Thursday, October 16, 2008

Building an Authentic Faith - Peace

Matthew 14:22-33

The author C.S. Lewis has said that the problem in life isn’t that we want too much, it’s that we settle for too little. Not only is this true in life but it is also true in our faith, the problem isn’t that we want too much from God, it’s that we are willing to settle for too little. Building an authentic faith means that we are able to do & be more than we ever thought or imagined. When we follow Jesus, the possibilities before us our limitless. In Phil. 4:13 the apostle Paul says, I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. God gives us the strength and the power to do all things & yet how often do we step out in faith to do those things? The abundant life that Jesus came to bring us and the passion for living that Jesus offers aren’t found when we play it safe & settle for the easy & comfortable road in life. An authentic faith is found when we are willing to step out in a radical response to God’s call & embrace all that God has for us. What are the possibilities that God has for you today? What are those things God is calling us to do that seem impossible & how can we make them a possibility? I want us to look at the story of Peter walking on the water & learn from his example how we can stop settling for too little & start embracing all of God’s possibilities.

The first thing we learn from Peter is that he is the one who asks Jesus to allow him to do the impossible. Look at Matthew 14:28 Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water. Jesus hasn’t said anything about the disciples coming to him on the water, in fact it appears as if Jesus is making his way toward them, & my guess is that the disciples are thinking that once Jesus is in the boat, everything is going to be ok. But Peter doesn’t want to settle for Jesus coming to him, Peter doesn’t want to play it safe - he wants the adventure of walking with Jesus. Peter’s desire is to go where Jesus goes & to do what Jesus is doing, & so he takes the initiative and he asks Jesus to fulfill that desire. Are we willing to ask God to help us fulfill our dreams, our goals and our desires? In Psalm 20:4 it says, May God give you the desires of your heart and make all your plans succeed. Last week we talked about passion & our passion in life can become a possibility if we will ask God for his power. Peter asked Jesus to allow him to come to him on the water – his passion was to be with Jesus & to do what Jesus was doing, so he asks for that possibility & Jesus gave him the power. We can do the same thing. We can ask God for his power so that our passions can become a possibility. We don’t have to settle for too little, in fact I believe God is waiting for us to ask him for more – more of his power, more of his love, more of his strength and purpose for plans for our lives.

But most of the time we settle for too little in life & in faith because we will only step out and do those things we know we can do on our own. When we are only drawing upon our own strength & power we are not living life to the fullest & we really aren’t living by faith. The fullness of life & faith only comes when we step out & do those things we know that we can’t do on our own. The fullness of faith comes when we ask God for his help so that we can do the impossible. The same principle is at work in the church. Too often we will only attempt to do those things we know that we can do on our own & yet what we fail to understand is that God is calling us to do and be so much more. Will we as a church make the choice to enter into mission and ministry that we know is impossible without God’s help? That is the first step to an authentic faith.

What keeps us from taking this bold step of faith both personally and as a church is fear. It might be a fear of failure, a fear of looking foolish. We might be afraid that no one will step out with us, or we might be afraid of what people will say around us. Fear can keep us from the possibilities God has for us. It was fear that kept 11 disciples in the boat. The disciples are afraid & they have every right to be, they are clearly in a dangerous situation. Their boat is out in open water where it is being battered by the wind and the waves at night. The last thing they would have expected would be for Jesus to come walking toward them on the water, so when they see a shape approach them they aren’t thinking Jesus –they are thinking ghost. Things have suddenly gone from bad to worse, first they are struggling in the middle of the sea at night in bad weather & now they have to contend with a ghost. So yes they are afraid & they cry out in fear. Even after they know it is Jesus, their fear causes them to settle for the safety of the boat.

Peter, however, is able to rise above his fear. It’s not that he wasn’t afraid, Peter was just as afraid as the rest of them, but instead of allowing his fear to cause him to shrink back & play it safe – he used his fear to help him step up & take a risk. If we are going to be afraid anyway – why not go all the way & step out in faith? Living a life of faith today is scary. It’s not easy to follow Jesus every moment of every day, so the question is what will we do with our fear? Will we allow it to take hold of us & cause us to choose the easy road & seek the safety of a comfortable life or will we take hold of our fear & in the face of it trust God to take us even farther? Gary Haagan, the author of Just Courage and one of the leaders of the International Justice Mission has said, Jesus came not to make us safe & comfortable but brave and courageous. Jesus knows that life can get difficult & even dangerous, he knows the fear we face, which is why he came to give us strength and courage. Are we willing to ask God for this strength? And then are we willing to receive it & use it when God gives?

