Month: October 2025

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Nobleton Community Church
29084 Sentinel Street PO Box 224
Nobleton, Florida 34661

Rev. Paul V. Lehmann, Pastor
813-389-8683
Nobletoncommunitychurch.org
info@nobletoncommunitychurch.org

OUR VISION IS:
To experience SPIRIT-FILLED WORSHIP AND PRAYER
To be involved in EVANGELISM, DISCIPLINING AND TRAINING PEOPLE
To use our SPIRITUAL GIFTS
To SERVE AND REACH PEOPLE FOR CHRIST, BOTH
“ACROSS THE STREET AND ACROSS THE WORLD”

Nobleton Community Church
Date October 26, 2025
Text 2 Corinthians 5:17-21
Pastor Paul Lehmann

Listen to live audio here

Quite a few years ago, the Department of Homeland Security passed the REAL ID Act, which was intended to go into effect in October 2021. The REAL ID Act was designed to establish minimum identification requirements for certain federally related purposes — most significantly, being able to board an airplane. The idea behind it is that each person — that means you — will be required to provide documentation to verify that you are who you say you are, and who Uncle Sam has confirmed you to be. The process was delayed and the deadline extended due to COVID, but it went into effect this year.When we think about the REAL ID requirement, what is the significance of this term as it applies to knowing our true identity as children of God, and how this affects our self-image — what we think about ourselves, what we feel about ourselves, and how we relate to others. Today, we want to think about our REAL ID. The purpose is to help you discover who you are in Christ — how to fully become and how to fully live as the person he made you to be.

Now and then, you hear the story of someone who isn’t at all who they appear to be. Like Sara Jane Olson. She was born Kathleen Soliah during the post-WW2 baby boom. In the sixties, she moved to the West Coast to attend college and pursue a career in acting, and eventually became involved in the radical politics of the Symbionese Liberation Army, where she participated in various bank robberies and acts of violence, including murder. After she was indicted for her crimes, before she could be arrested, she went underground, fled to Minnesota, adopted an alias, and lived as a fugitive for more than 20 years. During this time, she married a doctor, raised a family, became active in community projects, and lived a life of affluence. And then her past — her true identity — caught up with her. In 2001, she was arrested and ultimately sent to prison. From time to time, you hear stories such as these: A person who spends their entire life pretending to be someone they’re not in an effort to avoid coming to terms with who they really are.I don’t know how it was for Ms. Olsen during those years. Did she feel like a phony every day of her life? Did she live in constant fear of being found out? Though her story is somewhat extreme:

There are many who live their lives in a similar fashion. They’re not fugitives from justice, but they’re fugitives from themselves, from the past, from the sins of the past, and their failures, and their hurts, and the pain they’ve endured and the shame they’ve experienced. And on the surface, they may seem to be living a normal life — even a charmed life — but underneath it all, they know they’re just one slip-up away from shattering the facade. We all have an image of ourselves — an image that we try to project on ourselves, or an image that we allow others to project upon us. Sometimes the image is accurate. Sometimes it is not. Today I want you to see that it’s not who you think you are, or who others think you are, that matters most. This isn’t how you determine your REAL ID.

DETERMINING YOUR REAL ID

Who you are, who you really are, is determined by what God says about you. This is the focus of today’s message.This morning, we’ll look at one passage of scripture that is foundational to understanding who you are in Christ. There are three characteristics of your life in Christ that I want you to see. These are true whether or not you feel it, and whether or not others recognize it. You are who God says you are, and he will help you become who he made you to be. Three characteristics we’ll look at. First of all, if you’re a follower of Jesus Christ …

1. You are a new creation in Christ.

Becoming a Christian is not about turning over a new leaf. It’s about being given new life. You’re not upgrading old software; it’s a new installation. This is something that book publishers and music publishers have known for more than a century. If you re-release a book or an album with a new cover, there’s likely to be a surge in sales — especially if the new cover is more attractive than the old. The text between the covers hasn’t changed, the music hasn’t changed, but the new cover makes it seem new. You also see this with “new-and-improved” products … which often means little more than new-and-improved packaging. Christianity is the opposite. It changes you on the inside. It makes you brand new through and through. Salvation is not a tune-up of the old self. It’s a whole new operating system.

Before Christ, you were dead in your sins. And when you received him as your Lord and Savior, you were made new in him. Listen to what Paul said…

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

When you accept Jesus Christ, a new person — a new creation — takes up residence inside of you. This person is the new you. You may look the same on the outside, sound the same, and even — at times — struggle with the same old stuff. But you’ve been made new, which means the direction of your life has changed, your potential has changed, and your reason for being here has changed. You are a new creation.

Speaking of still looking the same on the outside, I remember hearing the musician and songwriter Chuck Girard tell a funny story. He got saved in the sixties, out of the counter-culture, and back then there were many in the church who just couldn’t come to terms with the idea that a long-haired hippie could really be a Christian. One evening after performing at a church, a lady came to him and said, “I’m so glad God cleaned you up on the inside. Now I’m praying that he will clean you up on the outside.”

This was a common sentiment back then … but we can’t make the mistake of thinking that salvation is merely a whitewashing of the exterior. No, it’s an inside job. This is why Paul said…

And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. (Colossians 3:13-14)

This leads us to the second foundational characteristic of your life in Christ that I want you to see 2. You have been reconciled to a relationship with God.

