A Little Book for Big Needs
It only takes a few minutes to read it. You probably know by heart some of the verses in it. But when you read it as a whole and take time to absorb it, you’ll be amazed at how helpful it is. It’s a short book in the Bible that is packed with meaningful direction for our lives.
In this episode, we’ll look at three areas of our life we often struggle with. Then in the next episode we’ll begin to look at this short little book of the Bible. See if you can guess what it is as you listen to today’s podcast.
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- Scriptures: Hebrews 10, 11, 12; II Corinthians 7:4; Romans 8:28
- “Too Tired?”
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Transcript
Kerry Duke: Hi, I’m Kerry Duke, host of My God and My Neighbor podcast from Tennessee Bible College, where we see the Bible as not just another book, but the Book. Join us in a study of the inspired Word to strengthen your faith and to share what you’ve learned with others.
What would you say if I told you there’s a short book in the Bible that teaches us how to face three of the greatest challenges of Christian living? It only takes a few minutes to read this book. But it takes a lifetime even to begin to apply what you can learn from it. And, after today, we’ll be studying that very book.
But first, let’s take a look at those three areas in our lives. We’ll start with a question about the first challenge. What would you say is wrong with people today? That they don’t believe in God? That they’re too busy? That they just don’t care?
We may have different answers, but one thing we most likely agree on is that people are just plain selfish. They live their life by one rule: It’s about me. It’s all about me. Name almost any problem and selfishness is at the root of it.
Paul gave a long list of sins in the last letter he wrote: the book of Second Timothy. He told this younger preacher that hard times were coming because there would be a lot of bad people. He wrote in Second Timothy 3 verses 2 through 5, “For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving” (I’m reading from the New King James Version which is more clear in some passages than the King James Version, but sometimes it’s not as accurate; this is a case in point—the word “unloving” is too general because the Greek word here refers to a specific kind of love, and that is the love we have for our own flesh and blood family, and Paul says these people didn’t even have that kind of love, which is a natural love), but Paul continues: “unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power.” The first thing he mentioned in II Timothy 3 verse 2 and one of the last things he warned about before he died was that men will be “lovers of themselves.” That says it all. And that was almost 2,000 years ago. People haven’t changed, have they?
But that’s the story of mankind. We come into this world helpless. We must have others to take care of us until we can take care of ourselves and hopefully help others. But a lot of people never reach that point. When they reach adulthood, they think everybody owes them. And as long as the world stands, selfish people will be in it.
Let’s bring this down to a different level. Would you say that all of us have a selfish side? I don’t mean that we’re all like the people in Second Timothy three that are lovers of themselves. I mean that all of us are selfish sometimes. Christians are not exempt from this. We struggle with selfishness too. Even the apostles of Jesus Christ were selfish sometimes. They argued about who was going to be the greatest in the kingdom. That happened more than once. In Mark chapter 9 Jesus asked His disciples a question. They knew the answer but they wouldn’t say. Not even Peter, who was usually quick to speak up, would say anything. Here’s that story. In Mark chapter 9 verses 33 and 34 the Bible says: “And when He was in the house He asked them, “What was it that you disputed among yourselves on the road?” But they kept silent, for on the road they had disputed among themselves who would be the greatest.” No wonder they wouldn’t answer Jesus.
In Luke chapter 22, the night before Jesus was crucified, the most important day in all of history, and, humanly speaking, an extremely stressful time for Jesus, the disciples argued that very night about who was going to be the greatest in the kingdom. Of all the times to be arguing about that! But that’s what selfishness does. How many times have you thought about that with children. They can’t se the bigger picture. They are too busy getting what they want. If you have them in the waiting room of a hospital where a loved one is at the point of death, they argue about something petty and want you to solve it. It doesn’t matter how you feel or what you’re going through. Of course, it doesn’t surprise us when children do that. They need to be corrected and taught. But when adults act this way, they ought to be ashamed. And after being with Jesus for over three years, after seeing His miracles and hearing His teaching, and after having the power from God to do miracles themselves, these men argued about something that concerned them instead of focusing on what the Lord was about to face. Luke 22 verse 24 says, “Now there was also a dispute among them, as to which of them should be considered the greatest.” When Jesus replied, He said among other things, “For who is greater, he who sits at the table, or he who serves? Is it not he who sits at the table? Yet I am among you as the One who serves” (Luke 22 verse 27).
