them a light that is so lovely that they want with all their hearts to know the source of it.”
  3. Trust in God’s prevenient grace. Prevenient grace is the action of the Holy Spirit that draws men, women, and children to God. It is God in love reaching out before we ever did, God taking the initiative. 1 John 4:10 teaches: “In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins” (NRSV). If we believe that God has already been working in the heart of every human being at some level long before we encounter them, how can we possibly fear them? They may look different than we do, come from a different country, speak a different language, dress differently, like different music, or a dozen other factors, but this we have in common: God wants to draw them to Christ in the same way that God drew us!  Which course of action will better allow us to become partners with God in their salvation – fear, or love?

CONCLUSION

On Christmas weekend, Jay Withey, 27, got caught in a Buffalo snowstorm and sought shelter. He knocked on doors, but everyone in fear turned him away. Norwin Church of the Nazarene: Who is knocking on our door? Will we turn them away? God forgive me when I have allowed my fear to banish my love. Instead, together, let us lead with love, avoid enlisting in fear-driven crusades, and trust in God’s prevenient grace. May perfect love cast out our fear, today and always.

SHALL WE PRAY…

_____________________

Image credits

Jesus: Thecatholicguy, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Fear emoji: Vincent Le Moign, CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Love: RickObst, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Posted in sermons & addresses

Gospel glaucoma: Luke 4:16-30

Posted on by Gregory Crofford

This sermon was preached at the Norwin Church of the Nazarene in Irwin, PA, on Sunday, 9/25/22. All Scripture references are from the New International Version, as accessed at BibleGateway.com.

INTRODUCTION

Yesterday, I had an eye exam. All the tests that the optometrist put me through to check my vision were high tech and impressive. I’m glad that my eyes are still strong and have no ailments that she could detect, other than my ongoing farsightedness, which requires me to wear glasses to read. The experience got me thinking about what ailments can affect our sight. One condition is glaucoma. According to my optometrist, glaucoma is tunnel vision. Little by little, and usually with a person not even noticing, peripheral vision – everything off to the left and right – begins to disappear. Soon, vision deteriorates until all a person can see is limited to a narrow band in front of them.

GOSPEL GLAUCOMA

In Luke 4, Jesus met a group of people who suffered from gospel glaucoma. They lived in the very town where Jesus grew up, the town of Nazareth. This was a tiny farming village, perched high on a hill, with probably only 200-400 people living there. It’s little wonder that when Philip told Nathanael about Jesus of Nazareth, Nathanael replied: “Can any good thing come of out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46). As descendants of Abraham, they were confident that God’s blessings were for them, but didn’t seem to realize that their spiritual outlook had become too narrow. Jesus was determined to help them understand that they were suffering from tunnel vision. To help focus our thoughts, let’s answer three questions raised by the story of our Lord’s rejection at Nazareth:

  1. What is the gospel?
  2. Who is the gospel for?
  3. How can we broaden our spiritual vision?
Continue reading “Gospel glaucoma: Luke 4:16-30” →
Posted in sermons & addresses

Reboot! (A sermon on Colossians 3:1-11)

Posted on by Gregory Crofford
View sermon online (beginning at 40:40) –  https://www.facebook.com/149735601721319/videos/295600038414974

My younger brother, Chad, worked in tech support. Sometimes I’ll call him when my computer gets cranky. If my computer were a car, then he’s like the mechanic or technician who knows his way around under the hood and gets his hands greasy. But Chad would admit that often the best solution to a computer problem is simple: Reboot!

A one-word summary to Paul’s message in Colossians 3:1-11 is exactly that: Reboot. Paul details the glitches, the things that are going wrong, then he offers the fix, the divine reboot that makes all the difference.

First, let’s set the stage.

At the end of Colossians 2, beginning in v. 13, Paul had already written of the futility of a rules-based religion. Bodily discipline and pious self-denial only treat the symptoms and not the disease. He concludes in v. 23 – “They provide no help  in conquering a person’s evil desires.”

Now in chapter 3, Paul – who himself had been the most zealous of rule keepers as a Pharisee – shows us a different way, a life focused not on the keeping of rules but on the new life that only Christ can give. And so he begins in v. 1 –

“Since you have been raised to new life in Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand.”

Note the passive voice. He doesn’t say “since you have raised yourself to a new life in Christ.” Rather, “since you have been raised…” Only God can do the job! Christianity is not a self-improvement program. We are forgiven and transformed not by what we do, but by what God in Christ has done and is doing in our lives. The word for this is grace.

Because of God’s grace, his power at work in Christ and therefore working inside of us, we are able to do what Paul says next: “Set your sights on the realities of heaven.”

Steven Covey wrote Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. One of the habits is this: “Work with the end in mind.”

Set your sights – Paul says – on the realities of heaven, our end, our goal, our objective.