This means that you have been made right with God, not of your own doing, but of his doing. This is how Paul said it…

18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;

19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

We’ll talk about the ministry of reconciliation in a minute, but right now, let’s focus on the reconciliation we have received. The Bible says we were dead in our transgressions, and now we have been made alive in Christ. He canceled the debt that stood against us. There is a song which declares this: …

He paid a debt he did not owe
I owed a debt I could not pay
I needed someone to wash my sins away…

I realize there are some who will insist that they owe no debt, that they have never done anything that requires forgiveness. I’ve heard people say that … but when you look at the brokenness of their lives, something doesn’t quite add up. There are some who say, “I don’t need a God to forgive me…” See what their ex has to say about that. Or see what their children have to say about it. Or their friends and co-workers.

We are all in the same boat — we have all sinned — Romans 3:23, and it is beyond impossible for us to redeem ourselves. It is beyond impossible for us to fix our fallen nature. Regardless of the image that we may have tried to project to the world around us, the fact is that without Christ, we were all fugitives. And, like Sara Jane Olson, we might have been able to fool those around us, but when we looked deep into ourselves, we knew: I can’t escape who I am. I owe a debt I cannot pay.

For this reason, Jesus took your place. The apostle Paul said…

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

Here’s what I’m saying. You have been made right with God. All the mercy you need, all the forgiveness you need, all the grace you need has been poured out upon you. Lavished is the word Paul uses in Ephesians. You didn’t deserve it, but it was given to you anyway. You didn’t earn it, but you were given the opportunity to receive it. His love knows no limit, and his mercy never ends. The Bible says that it is new every morning. [Lamentations 3:22-23]

This means that every day you can wake up and say, “Today I am right with God … not because I am good, but because I have been made right through Jesus Christ.” In the past, you may have been a fugitive from justice, a fugitive from the past, but in Christ, you have been reconciled through his sacrificial death on the cross. As Paul said…

21 For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

If you’ve ever said, “I’ll never be good enough to make up for all the wrong I have done.” God says, “I’ve paid that debt. You are in the right relationship with me.”Here is the third foundational characteristic of the Christian life.

3. You play a vital role in the purpose of God. THE MINISTRY OF RECONCILIATION

In verse 18 Paul said that God has given us the ministry of reconciliation. In verse 19 he says that God has entrusted to us the message of reconciliation. And then he says, verse 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He’s talking about his ministry and his message — the message of reconciliation — and he’s talking about you and me, as well. This is our work, our ministry, our message — to let those around us know that God is ready to be in a right relationship with them, no matter what may have happened in the past.

He used the term ambassador. We know what an ambassador is. An ambassador is someone who is sent to live in a foreign land to represent their home country and their home government. And, in that context, they speak for the leadership of their homeland.

God is saying to you and me, “I want the world to know about me, and to know about my Son. I want them to hear about love, and mercy, and grace, and redemption. And I want you to take this message to them. I want you to be my representative, my ambassador.”

In many ways, we’re like strangers in a strange land. We’re like visitors on foreign soil. This world is not our home; we’re just passing through. Our citizenship is in heaven … but while you are here, you are God’s ambassador. You have been given a part to play in his eternal plan. He has invited you to represent him, to speak on his behalf, so that all may know that there is a God who loves them and who gave his life for them.

When you open your eyes early each morning, not only can you say, “Today I am right with God,” … you can also say, “Today I have a position to fill, a role to play, a job to do. Today, through my words, my actions, and even my attitudes, I will represent Jesus Christ. I am his ambassador, because that’s what he made me.”

This is your true identity. This is who you really are.

You may feel like you’re a fugitive, trying to hide from a checkered past. Others may even try to place that label on you. But I want you to remember what God has said about you, because this is your Real ID.

This is your Real ID. May we learn to see ourselves as God sees us.

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Nobleton Community Church
29084 Sentinel Street PO Box 224
Nobleton, Florida 34661

Rev. Paul V. Lehmann, Pastor
813-389-8683
Nobletoncommunitychurch.org
info@nobletoncommunitychurch.org

OUR VISION IS:
To experience SPIRIT-FILLED WORSHIP AND PRAYER
To be involved in EVANGELISM, DISCIPLINING AND TRAINING PEOPLE
To use our SPIRITUAL GIFTS
To SERVE AND REACH PEOPLE FOR CHRIST, BOTH
“ACROSS THE STREET AND ACROSS THE WORLD”

Nobleton Community Church
Date October 19, 2025
Text: Romans 12:1-2
Pastor Paul Lehmann

Listen to live audio here

We have been talking a lot about pursuing God and going hard after him. It involves having a clean heart and then taking steps to live for him and serve him, by giving ourselves over to the controlling power of the Holy Spirit. We see later in this chapter 12, other practical spiritual gifts mentioned, besides the ones Paul talks about in I Corinthians 14, which we have talked about before. We have also talked about the fruit of the Spirit, which is how we live, once we are filled with the Holy Spirit.

We come to a place today where we want to advance and not go backward in our understanding of what Paul is trying to tell us in this book of Romans. We must make a decision on the basis of these great truths. This principle is established especially in the first two verses of chapter 12, (Our text).