Jesus dealt with this problem in two ways: in word and in deed. He taught many things about thinking of others instead of thinking about oneself all the time. That’s what the Golden Rule in Matthew seven verse 12 is all about. It has “unselfishness” written all over it. He said, “Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” That one verse—if most people would do it—would change the world for good more than all the money governments throw at society’s problems. That’s what Jesus is teaching us to do in the second greatest command of all in Mark 12 verse 31: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” He said that any man who follows Him must be willing to deny himself in Matthew 16 verse 24. He taught the story of the good Samaritan who stopped and helped an injured man after a selfish priest and a selfish levite passed by and ignored him. Those are just a few of all the lessons Jesus taught about unselfish living.
But He also taught by example. He taught His disciples not to be selfish by His actions. Three of them really stand out. One was the time when some of His disciples asked Him who was the greatest in the kingdom of heaven in Matthew 18 verse one: “At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, ‘Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’” The first thing Jesus did was to call a little child to Him. He set that little child in the midst of them and said, “”Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” So in one sense we are not to be like children, and in a different way we are. Paul said this to the Christians at Corinth. They were, in his own words, acting like children. They were jealous of each other. They had their own little cliques. They showed out in the worship service. So Paul said, “Brethren, do not be children in understanding; however, in malice be babes, but in understanding be mature” (First Corinthians 14 verse 20). They had great spiritual gifts at Corinth. They could speak in tongues and prophesy and do all kinds of miracles. But Paul told them in First Corinthians 13 that none of those miracles meant anything if they didn’t love each other. So in Matthew chapter 18 Jesus rebuked the disciples by pointing them to this little child.
Another thing Jesus did was that night when the disciples had been arguing about who would be the greatest. The night before he was crucified. That’s the night that Jesus did something that utterly surprised them. Beginning in John 13 verse 1, we read, “Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. And supper being ended, the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray Him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself. After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. Then He came to Simon Peter. And Peter said to Him, “Lord, are You washing my feet?” Jesus answered and said to him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this.” Peter said to Him, “You shall never wash my feet!” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.”
Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!” Jesus said to him, “He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.” For He knew who would betray Him; therefore He said, “You are not all clean.” So when He had washed their feet, taken His garments, and sat down again, He said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you. Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.” A simple act of humble service like washing their feet rebuked their egos.
Of course the greatest and highest act of unselfish love was His death on the cross. Jesus didn’t get any pleasure out of being crucified. He didn’t receive money or fame. He did it for us, not for Himself. And God GAVE His Son. Every day God thinks of us far more than we think of Him. He gives to us constantly. The Bible says, “He gives to all life, breath, and all things” (Acts chapter 17 verse 25). He “gives us richly all things to enjoy” (First Timothy 6 verse 17). “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights” (James 1 verse 17). But those are all physical, material blessings. The ultimate gift of God was when He sent His sinless Son to die for sinful men. “For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans chapter 5 verses 6 through 8). “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3 verse 16).
The short little book I mentioned teaches us a lot about giving. It gives us examples of giving. It tells us how to be unselfish. It shows us that selfishness is an attitude, but that unselfishness is also an attitude. It’s a habit of the heart. We have to train ourselves to think of others instead of just thinking about ourselves. That’s why we need books like this little epistle. It’s just one of the many sections of the Bible that teach us how to think as Christians.
Another huge challenge for Christians is how to live in a world with so many troubles without letting them weaken you, distract you, or make you negative and bitter. It’s hard to be concerned about the problems of life, without letting them overwhelm us. And, ironically in regard to the first challenge, it’s also a challenge because if we refuse to think about these troubles at all, we’re in danger of becoming selfish. Sometimes it’s hard for Christians to have a good outlook on life. Christians take the problems of life more deeply and more seriously than others.
I don’t mean that if you’re not a Christian you don’t get hurt. We’re all human. But when you know and believe your Bible, you feel it more deeply. One reason it bothers Christians more is because Christians understand more. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes chapter 1, verse 18 that “in much wisdom is much grief, and he that increases knowledge increases sorrow.” Nobody understands why the world is in the mess that it’s in better than Christians. We know the way to change all that, but we don’t have the power to do it. People have a mind of their own. Ans that can be frustrating and discouraging.
Job said in Job chapter 14 verse one, “Man that is born of woman is of few days and full of trouble.“ That verse describes our lives well. We know what the Bible says about the end. We know how all this will turn out. We know that the judgment day is coming, we know this earth will be destroyed, and we know that faithful children of God will go to heaven. But it’s easy to be distracted when troubles come crashing in.