Peter asked for the opportunity to walk on the water, & when Jesus said come – Peter got out of the boat & went. If we are going to ask God for strength & courage, we better be prepared to use it. One of the biggest problems we face is that when God gives us the go ahead – many times we don’t go. When God invites us to come & walk with him on the water, when he provides us opportunities to do more than we ever thought or imagined we could do, we don’t get out of the boat.

Now I think Peter was willing to get out of the boat and attempt to do the impossible because he was first willing to step out of the boat & walk with Jesus along a beach. This isn’t the first time Jesus has called Peter to come & walk with me. When Jesus first called Peter to follow him it was to leave behind his life as a fisherman, & Peter did. He stepped out of his boat & walked along the shores & the hillsides of Galilee. It was a step of faith. Peter gave up the security he found in his life as a fisherman & followed Jesus in a radically new life and it was that step of faith which gave Peter the courage to take another step of faith & climb out of the boat. Likewise, it was this step of faith & getting out of the boat to do something that was impossible that gave Peter the courage to later reach out and heal the sick.

In Acts 3 Peter & John are going to the temple when a man who had been lame from his birth asked them for money & Peter says, I have no silver and gold, but what I have I give you, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk. And then Peter did what I’m sure to him was the impossible, he reached out & took the man by the hand and raised him up & immediately the man’s legs became strong. Now the reason Peter was able to provide this miracle of healing was because he knew that at another point in time when he placed his faith & trust in Jesus he had also been able to do the impossible and walk on water. Embracing all the plans God has for us is a journey that begins with small steps. The more we walk with God, the more we step out in faith, the more opportunities God will give us to do those things that seem impossible. When we start small & are faithful in the little things, God will then lead us to greater things.

What is it that God is calling you to do today? What is the step of faith he is inviting you to make? Maybe it’s to trust him for the first time. Maybe it’s to step up and really learn what God has for your life. Maybe it’s to go deeper & take some real risks in following Jesus. Maybe God is asking for more of your time & he wants you to realign your schedule & make more room for him. Maybe it’s to commit yourself to spiritual growth through a small group Bible Study. Maybe it’s to explore the possibility of getting involved in mission, there’s a group going to South Dakota next year – is God asking you go with them? What are the possibilities God is laying before us? What are those things that seem impossible to us right now but can become a possibility if we take one step of faith today to help get us there?

What is the step of faith God is asking us as Faith Church to take? I am always challenged by the reality that even as a church we often won’t step up & make the decision to do something that maybe on paper simply looks impossible, but we know in our hearts is God’s purpose & plan for us. Are we willing to lay the desires of our heart before God with the courage to work for them when Jesus says come? Can we overcome our fear, & trust that through Christ all things are possible for Faith Church?

The last thing we all need to remember is that stepping out to do the impossible is really, hear me on this, it is really a no-lose situation because even if we fail, all we have to do is ask God for help & God will save us. Isn’t that what we learn from Peter? He gets out of the boat & starts walking on the water & then after a few steps he get’s distracted, he starts to doubt & then starts to sink, but as soon as he cries out for help – Jesus is there to save him. If we step out in faith & everything falls apart – it’s ok because God will reach down into our lives & lift us up & then God will honor our step of faith. Peter used his experience of walking on the water with Jesus, as feeble as it was, to help him do even greater things. God redeemed his sinking & he gave him a greater victory. God can redeem our failures, what He’s looking for is our faith.

An authentic faith doesn’t settle for what is safe & comfortable & easy, it embraces all the possibilities God has for us & even gives us the strength and the courage to step out and do the impossible. An authentic faith doesn’t just believe that with God all things are possible – it steps out in faith to do those things. So let us step out in faith.

