Promises

On New Year’s Day 2020, New South Wales and Victoria jumped north by 5.9 feet. No, you did not miss an earthquake. The change is being made to fix a 5.9 foot inaccuracy that has crept into the GPS coordinates, caused by Australia slowly drifting north. Australian GPS was last updated in 1994, and the entire country has moved nearly six feet since then.

Australia sits atop one of the fastest-moving tectonic plates in the world. It moves about 2.5 inches north-east every year. “That’s about the speed your hair or fingernails grow,” says NSW Surveyor General Narelle Underwood.

In the days of paper maps that tectonic drift did not pose a real problem. That meant Australia could get away with the slight inaccuracy that has crept in since the coordinates were last set in 1994. But paper maps have gone the way of the dinosaurs; we use GPS now. And GPS notices. That's because GPS satellites precisely locate you on the surface of the Earth. Effectively the coordinate you have from your GPS has already moved 5.9 feet.

Add in the inaccuracy of GPS itself – it is accurate to about 16 feet – and that explains why you can sometimes open Google Maps and discover yourself trapped inside a building or drowning in a lake.

The project is handy for the average person, but its real value is in the future. Driverless cars, for example, need precise GPS data to know which lane they are in, and driverless tractors need to be able to get right up to the fence line without plowing it down.

Possible Preaching Angle: Everything on earth changes, including the mighty continents. But for believers there are three crucial foundational things that will never change: God doesn't change, His Word doesn't change, and His promises do not change. These are settled forever in the heavens.

A recent article in The Wall Street Journal notes that “Fake Job Postings Are Becoming a Real Problem.” The article details how these fake postings are crushing the spirits of job seekers:

It’s a common feeling when looking at a job listing online: the title is perfect, the pay is right, and the company seems like a solid place to work. But you also wonder if that job is real.

Lots of job seekers have a story about the postings that linger online but never seem to get filled. Those so-called ghost jobs—the roles that companies advertise but have no intention of filling—may account for as much as one in five jobs advertised online.

The [fake] listings are dispiriting for workers, leading many to distrust potential employers and make a difficult process feel rigged against them. ‘It’s kind of a horror show,’ said one job site search business. ‘The job market has become more soul-crushing than ever.’

Possible Preaching Angle:

In the same way, the lies of the world, the flesh, and the devil can crush our souls with false promises and expectations.

Many of us go to extraordinary lengths to avoid learning the endings of films we haven't watched or books we haven't read. We get upset with friends who slip up and spill the surprise ending.

But a study from two researchers at the University of California, San Diego suggests that spoilers don't spoil stories. Instead, contrary to popular wisdom, they might even enhance our enjoyment of a story. The study ran experiments based on 12 short stories. The researchers found that the study participants preferred the "spoiled" versions of suspenseful stories. For example, in one case, participants were told before reading the story that a condemned man's daring escape is all just a fantasy before the noose snaps around his neck. That spoiler alert helped them enjoy the story even more.

Researchers have identified several reasons some of us like to find out what happens in a story before they’ve finished.

In an article for The Washington Post Olga Mecking says some people are happier knowing how the story ends. “After I became a mother, I developed a much lower tolerance for stress and tension. One way I deal with this is to embrace spoilers. If the action on the page or screen is too suspenseful, I go online to look up what happens next and release some of that tension.”

Researchers also explored tension in the 2011 study “Story Spoilers Don’t Spoil Stories.” When study participants were told the outcome of the short story they were about to read, they reported being more satisfied with the overall experience compared with when they read a story unspoiled.

When so much in the world feels uncertain, knowing how a film or a book will end can give audiences a sense of peace and a feeling of control. We don't know what will happen in real life, but at least we can find out what happens in this story.

Possible Preaching Angles:

As followers of Christ, the Bible has many "spoiler alerts" about how the story of our lives or the world will end. Does this diminish our enjoyment of the story? No, the Bible's spoiler alerts can help us "focus on a deeper understanding of the story" and give us peace inside of worry.

Twenty years ago, at the moment of its IPO announcement, the most powerful company in the world declared that “Don’t be evil” would be the orchestrating principle of its executive strategy. How did Google intend not to be evil? By doing “good things” for the world, its IPO document explained, “even if we forgo some short-term gains.”

Eric Schmidt, Google’s CEO at the time, had some private doubts: as he would later explain in an interview to NPR, “There’s no book about evil except maybe, you know, the Bible or something.” But Schmidt came to believe that the absence of an authoritative definition was in fact a virtue, since any employee could exercise a veto over any decision that was felt not to involve “doing good things.” It took 10 years for the company’s executives to realize that the motto was a recipe for total, corporate paralysis, and quietly retired it.