My work as a hospital chaplain has brought into sharp relief what Paul is talking about. In pre-COVID times, I’ve stood with families by bedsides when they said their goodbyes to a beloved and godly grandmother about to meet Jesus. I sat with two twenty-something sons as they accompanied their dad to death’s door, tearfully telling him all that he had meant to them. He was a churchgoing and loving father who obviously had raised his sons well. The comfort that faith brings in those moments has no price-tag.

Work with the end in mind. Set your sights on the realities of heaven. In verse 3, he reminds us that our “life is hidden with Christ in God,” then in verse 4 affirms that when Christ returns, we also will share in his glory. What a promise!

So the stage is set. Paul turns our eyes toward the risen, exalted Christ who is seated in power at God’s right hand. He encourages us to focus on the prize before us. Continue reading “Reboot! (A sermon on Colossians 3:1-11)” →

Posted in sermons & addresses

8 Lessons from Solomon for the journey

Posted on by Gregory Crofford

Note to the reader

I preached this sermon at the chapel of Africa Nazarene University (L.T. Marangu campus) on Thursday, May 30.

Text: Ecclesiastes 7:1-12 (New Living Translation)

Prayer

Introduction

This year, our theme is “With Christ on the Way.” If we could step into a time machine and travel back and join Jesus on the dusty roads of Galilee, Judea, and Samaria, what would he teach us?

We know that Jesus loved the Scriptures. Often, he cited Deuteronomy. What we call the New Testament didn’t yet exist. For Jesus, the Scriptures were the 39 books of our Old Testament.

Today, I’d like to look at a passage from one of those books in Jesus’ Bible. Let’s take a look at Ecclesiastes 7:1-12. From this portion of the Jewish Wisdom Literature, we draw the title for this message: “Solomon’s 8 Lessons for the Journey.”

Lesson # 1 – Guard your reputation.

Verse 1 ends with a depressing statement: “The day of death is better than the day of birth” (1b, NIV). Here’s a good example of the Bible not requiring that we always have to be in a cheerful mood. The Bible is real; sometimes we’re just discouraged, and that’s O.K. With God’s help and the help of others, work through those tough times. Things do get better!

But what I’d like to focus on is the first half of the verse. The New Living Translation puts it this way: “A good reputation is better than fine perfume” (Ecc. 1:1a).

I’ve worn a white shirt before and spilled spaghetti sauce on it. It takes a lot of effort to get rid of the stain. I’ve had to learn the hard way that the best policy when it comes to white shirts and spaghetti sauce is to cover myself first with a towel or serviette.

And so it is with our reputation. Once it’s stained, it’s hard to get the stain out. We all need to think twice before we join in activities that will tarnish our reputation.

Lesson # 2 — Tough times have a way of refining us.

There’s a little ditty that I learned somewhere along the way:

Every party needs a pooper, that’s why we invited you!

Verses 2-4 sound very much like that song. In v. 2, Solomon recommends funerals over parties. In v. 3, he ranks sorrow above laughter, then in v. 4, he compliments the person who thinks about death as being wise, while the fool thinks only about having a good time.

For the record, I don’t think we need to feel guilty about having a good time. Proverbs 17:22 says that “a joyful heart is good medicine” (NASB) and Ecclesiastes 3:4 insists that there is a time to laugh. It’s always a danger for Christians to take themselves too seriously. Laughter isn’t a sin.

So what is Solomon getting at? He’s reminding his readers that God allows death and sorrow as a means to strengthenus. Tough times have a way of refining us.

Poet Robert Browning Hamilton wrote a poem entitled “Along the Way.” Here’s what Browning observed about sorrow:

I walked a mile with Pleasure,

She chattered all the way;

But left me none the wiser,

For all she had to say.

I walked a mile with Sorrow,

And ne’er a word said she;

But oh, the things I learned from her

When Sorrow walked with me!

(cited by Stephen J. Bennett, Ecclesiastes/Lamentations: A Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition (Kansas City, Missouri: Beacon Hill Press, 2010), 123.

Lesson # 3 — Accept a critique given in love, but beware of fawning.

A third lesson appears in verses 5-6: “It is better to be criticized by a wise person than to be praised by a fool! Indeed, a fool’s laughter is quickly gone, like thorns crackling in a fire. This also is meaningless.”

I looked up the word “fawning.” The Oxford Online Dictionary defines it as “displaying exaggerated flattery or affection; obsequious.”

And sometimes that comes in the form of laughter. You tell a joke, and this is the person who laughs longer than anyone else, and you wonder why. Finally, you realize that there’s some kind of a hidden agenda. It’s not that you’re so funny, it’s that they’re for some reason trying to get on your good side.

But there is a kind of criticism that is healthy. It’s a critique given from someone because they have your best interest in-mind. Solomon calls this being criticized by a wise person.

I can think of times when I was growing up that my parents offered words of critique. They saw something in my character that they knew was not healthy and that would limit my own success in-life. It was love that motivated them to speak up.

It can be painful to hear those kinds of words, but if we listen and take them to-heart, God can use them to refine us.

The Queen of Sheba visits Solomon.
Continue reading “8 Lessons from Solomon for the journey” →