Sermon - Things We Need... Simplicity - Littleby Baptist Church - October 11, 2020

Things We Need… Jesus is the absolute most important of the things we need and last week it was Excitement, with a focus on being Excited for the Word of God. This week I want to keep it simple.

Under the Old Covenant that was put in place by God through Moses you will see a lot of rules that need to be followed. Most of the time we think about the Ten Commandments that God wrote on the stone tablets for the people to follow. The thing is that was just the beginning. If we took the time to tally the number of Commandments listed in the Books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy we would come up with a whopping six-hundred-and-thirteen Commandments! Way more than the ten most people think about.

It can be hard to remember and faithfully follow the ten all the time. Remembering and following all six-hundred-and-thirteen Commandments is impossible for us. There is nothing simple about it.

As we flip through the Books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy we will find Commandments concerning a lot of different topics. It is probably not surprising that there are Commandments about our relationship with God, but that is not where it stops. There are Commandments dictating morality, such as we are not to murder one another, commit adultery, or tell lies. We will find Commandments about things like how property is passed on to future generations, marriage, and divorce. Commandments about what food should be eaten or avoided, what is considered clean and unclean, even Commandments on how to cook and store food.

The list goes on with Commandments about avoiding impurities and listing holidays and feasts that are to be celebrated. Most of the time when we think of the Old Testament Law, we think of all of the sacrifices that are needed to atone for sin, offerings of praise, and purifications which a lot of those commandments are for the priest and the temple. Reality is that the Old Testament Law was meant to list every little thing that had to be followed to remain pure in the eyes of God.

There is nothing simple about the Old Testament Covenant and the six-hundred-and-thirteen Commandments that go along with it.

Jump forward to today and our long list of church denominations and their different rules and membership requirements. There are some that require you to attend a class and become a member before you can participate in the Lord’s Supper while there are others that will let anyone who confesses Jesus as Lord take part. You will find some churches and denominations that require someone to be baptized before they can become a member of the church, some require classes, and some do not have a formal member list at all.

The list does not stop there, from what the priest or pastor wears to who can and cannot be ordained as a minister, the rules vary significantly between denominations. Trying to keep them all straight would be as likely as remembering all six-hundred-and-thirteen of the Commandments.

While the Old Testament Law was given to us by God for a reason, it was not to make following God difficult.

“⁷ What should we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! But I would not have known sin if it were not for the law. For example, I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, Do not covet. ⁸ And sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind. For apart from the law sin is dead.” – Romans 7:7-8

When we look at it today, we understand that without the Law, without all of these Commandments, we would not know that we are sinners. The Law was not given to make following God difficult; it was given to point out that we cannot do it on our own.

“²¹ “You have heard that it was said to our ancestors, Do not murder, and whoever murders will be subject to judgment. ²² But I tell you, everyone who is angry with his brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Whoever insults his brother or sister, will be subject to the court. Whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be subject to hellfire.” – Matthew 5:21-22

With this teaching, Jesus actually raised the bar and made it that much harder for us to be with Him. The Law stated we were to not commit murder, Jesus said we are not to be angry with others or we will be judged. I for one can say I have never murdered anyone, but I have fallen short when it comes to being angry. It is simple, I am a sinner.

Nothing about the Old Testament Law, Denominations, and how Jesus expanded on the Law is simple. None of it points to this week’s Things We Need… Simplicity. Thankfully as usual our Lord does not leave it there.

“The one who believes in the Son has eternal life, but the one who rejects the Son will not see life; instead, the wrath of God remains on him.” – John 3:36

This embodies the Things We Need… Simplicity!

If we believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. If we believe that He came to this earth, lived a sinless life, died on the cross to pay for our sins, and rose again… we are given Life. Faith in Jesus results in an eternity with Him.

There are not six-hundred-and-thirteen Commandments that we need to follow. We do not need superhuman control of our emotions. We do not need to know and follow all the rules for whatever denomination we belong to. Those things have a purpose, but what is truly important is Faith. It truly is that Simple.

We tend to make our walk with God overly complicated. Some think they need to straighten their life out before they can even darken the doorsteps of their local church. There are some that feel like they have too much of the bad stuff in their past, that they are too far gone. There are others that believe that their good outweighs the bad. These philosophies are really more complicated than people might think. How can we measure how much sin we have to the point where we would know that we are too far gone? Does a scale exist that would allow us to weight all the good we have done and compare it to all the bad? How do we figure out if our life is straightened out enough to go to church?