Possible Preaching Angle:

The Bible offers a more nuanced and comprehensive approach to business ethics than Google's original motto, providing guidance on positive actions rather than just avoiding a vague negative motto (Micah 6:8).

Kalina and Shane Pavlovsky planned a beautiful wedding reception at the Barn at Scappoose Creek, Oregon, but were met with disappointment when, out of the 40 guests who RSVP'd, only five showed up.

Kalina told a reporter, “It was a feeling I can’t even describe, having to hold my smile and walk through … the biggest punch that I’ve ever felt.” Of the 40 guests who’d originally responded in the affirmative, Kalina said she’d made direct contact with at least 25 who promised they would come.

The couple’s disappointing reception entrance was caught on video, so she posted it onto TikTok, where it was viewed over 12 million times with more than 20,000 comments. Kalina says she posted it during a lonely moment, but she was also motivated to show off the venue itself, which was tastefully decorated with white lights and draping sheer fabric. She said, “It was just so beautiful, I thought someone has to see it.”

Pavlovsky expressed her feelings about the moment in her TikTok video post. “It just makes me think, like, why? What did we do? Am I that bad of a person? What did my husband ever do to deserve any of this? Why couldn’t we matter enough for people to show up?”

Despite the disappointment, the couple made the best of the situation, but had to cancel planned events like dances and cutting the cake. Despite the hurt caused by the no-shows, Pavlovsky said she's also been touched by the outpouring of support from strangers who saw her story and felt empathy.

“My hope is that people understand how important it is to show up,” she concluded.

Possible Preaching Angle:

1) Faithfulness of God - Unlike some of our flakier friends, God does not ghost us when we need him most. On the contrary, God shows up when we need him most. 2) Promises – When we make a commitment we should keep it. If we have no intention of keeping the commitment, we should be honest to say so.

The word "manifest" has been named Cambridge Dictionary's word of the year for 2024, after celebrities such as pop star Dua Lipa and gymnast Simone Biles spoke of “manifesting” their success.

The term, which has gained traction on TikTok, was looked up almost 130,000 times on the Cambridge Dictionary website this year. Its use widened greatly across all types of media due to events in 2024, and it shows how the meanings of a word can change over time.

Formerly, “manifest” was used very differently. For example, Chaucer used the oldest sense of the verb manifest: "to show something clearly, through signs or actions." The verb is still used frequently in this way. For example, people can manifest their dissatisfaction, or symptoms of an illness can manifest themselves.

However, in 2024 the term "to manifest" has evolved to be used in the sense of "to imagine achieving something you want, in the belief that doing so will make it more likely to happen."

Dr. Sander van der Linden at Cambridge University, cautioned that the idea of manifesting success has no scientific validity.

Manifesting is what psychologists call “magical thinking” or the general illusion that specific mental rituals can change the world around us.

Manifesting gained tremendous popularity during the pandemic on TikTok with billions of views, including the popular 3-6-9 method which calls for writing down your wishes three times in the morning, six times in the afternoon and nine times before bed. This procedure promotes obsessive and compulsive behavior with no discernible benefits.

But can we really blame people for trying it, when prominent celebrities have been openly “manifesting” their success?

Manifesting wealth, love, and power can lead to unrealistic expectations and disappointment. Think of the dangerous idea that you can cure serious diseases simply by wishing them away.

However, it is crucial to understand the difference between the power of positive thinking involving effort and goal setting contrasted with moving reality with your mind. The former is healthy, whereas the latter is pseudoscience.

Possible Preaching Angle:

While wishing for something may be a natural human response, the Bible encourages a more proactive approach that combines faith, hope, and action. It emphasizes the importance of aligning our desires with God's will and taking steps to bring about positive change.

Imagine the thrill of opening your mailbox and finding a crisp, white envelope waiting for you. The anticipation builds as you tear it open, as you discover a check nestled inside. It's more than just a piece of paper; it's a tangible promise that money is waiting you when you cash it. The check might be from an employer, a tax refund, or an unexpected birthday gift from a grandparent.

While writing checks may be less popular than it used to be, 54% of Americans still wrote a check in the past year. In fact, according to a recent survey by GOBankingRates, 17% of Americans are still writing checks on a monthly basis — and 23% of Gen X Americans are still sending checks on a monthly basis. In 2021 the Federal Reserve reported $27.23 trillion in checks were written.

Now suppose in the busyness of life you forgot about the check or misplaced it, only to find it months later. You begin to wonder, is this thing still any good? If grandma had sent cash, there would be no question, since cash is always valuable. But, how long is a check good for? The check was a promise of cash, but is the promise still any good?

