More Than a Book on the Shelf

This past Sunday at Zion, we celebrated the 509th anniversary of the Reformation, a period in church history ignited by a young Augustinian monk named Martin Luther when, on October 31, 1517, he posted 95 theses on a church door in Wittenberg, Germany, protesting what he saw as corruption in the Church of his day.

At the heart of Luther’s complaint was the Church’s sale of indulgences. Indulgences were certificates you could purchase that promised to reduce the divine punishment due for your overindulgences—your sin. You could also buy them for loved ones who had died, if you feared they might be stuck working off their peccadilloes in purgatory for a little too long before finally making it to heaven.

Luther saw this practice as flatly unscriptural, and he waged an unflagging campaign to teach people Scripture so they wouldn’t fall for what he saw as a grift. With his characteristically sharp tone, he argued for the importance of studiously studying the Bible:

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Giving Away What Was Never Ours

When King David launches a capital campaign to raise funds for a new temple, the haul is enormous. David himself makes the lead gift:

“In my devotion to the temple of my God I now give my personal treasures of gold and silver for the temple of my God, over and above everything I have provided for this holy temple: three thousand talents of gold (gold of Ophir) and seven thousand talents of refined silver, for the overlaying of the walls of the buildings, for the gold work and the silver work, and for all the work to be done by the craftsmen. Now, who is willing to consecrate themselves to the LORD today?”

Then the leaders of families, the officers of the tribes of Israel, the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds, and the officials in charge of the king’s work gave willingly. They gave toward the work on the temple of God five thousand talents and ten thousand darics of gold, ten thousand talents of silver, eighteen thousand talents of bronze and a hundred thousand talents of iron. (1 Chronicles 29:3–7)

As I explained in my message on Sunday, using today’s metal prices, David gives and collects nearly $40 billion—and this is for a temple he will not even build! God has already told David that his son Solomon will be the one to build the temple:

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A New Heart for an Old Temptation

This past weekend at Zion, we continued our message series Keeping Score, where we’ve been exploring some of the different ways we keep score in life. And we do keep score—all the time.

We tally what he said. We track what she did. We log our own guilt, calculate what we’re owed, and obsess over the hidden ledgers of our lives.

Keeping score might offer a brief sense of control, but it’s a rigged game where everyone eventually loses—even the person on top.

So, what if we stopped all that? What if we kept score no more?

In Sunday’s message, we confronted one of humanity’s most destructive scorekeeping struggles: lust.

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When the Score Says God Let You Down

This weekend at Zion, we continued our series Keeping Score, where we’ve been looking at some of the scores we’re keeping that we ought to be canceling.

We tally our superiority over others. We fixate on the slight someone committed against us. We keep a meticulous account of everything we’ve done for someone—and how they haven’t bothered to return nearly all of our fabulous favors.

Then there’s the score we talked about this weekend: the score we keep against God.

We count the prayers we’ve prayed, the weekends we’ve dragged our family to church, and the dollars we’ve dropped into the offering plate. We tally every fragment of faithfulness we can find. Then we set that total against what God has—or hasn’t—done for us. And before long, we’ve convinced ourselves that God’s account with us is overdrawn.

But what if we wiped our scoreboard against God clean? What if we kept score no more?

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The Scoreboard Never Reads “Enough”

This past weekend at Zion, we kicked off a new series called “Keeping Score.”

Scorekeeping is one of those ingrained, nearly involuntary habits of modern life. We calculate the dollars in our bank accounts, the hours we spend at work, and even the steps we take using our Apple watches. Some of the math is helpful. It can help us discern where we are and decide where we want to go next.

But numbers make cruel masters.

When we demand that these scores not only inform us, but define us—to tell us whether we are winning, worthy, ahead, or enough—we become slaves to the scores we keep.

Keep score in your marriage—what she said, what he forgot, how many times you swallowed your pride and apologized first—and you aren’t merely keeping a record. You’re tallying reasons for resentment. Keep score of other people’s successes—their promotions, vacations, children, homes, or happiness—and you can turn their joy into kindling for your envy.

So, what if we stopped? What if we cleared the scoreboards that keep us trapped in resentment, envy, guilt, and exhaustion? What if we kept score no more?

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