When we read: by the mercies of God, or in view of the mercies of God, or:

Because of the mercies of, we are urged to present or offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—which is our true and proper worship. (our reasonable sacrifice or service, or worship) all of these are used in various translations.

The first 11 chapters of Romans are all that God has done for us. Therefore, it is only natural that we yield ourselves to God because of what he has done for us. Because Christ died for our sins (and we are all sinners), but his gift to us is eternal life and salvation from sin and death. God doesn’t hold us who have trusted in Jesus Christ responsible for these sins any longer, so it is through the mercies of God (in Christ), and because of his mercy that we are to present or yield our bodies to him.

In chapter 6, verse 13, we read that the word “present.” It is the same as the word yield or offer. We read, “Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness.” The idea is that we are to yield or turn over, or put our bodies at God’s disposal.

Okay, but why the body, you might think? I thought this was all a spiritual thing with Jesus living within us. The reason is that the body is the vehicle through which we operate. At least here on earth. We must not confuse the old nature with the body. The old nature is part of the old, unregenerate life, which seeks to control the body in order to practice sin (or evil). Think rather of the body as being a neutral vehicle in which we are living. By neutral, I mean that it is neither good nor bad in itself. Before we were saved, the flesh nature controlled the body. Now that we have been born again, if we have been born again by the Spirit of God, we are united to Christ so that the new man, the new nature, should be in control of the body. (II Cor. 5:17)

A Greek at the time of Paul, would never say yield your body to God. To the Greeks, what mattered was the spirit; the body was only a shackle and a prison-house; the body was something to be despised and even to be ashamed of. No real Christian ever believed that. The Christian believes that his body belongs to God just as much as his soul does, and that he can serve God just as well with his body as he can with his mind or his spirit. The body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, the place in which the Holy Spirit dwells, the instrument through which the Holy Spirit works. After all the great fact of the incarnation basically means that God Himself took a human body upon him, in Jesus Christ, to live in it and to work through it. The Lord Jesus says, “I need the body, for that is the vehicle through which people see me. I want your life as a living sacrifice.” Now, a living sacrifice is a paradox. Sacrifice is death, yet here he speaks of a living sacrifice. The fact is, he wants both in our body—life and death. How can this be realized?

In the Old Testament, —-animals were brought as offerings for sin. But in their case, it was death that God asked for, so that sacrifice and death go together. But in our case, he asks for a living sacrifice. He wants our bodies while we are alive on this earth, but he wants us to live in the attitude of being dead to sin but alive to God. This is the basis for New Testament Christian living. Consequently, the words “living sacrifice” instead of being a paradox are now seen to be the recipe, if you will, for the whole Christian life. We are to carry an attitude of death toward the old sinful nature and sinful things, and submit ourselves alive to God. For this reason, then, he wants our bodies to be given over entirely to him.

Take the case of a church. It is built by man for the offering of worship of our spirit to God. But it involves the mind of a human to build it, and the hands of people with skills. It is the product of the mind and the body and the spirit of man.

On the other hand, our bodies are created by God alone. It is true that we worship in a building made by man, but we need to understand that our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, not a building built by man. I know this will shock some of you, but this building isn’t holy just because we call it a church. It becomes holy when we, as God’s people who are to be holy, come here to worship. Your house can be a place of worship. The early Christians met in homes. There was no church or cathedral built until Constantine decided that Christians should have big edifices to worship in, just like the Jews and just like the pagans. Unfortunately, at this time, about 300 AD, when Christians were no longer persecuted and killed for their faith, and the “State” religion became Christianity, thousands of pagans came into the church, who were not born again by the Spirit of God, and so many of those who worshiped in these buildings were not holy.

So Paul is saying, take your body; take the tasks that you have to do every day; take the ordinary work around your home, around the places you go, like restaurants, stores, and offices, and offer all that as an act of worship to God. The KJV has it—your reasonable service, but the word here means worship, as most translations have it. It is a word with an interesting history. I’m not a Greek scholar, but the Greek word is lateria, and it is the noun of the verb latreuein. Originally, the word meant to work for hire or pay. It was the word that was used of the laboring man who gave his strength to a master and an employer in return for the pay the employer would give him. It denotes, not slavery, but the voluntary undertaking of work. It then came to mean quite generally to serve, but it also came to mean that to which a man gives his whole life. For instance, a man could be said to give his life to the service of beauty. In that sense, it comes very nearly to mean to dedicate one’s life to something or someone. Then, finally, this word came to be the word which was characteristically and distinctively used of the service of the gods. In the Bible, it never means human service; it is always used of service to and worship of God

Now, here we have a most significant thing. The true worship, the really spiritual worship, is the offering of one’s body, and all that one does every day with it, –to God;

It is not the offering to God of a liturgy, however noble, or a ritual, however magnificent. Real worship is the offering of everyday life to God. Therefore, think about the things we do with our bodies. That is why to abuse our body with alcohol so that we get drunk, is characterized in the Bible, –as SIN —drunkenness both in the Old and New Testaments IS SIN, Any other abuse of our bodies is also sin, and therefore when we do anything that does not glorify Christ, is sin, and is not worship, and we are told that everything we do should be done to worship and glorify God. Real worship is not just something which is done in a church; Real worship is something which takes place everywhere we go. and every common thing we do should be an act of worship. This should make us think about some of the things we do, what we say, how we act, what we communicate to other people—are those things glorifying to God, or are they bringing shame to Him?