Most old checks aren't valid forever. A personal check is generally good for at least six months. If you don't deposit a check right away, you may not receive the money even if your bank agrees to accept the check. That's because the account the check was drawn on may have been closed or not have insufficient funds to back the check.

The bottom line is that cashing a check promptly ensures that you can access the funds without issues, such as the check bouncing or having it go stale.

Possible Preaching Angle:

This would make a good introduction to a sermon on the enduring promises of God which never go out of date, or cannot be redeemed because of insufficient funds or the account being closed. God will never refuse to honor his promises (Rom. 9:6-8, 2 Cor. 1:20). But it is a good idea to claim God’s promises promptly to begin enjoying his gift to you.

Claiming that courts need to adapt to new modes of communication, a judge in Saskatchewan ruled in favor of a grain buyer suing a farmer for backing out of a business deal.

According to court documents, grain buyer Kent Mickleborough sent a mass text message to a variety of potential vendors expressing a willingness to purchase a certain tonnage of flax at a set price. Chris Achter, a local grain farmer, responded in the affirmative. Mickleborough says he spoke to Achter over the phone, then texted a photo of a contract, asking in a text to “please confirm flax contract.”

Achter responded to that text with a thumbs-up emoji. He ended up not delivering the flax by the agreed-upon date, however, because the market price of the flax had increased and he was looking for a better deal. In the lawsuit, Mickleborough claimed that the thumbs-up emoji indicated a willingness to adopt the terms of the contract; Achter, however, disputes that claim, saying that he intended only to confirm receipt of the document, not a commitment to sign it.

Justice Timothy Keene wrote in his ruling,

This court readily acknowledges that a (thumbs-up) emoji is a non-traditional means to “sign” a document. But nevertheless, under these circumstances this was a valid way to convey the two purposes of a signature … This appears to be the new reality in Canadian society. Courts will have to be ready to meet the new challenges that may arise from the use of emojis and the like.

Possible Preaching Angle:

God desires honesty in all business transactions and financial commitments. Operating with integrity means honoring business commitments.

On June 2, 1953, in the splendor of Westminster Abbey, a twenty-five-year-old woman knelt before the archbishop of Canterbury to seal the oaths she had just sworn. “Will you to your power cause Law and Justice, in Mercy, to be executed in all your judgements?” he had asked. “I will,” Queen Elizabeth had replied.

When she died on September 8, 2022, flags in Europe, Canada, and America were at half-mast. Brazil declared three days of mourning. Australia’s prime minister wept on television. Jamaica announced twelve days of public tribute. Other nations too numerous to name followed suit.

Why did she have such a profound impact around the globe? Here’s the most basic answer: because her faith in Jesus was real and deep. In her first Christmas broadcast in 1952, the newly enthroned queen asked, “Pray for me . . . that God may give me wisdom and strength to carry out the solemn promises I shall be making, and that I may faithfully serve Him and you, all the days of my life.” In 2016 she said, “Billions of people now follow Christ’s teaching and find in him the guiding light for their lives. I am one of them...”

In her 2020 Christmas broadcast she noted, “for me the teachings of Christ and my own personal accountability before God provide a framework in which I try to lead my life.” She also expressed her love for the Bible: She asked, “To what greater inspiration and counsel can we turn, than to the imperishable truth to be found in this treasure house, the Bible?” She maintained a lifelong friendship with Billy Graham, who once wrote, “No one in Britain has been more cordial toward us than Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.”

An article in Christianity Today summarized her role in these words: “The Queen demonstrated how to keep one’s Christian faith personal, private, inclusive, and compassionate while serving in a global, public role under intense scrutiny from virtually every sector.”

Life on Earth requires a lot of “fine tuning.” Our planet is just the right distance from the Sun to allow freezing and melting, and the planetary axis tilted just so for seasons. There is a moon for tides to circulate and cleanse shores and oceans, an atmosphere to distribute heat (otherwise the sun-side would cook as the night-side froze), and a magnetic field that contributes to our protection from harmful solar radiation.

That all these needs were met (and many more) is all a big (coincidence) for evolutionists – we just lucked out and got just what we needed.

But we didn’t need rainbows. And yet, as astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez recently noted, we’re on the only planet in the Solar System to get them. What’s needed for a rainbow is:

Suspended water droplets in the atmosphere and the direct sunlight that results from the sun being between the horizon and 42 degrees altitude. This typically occurs just after a thunderstorm has passed and small droplets are still in the atmosphere, and the sky is clearing in front of the sun. Seems like a simple setup. This must be a common phenomenon in the cosmos, right?