There are so many books of the Bible that tell us to persevere, to keep your eye on the bright side of life—this life and the life to come. The book of Hebrews is a great book on this subject. The people in this book had suffered persecution. Some of these Christians had fallen away. Some were not assembling for worship like they should have. Others were attending, but they were discouraged or had lost their zeal. There’s a long section in the book of Hebrews that exhorts them to hold their head up and keep going. It begins in Hebrews chapter 10 verse 32: “But recall the former days in which, after you were illuminated, you endured a great struggle with sufferings: partly while you were made a spectacle both by reproaches and tribulations, and partly while you became companions of those who were so treated.” These Christians had been through a lot. They were mocked, stared at, and made fun of. They were made into a “spectacle” in verse 32. That word is the word from which we get our English word theater. Everybody in the theater looks at who’s on the stage. This verse says we are on display before the world—not so that they can cheer for us, but so they can stare at us and criticize us. Verse 34 says, “for you had compassion on me in my chains, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods, knowing that you have a better and an enduring possession for yourselves in heaven.” They lost their goods or possessions. That was part of the persecution. The Bible doesn’t say whether someone stole their property or if greedy Jews confiscated their property, but they lost it. How did they take that? How could there be a bright side to losing what you own? But there was a bright side. It helped them to realize even more that they had treasure waiting for them in heaven. This verse says what they would have in heaven is better and lasts longer than anything they can have on earth.
So verse 35 tells them, “Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward.” Don’t give up. Don’t throw away everything you’ve lived for and worked for as Christians. This takes patience, which is the very thing he tells them to have in the next verse. “For you have need of endurance (or, patience), so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise.” Today, you need patience. You don’t need for God to take away all your trials. That wouldn’t be good anyway. Those trials build our character. They make us stronger. They produce the patience we need. James 1 verses 2 and 3 says, “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.”
What follows chapter ten in the book of Hebrews is called by many the great “Hall of Faith” in the Bible. It tells us about men and women of God who were tried and tested in the Old Testament. People like Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and all the prophets of God “who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again. And others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented—of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth (Hebrews 11 verses 33 through 38).
But that’s not all. In chapter 12 he tells them to remember these Old Testament saints and to keep their eye on Jesus, not on the problems! He says we need to look to Jesus in spite of these troubles: “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls” (Hebrews 12 verses 2 and 3).
And then he tells us to remember something we are prone to forget: God corrects us. He chastens us (Hebrews 12 verses 5 through 11). So instead of being down and singing the blues, teach yourself to be positive in a Christlike way. A lot of people talk about being positive today. Books and videos tell you how to do it. But often their way is not the Christian way. God’s way is the only true way. So look at verses 12 and 13 in Hebrews chapter 12: “Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed.” That is Christian optimism.
The book of Genesis is another tremendous book about enduring hardships. It’s amazing to see how many times God brings good out of bad situations in this book. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob all faced adversity in their lives, and yet God turned those troubles into something good. The story of Joseph is especially encouraging. Sold as a slave by his own brothers at the age of 17, thrown into prison for no fault of his own because of a wicked woman, he rose in the nation of Egypt to be the second most powerful man in the land. And a passage toward the end of that book tells us that the hand of God was behind all of this. In Genesis chapter 50 verse 20, Joseph told his brothers, “But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good.” That’s so much like what Paul said in Romans 8 verse 28: “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”
The book of Psalms is also a great book of the Bible for adjusting our thinking. It resets our broken hearts. It picks us up from the pit of despair. This is the book with the words “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for you are with me” (Psalm 23, verse 4). It’s the book that says, “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning” (Psalm 30 verse 5). There are few places in the Bible that give comfort like the book of Psalms.
The book of second Corinthians is also a wonderful book on keeping the right frame of mind in a world of hardships. Paul and others had suffered much for the cause of Christ. In Second Corinthians 4 verses 8 through 10 he said, “We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed—always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.” But Paul taught the Corinthians to look on the bright side. In Second Corinthians 4 verses 16 through 18, he said, “Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
And Paul himself practiced what he preached to others. You’ll have to look long and hard to find anyone besides Jesus that suffered more than Paul. In that same book of Second Corinthians, he goes into more detail about everything that happened to him. In chapter 1 he talks about an experience he had in Asia. He thought he was going to die. He said, “We were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life” in verse 8. But notice how quickly he turns that around in the next two verses. He said, “Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead, who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us” (verses 9 and 10). That’s what you’ll see Paul doing in all his letters. He talks about his trials, but he doesn’t dwell on them very long. He always turns to the higher good. Here’s a remarkable verse where Paul shows that we can choose to have joy in life regardless of what happens. In Second Corinthians 7 verse 4, he wrote: “Great is my boldness of speech toward you, great is my boasting on your behalf. I am filled with comfort. I am exceedingly joyful in all our tribulation.”