We should be able to say; “I am going to church to worship God.” But we should also be able to say, I am going to the store, or to the doctor’s office, or work in the yard, to worship God, therefore my actions and my speech should only bring glory to him.

Every part of our body, Our eyes, which were once used to look at things that our bodies craved, are now to be given over to Him as separated holy members, to see the things he wants us to see. That, in effect, is already a sacrifice, a living and a holy sacrifice. Our ears and tongues, which were once given to spreading that gossip, telling lies about people, and murdering character, are now to be given over to him to hear the cry of the spiritually poor and needy, and to tell them of life in Christ. Nothing short of that is acceptable to God.

The presenting and yielding, or offering our bodies to God is so that our “sacrifice” of ourselves will be acceptable to him. Too many times we consider only what is acceptable to people. Our first consideration is often, “What will people think of what I am doing?” Rather than “what does God think of it? Then others don’t even care what people think, let alone what God thinks. When we are singing, our first consideration may be the acceptability of our talent before people. We wonder if we will receive congratulations or thanks for what we have done. But it is far more important that we ask, “Is this acceptable to God?” (Whatever we are doing.) We are reminded again of Israel’s experience as related in the Book of Malachi 1:6-8, where God accused the priests of disrespecting him and showing contempt for him. Then they had the audacity to say, “How have we shown contempt for your name? By offering defiled food on my altar and saying that the table of the Lord is contemptible.” Malachi goes on to declare what “God is saying.” When you offer blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice lame or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Then he gives them a real slap in the face—-“Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you and your offering? Says the Lord Almighty.

The Lord demanded that only the best were to be brought for sacrifice, but the Israelites brought the sick and the lame, animals for which there was little use to them. These, they would not miss very much. But God reminded them that if they brought such gifts to their earthly rulers, they would not get away with it. (In fact, they wouldn’t dream of even trying it, but their attitude is: with God, it doesn’t matter).

The message for us is obvious. Our various governments, local and federal, come along and tell us what percentage of our income and property is taxable and how much they want from us, and that is what they get. Yet so often in our finances, we treat God as the Israelites treated him with their offerings. Actually, as I say almost every week when we take up the offering and give of our tithes, all we have belongs to God, and yet he allows us to keep the largest portion of it for our use.

This isn’t a message on giving, but the New Testament standard of giving offerings, which is proportionate giving as outlined in I Corinthians 16. Some feel that the New Testament doesn’t teach anything about tithing but rather just according to how much we can afford to give. Just let me say that Jesus supported the tithe. In Matthew 23:23, he tells the Pharisees that they should not only give a tenth of what comes in, but they shouldn’t neglect Justice, mercy, and faithfulness. Both should be practiced. Therefore, in the New Testament, giving a tenth of what we receive is almost taken for granted, and then Paul talks about extra giving of offerings, so that the gospel message can go forth. This is Missions giving emphasized, over and above the tithe. (Since this is Missions Sunday, the 3rd Sunday, maybe now some of you might want to reconsider what you give to ‘Missions’ — —and for use right now, it is Christian Relief Ministries, who helps the persecuted church around the world. )

So many of us give, not according to what we receive, but what we have left over after we have met all of our other obligations. Some will say, “I have so many debts and I do not think I should rob my creditors in order to pay God.” But when we fail to give God his share, who are we actually robbing? The biblical pattern is to give first, and God will bless the 90% left over. Try this and see if this isn’t true. That’s what God says in Malachi. Jeannene and I have found this to be true, and I know that many of you have too.

The lesson is clear, our offering of what God gives us, and according to our passage this morning, we see we must offer and yield our bodies as well as whatever God gives us, to him. That is acceptable to him. Let’s give him our strength and health, and the best of our time. He deserves the best we have. This he says, is reasonable service, or worship. In light of all God has done for us. He wants us exclusively for himself.

Paul is saying that this demands a radical change. He says we must not be conformed to the world, but we must be transformed from it. To express this idea, he uses two Greek words. The first is schema, and it means “outward form,” which varies from year to year and from day to day. A man’s schema is continuously altering. It is not the same when you are 17 as when you are 70. It is not the same when you are working in the yard in shorts or jeans, as when you go to a formal dinner affair, or a wedding etc. Paul says, “don’t be fashioned after, or conformed to, or pushed into the mold of this world, or society. In other words, don’t try to match your life to what everyone else thinks, or does. Also, don’t be like a chameleon which takes its color from its surroundings! —don’t go with changing society when society’s morals are contrary to Scripture. Don’t let the world decide what you are going to be like. Morals today are certainly different from what they were 50-60 years ago, but God’s word doesn’t change. Society just chooses to ignore the parts they don’t like. They try to make the Bible irrelevant. The word that Paul uses for being transformed from the world means the essential transforming shape or element of anything. Our appearance changes, but inwardly we are the same person—until the Holy Spirit changes us. Paul is saying that to worship and to serve God, we must undergo a change, not of our outward form, but of our inward personality. Of the very essence of our being.