To be honest, I am not sure how to answer those questions. I know the real answer and the real path to an Eternity with Jesus, but these other questions are not what we need to be asking. These types of questions make the problem more difficult that it needs to be. The Things We Need… Simplicity tells us that we do not need to get things straightened out to follow Jesus. We do not need to measure our sin or the good we have done to be saved from our sins. We Simply need to believe!

“¹⁹ For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live for God. ²⁰ I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” – Galatians 2:20

Those six-hundred-and-thirteen Commandments, the Law, required a sacrifice if a single one was broken. That is true even if someone were to miss one of the sacrifices they were supposed to make. Being slaves to the Law would result in death, but thankfully Jesus paid the price for each of us. He paid the penalty and made things Simple.

Paul states in these verses that since he was ‘crucified with Christ’ that now ‘Christ lives’ in him. We can get into a lot of complicated theology here, but if we take to heart the Things We Need… Simplicity, we do not need to go there. This is simpler than we tend to make it.

If we have that simple belief in Jesus, who He is, and what He did for us we will find it does not end there.

Our old self, our sin, all died with Jesus on that cross.

Our new self was given new life when Jesus rose from the dead.

Through Jesus we are a new creation.

As a new creation we will live for Jesus Christ.

Living for Jesus will change our lives.

Simple belief in Jesus will transform our thoughts, desires, and actions.

The Old Testament Law will not change us. Denominational rules will not help us to live differently. Things We Need… Simplicity in the form of Faith in Jesus will transform us.

Things We Need… Simplicity can be seen in other ways.

“⁵ Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding; ⁶ in all your ways know him, and he will make your paths straight.” – Proverbs 3:5-6

Things We Need… Simplicity can be seen in trusting in God.

Our tendency is to trust in what we have learned, our education, our experiences, our emotions, or just about anything else. If we think about this in the terms of Simplicity, these other things are not that simple. Sometimes when we learn something it is through trial and error, in other words we try something and if it does not work, we try something else. Not easy and not Simple.

Getting an education may be straight forward. If you were to ask anyone who has had to take a class a second time because they struggled with it the first time, they will tell you it is not Simple. When we put our trust in our experiences it is normally the bad ones that we learn from. A Simple example of this would be learning how to use a hammer. Experience will teach us the correct way to do hammer nails without hitting our thumb.

There is nothing simple about trusting in our emotions. Depending on the day or maybe even the hour our emotions can steer us in different directions. Trusting in God will lead us down a straight path, trusting in our emotions might have us driving in circles.

If we are embracing the Things We Need… Simplicity we need to put all of our Trust in the Lord. We cannot depend on what we have learned, our experiences, or emotions. We Need to trust in our God, in His Word, and in His Spirit.

“Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light on my path.” – Psalm 119:105

If we are trusting in our God, if we are letting the Holy Spirit lead us, He will guide each step we take. He will show us who we are supposed to be.

It may sound complicated, but it is based on the Things We Need… Simplicity as we have Faith in our God.

Simple things like belief and trust can have a profound impact on our lives and our walk with our Lord Jesus.

Another area I think we need to remember to trust in the Things We Need… Simplicity is in our daily lives.

“²⁵ “Therefore I tell you: Don’t worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothing?” – Matthew 6:25

We are human, and guest what? Humans worry about things. We worry about what is going on in the news, we worry about if our loved one is going to feel better, we worry about our jobs, our bills, if our kids are going to drive safely, to name a few. Worrying about this can be very tiring and I think it would be safe to say, worrying about things is not simple in any way, shape, or form.

If we think about the Things We Need… Simplicity, who can we address worrying?

“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you.” – Matthew 6:33

Jesus gave us the answer already. Instead of worrying about this or that, simply seek Jesus. I do know that sounds Simpler that it really is, but when we are worrying about everything else around us, we are not focusing on our God. When we are distracted by all these other things, we are not spending time talking to our God and we are not spending time in His Word.

When life gets hard and complicated leading us to worry, we need to make it Simple. We need to seek our God first and foremost and let Him guide us through the valley that lays before us.

The Things We Need… Simplicity is a little unique in that it can point us in many different directions. It reminds us that we Simply need to have Faith in Jesus, trust in our God, and to Seek Him always. It reminds us that this life does not have to be so complicated. We do not need a book of rules to follow or to get things figured out before we seek our God.

The Things We Need… Simplicity is not limited to Faith, trust, and seeking. There are many other things that if we take the time to look at them, we will find that we have made them more complicated than they need to be. 

I encourage you to embrace the Things We Need… Simplicity and let it Simplify your walk with God.

God Bless,

Robert