But it isn’t so simple. Our moon doesn’t have the atmosphere. Mars doesn’t have the moisture. Venus has too thick an atmosphere and as we head further out, the other planets don’t have liquid water. So, the only planet to have rainbows is the only one with people on it to see them. To evolutionists that’s just one more (coincidence). To God’s people, just another example of his love and care. It’s as if someone has been trying to get our attention with a pretty shiny object writ large across the sky, saying, “Look here. ... This is important!” “I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth” (Gen. 9:13).

To illustrate that God’s people are a trusting people, pastor John Onwuchekwa tells about watching the 2021 NCAA Men’s basketball championship game, between Baylor and Gonzaga:

I was watching the game intently, texting my friends as I watched. There came a time when [Baylor] took out one of its star players. And Gonzaga started to make this run. And I was infuriated. I was in the group chat saying, “I can’t believe that they did that. Things are gonna turn out bad.” And my friend said, “What are you talking about? He’s back in.” And I realized there was a lag in my internet connection.

As the game went on, the lag started to get worse. The announcer’s voice would say, “And he made the shot.” (But on my screen) the guy would be dribbling. And then he would shoot it and the shot went in. And I realized, oh, there’s a lag in my connection. I was so anxious about really wanting us to win that when I discovered there was a lag in my connection, I didn’t log on to fix it, I just let it stay there.

Do you know why? Because I trusted the announcer’s voice. I didn’t think that he was going to lie. I know that his word proceeded, what would happen. So, I let him speak. And I waited. I didn’t worry. I celebrated when he spoke, not when I saw what took place.

Possible Preaching Angle:

I want you to know that because of the broken world that we live in there is a lag in your connection. We’re going to have to wait. But we mustn’t worry. You can trust God’s Word. He lets us know what is going to happen before it happens. He’s never let us down. And he never will.

During the hardest moments of a particularly difficult year, Bible searches soared online, and a record number of people turned to Scripture for passages addressing fear, healing, and justice. The popular YouVersion Bible App saw searches increase by 80 percent in 2020, totaling nearly 600 million worldwide.

Isaiah’s assurance to “do not fear,” was the Bible App’s top verse globally this year, also ranked as the No. 1 verse in the US, India, South Africa, the Netherlands, and the Philippines. In Ghana, the top verse was Philippians 4:8 (“Do not be anxious …”), and in Kenya, Romans 8:28 (“in all things, God works for the good …”).

YouVersion founder Bobby Gruenewald said, “Through every hardship, people continue to seek God and turn to the Bible for strength, peace, and hope. While 2020 is a year so many say they’d like to forget, we see it as a year to remember how God used the Bible App to help so many people who are searching for answers.”

Overall, the app tracked 43.6 billion chapters of the Bible read in 2020, with half a billion verses shared, its highest on record.

Be sure to read the fine print. We’ve all heard it, but how many people do it? At least one and it just netted her an easy $10,000. St. Petersburg-based company Squaremouth hid the instructions for claiming the prize in the document for every travel insurance policy it sold.

The company planned to run the contest for an entire year. They thought it unlikely that anyone would notice the section titled “pays to read” on page seven of the nearly 4,000-word document. But they didn’t count on high school teacher Donelan Andrews. The self-described “nerd” who said she always reads the terms, whether it’s a digital software user agreement, or a travel insurance policy.

Andrews printed out her policy and sat down to read it right away. Soon she came across a section that said, “(This is) a contest that rewards the individual who reads their policy information from start to finish. If you are … the first to contact us, you may be awarded the Pays to Read contest Grand Prize of ten thousand dollars.”

Andrews wrote to the company immediately. She got a call back the next day to let her know she’d won the $10,000. The contest was only 23 hours into its yearlong run. “The main reason I always do it is that (in college) I majored in consumer economics,” she said. “So, it’s always been a passion of mine to be consumer aware.”

The company estimates only about 1 percent of its customers read their policies. Andrews, who is soon to retire, said she plans to use the prize money to fund a trip to Scotland for her 35th wedding anniversary.

Possible Preaching Angles: 1) Alertness; Bible reading; Scripture – Believers need to read the Word of God with the same careful attention because there are many hidden riches to be discovered; 2) Prayer; Promises of God – God has given us very great and precious promises which we can claim by faith through prayer (2 Peter 1:4).

The marketing team at Lakeside Shopping Centre are accustomed to the difficulty of getting the attention of a fickle shopping public. But recently, they vowed to do the impossible.