What is that change? To put it the way Paul does,—he says, Being left to ourselves, we live a life dominated by human nature at its lowest. In Christ we live a life dominated by Jesus Christ –the Holy Spirit. An inward change has happened, and the essential person has been changed. Now we live, not as a self-centered person, but a Christ-centered person, and when we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we are also a Spirit-controlled person. This must happen, Paul says, by the renewing of your mind. It isn’t something we can do on our own. Do you remember the transfiguration on the mountain, when Jesus took three of his disciples with him? Jesus was “transfigured” along with Moses and Elijah when they appeared. This was a supernatural change. In that case, they had their glorified bodies, which we won’t have until after our mortal bodies are gone. But still, the transformation that must take place now is a supernatural spiritual change. A transformation.

When we accept Jesus Christ as our personal Savior and claim him as Lord of our lives, something happens within us. We are born-again. We are a new creation. Then, when we turn our whole life, including our body, over to Christ, that inner transformation begins to manifest itself in the outward way of living our life. But the change is first inward before it is outward.

It involves a change of mind. (Sometimes we say a change of our heart, because in North America, the heart is the center or seat of our affections—In Papua New Guinea, the seat of affection is the liver), What we think about is basic to what we do. Because of the new birth, we have the mind of Christ, but we must be submitted to God. To be carnally minded is to have the mind of society in our world (making us worldly). To be spiritually minded is life and peace. To have our minds under the control of the Holy Spirit results in producing the fruit of the Spirit in our lives.

Scroll down past Sermon for more info

Nobleton Community Church
29084 Sentinel Street PO Box 224
Nobleton, Florida 34661

Rev. Paul V. Lehmann, Pastor
813-389-8683
Nobletoncommunitychurch.org
info@nobletoncommunitychurch.org

OUR VISION IS:
To experience SPIRIT-FILLED WORSHIP AND PRAYER
To be involved in EVANGELISM, DISCIPLINING AND TRAINING PEOPLE
To use our SPIRITUAL GIFTS
To SERVE AND REACH PEOPLE FOR CHRIST, BOTH
“ACROSS THE STREET AND ACROSS THE WORLD”

Nobleton Community Church
Date October 12, 2025
Text: James 3:1-12
Pastor Paul Lehmann

Listen to live audio here

There’s a story about the famous 19th-century preacher Henry Beecher. One Sunday, he ascended the great pulpit of Boston’s Plymouth Congregational Church, and there he found a note waiting for him. Beecher glances at the note, then announces. “I received a letter from one of you this morning. It states quite simply, “Fool.” Bleecher paused, then grinned and said, “I often receive from people who ‘forget’ to sign their names, but this is the first time someone has signed their name and forgotten to write the letter.” Beecher, quick on his feet, found a snappy comeback, but even for him, probably the criticism must have stung. There’s such a thing as constructive criticism offered in love, of course—courteous words of correction from a teacher, pastor, or coach, or spouse or friend, sincerely intended to build up. But there is also that other sort of criticism, the kind that tears down, that gouges, that destroys.

Some of you may remember, on December 6, 2011, when actor Alec Baldwin was booted off an American Airlines flight out of LAX for failure to comply with airline regulations, particularly the one that requires you to turn off your cell phone once the cabin doors are closed. Now you’d think that someone as worldly and well-traveled as Baldwin would know this rule, which he did, or that a violation of that rule would surely have to involve some kind of urgent phone call that had to be handled right then, which it didn’t. What caused Baldwin to be put off the flight was over a game called “Words With Friends.” This is another social media app. that connects networks of online friends. Like Facebook and Twitter. This game is for the purpose of chatting with one another while you play a word game kind of like Scrabble on steroids, and the premise is a lot like those old school games of playing chess by mail, except this is instant of course, thanks to the internet. It’s supposed to be a friendly game that uses words as a means of bringing people together. The irony of the Baldwin incident, however, is that while he was continuing to share congenial words with friends on the phone, he was using quite different words with the flight attendants who were just trying to do their jobs. He later tweeted (on Twitter) that American Airlines is “where retired Catholic school gym teachers from the 1950s find jobs as flight attendants, and those attendants, “walk the aisles of an airplane with a whistle around their neck and a clipboard in their hands, and they have made flying, a Greyhound bus experience.” Those may have been among the more cordial words he said, according to American airlines, Baldwin was “extremely rude” to the flight crew, calling them “inappropriate names” and using “offensive language”—not friendly words, a theme suggested by the very app. He was enjoying, and later, by his own admission, he was addicted to.

This account seems to be typical of a trap that many of us fall into in this age of technology and instant gratification. We tend to use words one way for certain people and situations, and then haul out a whole different vocabulary and attitude for others.

For the last few weeks, we have been looking at many scripture passages that talk about unity and love, and victory. About the attitudes we should have towards each other in the body of Christ. Today, we want to look at a scripture portion that we have touched on before, which talks about the tongue.

James identified the problem with words in this famous passage about the tongue in chapter 3, verses 1-12, which Val read this morning. We might, in fact, think of James as a kind of the original writer on the rules of using words with friends and everyone else. For James, those who are in the game of using words had better be sure to use them wisely.

James first warns those who aspire to become teachers that they will be judged more strictly. But then the admonition includes all of us. We should all strive for the perfect word choice that becomes a “bridle” for controlling the kind of loose and destructive talk that can inevitably leak out and cause destruction (verse 2).