These books make for encouraging reading. Spend time with them and they will do you good. And yet, these are not the books we’re about to look at in the weeks to come. We’ll refer to them, but we’ll focus on the book I’ve been talking about. That little book we’re going to study is an excellent book on Christian optimism. It tells us how to be positive in a negative world. It trains us to think optimistically in the face of setbacks, disappointments, and tragedies. It teaches us and reminds us that no matter what happens, there’s always a bright side, either to that situation or to the future as a whole.
And that brings us to a third challenge we face almost every day: how to have peace of mind and Christian joy. This is what everybody wants whether they’re Christians or not. Everybody wants to be happy. Everybody wants peace of mind, at least they want it deep down and in the long run. But they look for it in the wrong places. They travel the wrong road to get to it. Many people get selfish pleasure confused with happiness. They think if they can just please their senses enough, they will be happy people. That’s the story of the human race again. It happened to Adam and Eve in the very beginning. Eve knew that it was wrong to eat the fruit, but when she saw that it was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and that it was a tree to be desired to make one wise, she went against what God said and ate it anyway. But it was not what she thought it would be. The same, of course was true with Adam. In the beginning, they had a happy, peaceful life in the garden. But after they sinned, they had troubles and heartache.
The wisest man that ever lived fell into this trap. I’m talking about Solomon. In Ecclesiastes, chapter 2, he tells us that he used his money to entertain himself in every way he could think of. He built houses, hired musical entertainers, ate the best of food and had more riches than he could spend. And spend he did. But did it make him happy? Here’s what He said, “Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done and on the labor in which I had toiled; and indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind. There was no profit under the sun” (Ecc. 2:11). Throughout this book, Solomon tells us that the best pleasures in life are the simple ones—things like putting in an honest, satisfying day of work and enjoying a meal.
But the challenge to have peace of mind and joy is not just a matter of having the right attitude toward money and the things money can buy. There are a lot of things that cause grief besides the love of money or the love of pleasure. Many things happen that are beyond our control. We certainly don’t choose them. And they can make it very difficult for us to be at peace inside. Trouble with other people can make life almost unbearable. Sometimes this trouble comes from our own family. In fact, some of the worst grief comes from family. Do you remember what Isaac’s wife Rebekah said about her daughters in law? She said she was weary of her life because of them in Genesis 27 verse 46. In other words, they were about to worry her to death. There’s hardly anything that can rob a parent of peace of mind worse than a rebellious child. Solomon said the father of a fool has no joy (Proverbs 17 verse 21). If you’re going through this, you know how hard it is. Nobody has to explain what this is like to you. You feel it and you struggle with it every day. It’s hard to smile much less laugh when your heart is breaking, and when you’re worried to death about one of your children. And I know that words of advice or words of encouragement may not seem to do much good. But my hope and prayer is that the studies we plan to do in the future from the little book we’ll be studying will help.
Sickness and death make it hard to have a feeling of peace and joy inside. Pain and suffering in the body, make it hard to enjoy life. The stress and the anxiety of things like cancer and Alzheimer’s and strokes can take the joy out of living. If you have one of these illnesses, it’s a challenge to rejoice in the Lord. And if you’re taking care of a loved one who is suffering, it can be just as hard or even harder because you can’t do anything to take away their pain. You feel like your hands are tied. And it can be easy for you to resent people around you who are laughing and having fun and enjoying themselves, even if they’re family or good Christian people. And, when a loved one dies, our world can be turned so upside down that we can’t imagine ever having any joy again. At first, we just feel numb inside. It’s like being shipwrecked at sea. You float around in the water and feel like it will pull you under at any moment. All you can do is try to stay afloat and gasp for air. And then comes the feeling of anger, fear, and pain inside that cannot be put into words. You’ll think the grief is more than any human being can stand.
Would you like to be able to deal with these struggles better—the challenge of overcoming your selfish side, the challenge of being optimistic in a negative world, and the challenge of having peace of mind and happiness in spite of the pain and grief in life? Join us for the next episode as we begin this series of lessons. The Bible says in Second Peter 1 verse three that God has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. God gives us the teaching we need on these and many other cares and issues of life. Until the next episode, trust and obey the Lord, keep your head bowed in prayer and your mind on His Word.
Thank you for listening to My God and My Neighbor. Stay connected with our podcast on our website and on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever fine podcasts are distributed. Tennessee Bible College, providing Christian education since 1975 in Cookeville, Tennessee, offers undergraduate and graduate programs. Study at your level. Aim higher and get in touch with us today.