As part of a Christmas promotion, Lakeside’s research indicated that 11 percent of area parents had at least one impossible-to-buy gift request from their children. They took stock of many of those requests (things like “a pencil that does my homework for me” or “a trampoline to the moon”), then tasked five prominent British inventors to solve one of these seemingly impossible requests. Their resulting creations will be part of a massive giveaway.

So if a child wants to become a LEGO figure, certified LEGO builder Duncan Titmarsh will be at the ready. Confectioners at Smith & Sinclair have designed a suite of Wonka-esque candies that taste like a holiday dinner. And seamstress Charlotte Denn created a dress that can, with the pull of a string, turn its wearer into a princess.

“It’s a lovely truth that children and even adults will sometimes put impossible gifts on their Christmas lists,” said marketing manager Ben Leeson. “At…Lakeside you’ll find all your Christmas presents – even the seemingly impossible ones.”

Potential Preaching Angles:

1) These inventions are impressive, but at Christmas God did something truly impossible—he became human, walked among us, and died for our sins. In doing so, he met the deepest need of our heart, a need much deeper than just a new toy or gift. 2) God's boundless divine creativity means even the things we seek that appear impossible are doable for him. Earthly acts of innovation or ingenuity are mere foreshadowing of God, who not only created the heavens and the earth, but will one day create a new heaven and a new earth.

Good news, butter-lovers: If you visit your local Dunkin' Donuts and receive a butter substitute instead of real butter, you might get some money. Jan Polanik of Massachusetts sued two Dunkin' Donuts owners, claiming "he was given a butter substitute when he asked for real butter on his bagel."

Seems a little trivial to sue over, right? His lawyer, Thomas Shapiro, agreed—but while Shapiro "acknowledged that his client's complaint is 'a minor thing,'" they went ahead with the lawsuits "to stop the practice of representing one thing and selling a different thing."

Sure enough, Polanik won—and one franchisee's attorney has "confirm[ed] that the case has been settled and the stores have changed their butter-serving protocol."

Potential Preaching Angles: Sure, it's a trivial lawsuit over a trivial issue, but think about the times in our lives when we promise something and don't deliver. While the primary takeaway from this story probably shouldn't be to take every customer service complaint to court, it could perhaps serve as a (rather amusing) reminder to think about the areas of our lives in which we might be settling for less-than-best. Are we "stor[ing] up for [ourselves] treasures in heaven"—or on Earth? (Matt. 6:20)

Imagine an eight-year-old boy playing with a toy truck and then it breaks. He is disconsolate and cries out to his parents to fix it. Yet as he's crying, his father says to him, "A distant relative you've never met has just died and left you one hundred million dollars." What will the child's reaction be? He will just cry louder until his truck is fixed. He does not have enough cognitive capacity to realize his true condition and be consoled.

In the same way, Christians lack the spiritual capacity to realize all we have in Jesus. This is the reason Paul prays that God would give Christians the spiritual ability to grasp the height, depth, breadth, and length of Christ's salvation (Eph. 3:16-19; Eph. 1:17-18). In general, our lack of joy is as Shakespeare wrote: "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves" (Julius Caesar, Act 1, Scene 2). We are like the eight-year-old boy who rests his happiness in his "stars"—his circumstances—rather than recognizing what we have in Christ.

In an interview with Rolling Stone, singer-songwriter-guitarist J. Tillman (now known as "Father John Misty") was asked: "You were raised in an evangelical Christian household. How did that affect you?"

Misty responded, "I remember asking my Sunday-school teacher who made God. It was the first time I ever saw someone's eyes glaze over and robotically recite something. She said, 'God's always been.' For the Western world, enlightenment is having an airtight answer to a question. That to me is the quickest way to make yourself absurd. I think certainty is completely grotesque."

Misty was then asked: Was there anything valuable about your evangelical upbringing? Misty replied, "I was promised redemption and forgiveness and salvation over and over, but it never manifested in any meaningful way. It was like Charlie Brown and Lucy with the football. There's something about my writing that keeps looking to that problem."

In his book, Prayer, Tim Keller writes:

Speech-act theory makes a convincing case that our words not only convey information; they get things done. However, God's words have power infinitely beyond our own. God's words are identical with his actions … We humans say, "Let there be light in this room," but first we have to make sure the room has been properly wired. Then we have to walk across the room and flick a switch, or go to the cabinet and grab some matches so we can light a candle. Our words need deeds to back them up and can fail to achieve their purposes. God's words, however, cannot fail their purposes because, for God, speaking and acting are the same things.

Possible Preaching Angles: This illustration could also be used as an object lesson by walking over and turning on a light switch or holding a candle and using a lighter to light it.