It is like a bit in the mouth of a horse. A controlled tongue can guide a person’s whole “body” in what he says and does (verse 3). What you say and what you don’t say are both important. Proper speech is not only saying the right words at the right time, but it is also controlling your desire to say what you shouldn’t.

Examples of an untamed tongue include gossiping, putting others down by destructive criticism, bragging, manipulation, false teaching, exaggerating, complaining, flattering, and lying. Before you speak, ask, “Is what I want to say true? Is it necessary? Is it kind?

The metaphors used here were very familiar when James wrote, and are still familiar to us today. The relatively tiny rudder of a very large ship has as much to do with where the ship goes, according to the “will of the captain, as does the wind that drives the sails of a sailboat (verse 4). Like this rudder, the words we use have the ability to steer us toward safety or disaster (verse 5). Even a small word, ill spoken and timed, can set a whole forest fire of disaster in motion.

We all know how fast forest fires spread, as happened in California in January of this year, which destroyed 17,000 homes and killed 30 people, and burned 1 million acres. There were reports of how helpless firefighters felt when they couldn’t really stop the fires, and they couldn’t even control them. Our tongues are like that, because they corrupt the whole person and spread to those around us. The uncontrolled tongue can do terrible damage. Satan uses the tongue to divide people and pit them against one another. Idle and hateful words are damaging because they spread destruction quickly, just like a forest fire, and no one can stop the results once they are spoken. This is especially true of things that are posted on social media platforms on the internet.

We are more concerned this morning, though, with words that are spoken face to face. We dare not be careless with what we say, things we can apologize for later, because even if we do, the scars remain. A few words spoken on anger can destroy a relationship that took years to build. Before you speak, remember that words are like fire; you can neither control nor reverse the damage they can do.

We‘ve been in situations where a simple yes or no, or the mere compliance with a request, would have prevented a whole string of other disasters. Whether we’re trying to assert our “rights” or trying to impress others, we get into trouble when our words aren’t friendly and our speech isn’t tightly controlled. When a string of expletives comes out, and we say things we know in our heart that we shouldn’t say. Too often, it also affects our actions.

Now of course, controlling this isn’t easy to do. James makes it clear that the tongue isn’t like an animal that can be tamed by humans. Instead, it’s untamable; a “restless evil filled with deadly poison. (verses 7-8).

Such a statement would seem to provide us with an excuse for the dumb things we say. Whether we’re in an airplane seat like Baldwin or in an office, or a meeting, or in a store, or at church, or at home with family, we know that there are times when things just come out of us, maybe not swearing, but in the form of words that don’t seem so friendly. But James won’t let us get away with that kind of thinking. Indeed, the only way to control the tongue is to monitor what’s happening inside us on a deeper level. James says, for example, that with our tongues we both “praise our Lord and Father and curse those who have been made in God’s likeness.” Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing—-THIS SHOULD NOT BE. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? Can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? James is saying there is something unnatural about this. It is as unnatural as for a stream to gush out both fresh and salt water, or as for a bush to bear opposite kinds of fruit. Unnatural and wrong such things may be, but they are nonetheless tragically common when it comes to the words our tongues speak.

This is why Paul says in Romans 12:1-2 that we are to present our bodies (this includes our tongue) as a living sacrifice to God, which is our reasonable service or worship to Him. And we shouldn’t conform to this world. That is, the world’s way of living —“don’t let the world push you into its mold!”

When we say two different things from the same tongue—praising the Lord on Sunday, and cussing someone out on Monday, shows that we are “double-minded.” This is what James is talking about back in chapter one, verses 6-8. He says that when we face trials, we should ask for wisdom. The problem is that sometimes we ask the Lord to help us, but we don’t really believe. He says, “You doubt, and when you do, you are like a boat tossed back and forth on the waves of the sea. This double-mindedness separates people from God. When we are double-minded or, perhaps worse, singularly-minded in our own selfish ways, we have a tendency to dehumanize people and see ourselves as always being in a game in which we have to be the winner. If you believe you deserve more than others and are superior to them, you will treat them with contempt.

There’s an old adage that says, if you really want to know about a person’s character, watch how that person treats the waiter at a restaurant. Does he treat this person as a person, or merely as a servant? Kind words aren’t meant only for friends. We’re to offer them to everyone because they, like us, are made in god’s image. You can’t praise God and curse his image at the same time.

The truth is that if we want to have any control over the tongue, we need to pay attention to our inner lives from which either blessing or cursing can come forth. Does the inner spring in our lives gush with both fresh and bitter water? ( Verse 11.)

If we’re going to be the kind of people who use words wisely, then we’ve got to first cultivate an inner life that sees everyone as a friend created in god’s image. We need a vision of life that doesn’t put us at the center of the universe, but rather centers on God and God’s purposes for us. The God who spoke the word of creation and sent the Word (Jesus), his own Son, to become flesh, urges us to choose the kind of words that reflect Jesus’ character, life, and love.

In a world where it seems we use cell phones for everything but actually talking to one another, may we recapture the art of using words in a way that reflects the character of the God who dwells in us. That is, if you have received Jesus into your life. If you have asked Him to come in and allowed His Holy Spirit to control your whole life, including your tongue and the way you speak, He is the one who will give you victory over your tongue, because He is the one who will be speaking through you.

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Nobleton Community Church
29084 Sentinel Street PO Box 224
Nobleton, Florida 34661

Rev. Paul V. Lehmann, Pastor
813-389-8683
Nobletoncommunitychurch.org
info@nobletoncommunitychurch.org

OUR VISION IS:
To experience SPIRIT-FILLED WORSHIP AND PRAYER
To be involved in EVANGELISM, DISCIPLINING AND TRAINING PEOPLE
To use our SPIRITUAL GIFTS
To SERVE AND REACH PEOPLE FOR CHRIST, BOTH
“ACROSS THE STREET AND ACROSS THE WORLD”

Nobleton Community Church
Date October 5, 2025
Text Numbers 18:19; II Chronicles 13:5; Matthew 5:13
Pastor Paul Lehmann

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In the Middle East, a very important part of life is the covenant of salt. We find this covenant mentioned in the Old Testament, in the verses that Val read.

What is this covenant of salt? Bishop K.C. Pillai from the Indian Orthodox Church writes in his book, “Light Through an Eastern Window,” that in the East, the taking of salt is a pledge, a promise of fidelity. If I come to your house and eat your food, which has been seasoned with salt, I can never betray you or do you harm. Even if you commit a crime and I am asked to testify, I cannot do it because I have eaten your salt. Perhaps I may come to you and try to persuade you to do the right thing, but I would die before I would break the covenant of salt. In fact, the penalty for so doing is death.

We might wonder, what do we Christians in the West have to do with this covenant of salt? It sounds like a pagan custom, for I might add, at the very least, something to do with the Old Covenant. It is true that it is an Eastern custom, but not necessarily a pagan one, for we find in the New Testament verse that Val read—Matthew 5:13, Jesus is saying “You are the salt for everyone on earth, but if salt no longer tastes like salt, how can it make food salty or tasty?” All it is good for is to be thrown out and walked on.”

In the East (and in other parts of the world), they not only have what we call table salt, but they also have salt that comes in 20 or 30-pound stone jars. This jar stands on the floor of the kitchen, and is like brown rock salt. The top of the jar is covered with a stone slab. Every morning, the kitchen floor is washed with water, and in the course of time, the bottom of the stone jar becomes soaked with water so many times that the salt in the bottom of the jar actually loses its saltiness. By the time the salt is used down to the point from which the saltiness has been washed away, the remainder is simply thrown out into the street, and it is walked on, instead of a dirt path.

The person who falls away from living a Christ-like life, and has no testimony of the Living Christ in him, or her, is like the salt in the bottom of the jar: pressed by the crush of materialism from the top and washed away at the bottom by the dampness of “churchianity” in places where the truth of the gospel is not preached and the church is cold and weak. Let us, therefore, take care that we do not find ourselves at the bottom of the salt jar, lest we be thrown into the street and walked on. Christians who have lost their saltiness are truly walked on by the world, for there is no more criticized person than the one who professes Christ as his Savior and behaves otherwise. They are hypocrites.

In Mark 9:49-51, Jesus speaks again of salt: “Everyone will be salted with fire. “Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with each other. “

And Paul writes in Colossians 4:6: “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer every one.”

A very interesting example of the making of a salt covenant in the Old Testament is found in Judges 4:17-25. This is the story of the battle that was fought between Sisera and Barak. Sisera, however fled on foot to the tent of Yael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, because there were friendly relations between Jabin, King of Hazor, and the clan of Heber the Kenite. Yael went out to meet Sisera and said to him, “Come, my Lord, come right in, don’t be afraid.” So he entered her tent, and she put a covering over him (like a shawl)

This is the first of the covenants Yael made with him.

Taking a guest into your home and covering him with a mantle means the protection of the household is over him. She or someone in her household would guard the tent all night to make sure no one would get to him.

The nature of this first covenant was PROTECTION.

Then the second covenant was a covenant of salt. Sisera said, “I’m thirsty. Please give me some water.” She opened a milk skin and gave him a drink, and covered him up. This is the verse in which there is the hidden covenant of salt. The milk, which would have been kept in a milk skin in a tent, would not have been sweet milk as we keep in our refrigerators. It would have to be buttermilk, prepared with salt to keep it from spoiling. You notice that Sisera only asks for water. Yael could have given him only water, but she instead gave him milk. Thus,

she made A SALT COVENANT with him that she would not betray him.

He told her: “Stand in the doorway of the tent. If someone comes by and asks you, “is anyone here?” Say NO!

Then this is a third agreement between them:

THE PROMISE THAT YAEL WILL LIE FOR HIM

IF ANYONE SHOULD COME.

But Yael, Heber’s wife, picked up a tent peg and a hammer and went quietly to him while he lay fast asleep, exhausted. She drove the peg through his temple into the ground, and he died.

This verse seems to turn the whole situation upside down.

Yael invited Sisera into the main living quarters of her tent. But every tent had a separate women’s quarters. It is off limits to men and is protected; Even in our day, not even the police may violate the privacy of the women’s quarters. Wars have been fought over this matter. Sisera slipped into or under the curtain to the women’s part of the tent for extra security. He must have thought he needed even more security, because he sealed his own death by going into that part of the tent. His unbelief in Yael’s covenants caused him to commit this fatal error. And so, the penalty for breaking the salt covenant is death.

The peg in the temple also has significance in the Eastern way of thinking. If Yael merely wished to kill him, she could have chosen any number of other ways to do it. Why the peg in the temple? Because she was attacking his unbelief. She drove the peg into his head where the unbelief resided. So he died. His unbelief killed him.

Like Sisera, we have received a covenant of salt; ours is from God. We have God’s word that He will never forsake us; that He will supply all our needs out of His riches in glory. He will give us Eternal Life If we cannot believe this, but remain in the security of God’s word; if we do not believe the covenants He has made with us, then, like Sisera, we will die the death of unbelief.

Yael was faithful to God and supported Israel. Sisera turned his back against God and Israel,

As further proof that Yael’s actions were justified, look in the next chapter (Judges 5:24,25): “Most blessed of women be Yael, the wife of Heber the Kenite,” most blessed of tent-dwelling women. He asked for water, and she gave him milk; in a bowl fit for nobles, she brought him curdled milk (or buttermilk)

She also received praise for having killed him. Earlier in the fourth chapter, the Lord indicated that Sisera would be destroyed in the battle; Yael was merely the instrument in the hands of God to accomplish this purpose.

The covenant of salt is still made in the East today.

Supposing you are the owner of a flock of 55 sheep, and a man comes to buy them from you. The cost is $1100. He pays you $300 down and says he will pay the remaining $800 in one month. If he tries to sign a paper for the $800, you can never be sure that he will not try to wriggle out of the agreement somehow. But if he makes a covenant of salt with you, there can be no doubt that you will get your $800. He will even make his eldest son promise that, if anything happens to him before the time comes to pay, the son will pay it.

Again, supposing that you were traveling in the Middle East and found yourself far from a city when night falls. You come upon a tent, and most likely the occupant is one who supports himself by highway robbery, since these people camp out away from other people. You may go to the tent and say to the man. “I am an American. I did not reach the city before nightfall, and I have lost my way. Would you take me in for the night? He says, “But don’t you know I am a thief? Do you want to spend the night with a thief? You may now say to him. “Yes, but I will make with you a covenant of salt for my protection. He bows low and says, “Come, you blessed of God.” He gives you a seat, probably on the floor of the tent, and says. “How much money do you have?” (Now, for an American to even let them know you have money with you is unheard of), but you bring out your money and count it out to him: one thousand dollars. Then he puts the money in his pocket. He calls for food that has been salted, such as olives or dried meat, and you take the covenant of salt together.

You may now go to sleep, in whatever bed the man can give you, but this thief will never sleep while you are there. He places himself in the doorway of the tent to stand watch, and also walks around the outside of the tent with his gun in hand, watching and protecting you while you sleep. In the morning, he gives you what breakfast he can, probably tea and bread, counts out your money to you, and then guides you safely where you want to go. And he will not take any money for his service, because he counts it a service to God.

`Bishop Pillai says, he often thinks that if a man who is a thief, uneducated, and not even a Christian can be honorable by the taking of the covenant of salt, that we who are children of God should surely be all the more faithful and true to God.

We should be the salt of the earth, the ones on whom God can depend. And our speech should also be salted, so others can know that we are truly living our faith. This is one of our problems today; people have trouble telling the difference between a Christian and a non-Christian. We should be living such a witness that others may see Jesus in us, and be won to Christ. :

Every day we eat God’s salt, because we work and eat by God’s grace, but: Some of us dishonor Him by not keeping our word to Him. We could say that there are greater thieves and liars inside the church than outside of it; for those outside only lie to each other, but those within lie to God. When we give money in the offering, we think that’s all I can give to the church. But the money we give is to God. We also may say to God, “When I have extra money, I will give more.” But then we get extra income, and we still give what we are used to giving. We also sing songs about giving ourselves to Him. I surrender all. All to Jesus. I surrender, all to him I freely give. I will ever love and trust him, in his presence daily live. Or we sing, “Take my silver and my gold, not a mite would I withhold,” as we decide that a “big” bill is too much to give, and we place a dollar in the offering. If we are “salted,” we would put in all the big bills if God tells us to. Too often, we say everything in words, but take no action. In Galatians 6:7, we read, “Be not deceived, God is not mocked. Whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. “ This verse serves as a reminder that people will face the consequences of their actions, emphasizing the importance of living a life of truth and righteousness rather than being led astray by deception or unfruitful behavior.

In Genesis 6:3, we read, “ My Spirit will not contend (or strive) with man forever, for he is mortal and his days shall be 120 years.” It is only by God’s grace that any of us are still alive, after all the lies we have told Him.

There is little or no divorce among the high caste Hindus in India, because of the salt covenant that the bride and groom make when they repeat their vows at the wedding. Whenever the husband is tempted to mistreat his wife, or the wife thinks of nagging her husband, they remember their covenant of salt and adjust themselves accordingly.

The covenant of salt has been used in churches in India, where each person comes forward and each one takes a pinch of salt on their tongue, and they promise to do whatever God requires of them. To tithe, to establish a family or individual devotional time, or to stand by the local church, to stop criticizing or gossiping about people in the church. This can be a solemn occasion, where God holds us accountable for vows that we make to Him.

As we remember what Christ did for us this morning, let us truly not partake in an unworthy manner. Let’s ask for forgiveness of our sins, and make that covenant with him—not because of SALT, but because of his shed BLOOD on the cross for us.