Building an Authentic Faith - Passion

Luke Brinker is a retired UM minister and he and his wife Theda were members of my congregation in Lewisburg. Luke was a big supporter of Sunday School and he would often ask me if he could give a plug for Sunday School during worship and I would always say yes. Luke would then speak powerfully about how important Sunday School was, how good the classes were and how much he and others would love to see people attend. The thing about Luke is that he didn’t just stand up and make the announcement – each and every week Luke would make his way through the people before worship, after worship and during the greeting time and he would personally invite people to stay for Sunday School. Luke would call people during the week to invite them, and I know for a fact that a lot of people ended up in Sunday School because of Luke.

Luke would always apologize to me for being so vocal about Sunday School and I would continually tell him that he didn’t need to apologize because I loved his passion. One day Luke took me aside because he didn’t really understand what I meant when I said I thought he was passionate about Sunday School - so I tried to tell him that for me passion is enthusiasm and energy; it’s excitement. Passion is such a strong feeling about something that you work relentlessly to see it happen. More than any other quality of faith, what I am drawn to the most is passion.

The author Mike Yaconelli defines passion as being fully alive, or living with expectancy, anticipation and enthusiasm, and he says that the mission of Jesus was to introduce us to the passion of living. A genuine faith needs to be a passionate faith; it needs to be a faith that is fully alive. A passionate faith is a relationship with God where we fully anticipate and expect God to move and do great things in us and through us. A passionate faith brings life and joy and power not just to ourselves, but even to those around us, and the best example of what this passionate faith looks like is found in 4 un-named people in the gospel of Mark.

Mark 2:3-5.
Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven."

Notice that what Jesus responds to is not the faith of the paralyzed man, it says that Jesus say their faith, not his faith. What Jesus sees is the faith of the 4 friends who have carried the man to the house, lifted him up to the roof and then dug through the roof so they could lower their friend to Jesus. It’s clear to me that what Jesus sees in these men is passion, the fully expect Jesus to heal him and Jesus is so moved by what they have done that he does heal their friend not just physically but spiritually as well. Jesus is so moved by the passion of these people that he brings a fullness and wholeness to this man’s life. These 4 friends are passionate and they show us what a passion is all about.

First and foremost a passionate faith sees the power and love there is God and a passionate faith believes that God can and does and wants to help us. These 4 men worked so hard to get their friend to Jesus because they believed Jesus not only could do something to help, but that he would. They would not have gone to the lengths that they did if they did not think Jesus was able to help their friend. A passionate faith starts by seeing the power in Jesus. A passionate faith understands that God’s power and love can and does change people’s lives.

A passionate faith not only sees the power in God it also sees the needs in people. These 4 men know that their friend is paralyzed. They don’t think about coming to Jesus for themselves, they aren’t thinking about what Jesus can do for them – they are thinking about what Jesus can do for their friend. Luke Brinker was always thinking about others. Luke could see the spiritual needs in people and he believed to the very core of his being that Sunday School would help bring people closer to God who in turn would help people in life. A passionate faith is always thinking of ways and finding ways to bring people to Jesus even if it means our own needs go unmet.

Virginia Smeltzer was in her 80’s when I was the pastor in Altoona and while I was there we made a lot of changes to one of worship services and we introduced a lot of new music. As you can imagine, there was a lot of discussion about this, and one day Virginia stopped me in the hall of the church and she said, I want to share with you my thoughts on the new music. I said OK, and then I braced myself for what was to come. Personally, she said, I don’t like it, but when I look around and see the young people singing and enjoying it, I realized that this is what we need to do and we need to keep singing it. That’s a passionate faith. Virginia could see the needs of the youth and young adults around her and she willing to say, it’s not about me – it’s about bringing others to Jesus, so let’s do what we need to do to get them there.

In so many ways I want to be as passionate as Virginia and I can only hope and pray that when I’m in my 80’s and not liking the new music of the church that I’ll be willing to say, it’s not about me, it’s about bringing people to Jesus. A passionate faith that wants to help and reach out to others can be seen in lots of ways. Maybe it’s an 80 year old woman being willing to sing contemporary music – maybe it’s a motorcycle ride through the hills of central PA to raise money for ministry that will reach our youth, maybe it’s inviting people to Sunday School, maybe it’s being willing to step up and teach Sunday School. While it can be expressed in so many different ways, a passionate faith is always finding ways to bring people to Jesus, even if it calls for sacrifice and even if it calls us to work hard.

That’s something else we see in these 4 friends, they worked hard. Look at all the obstacles they had to overcome to get their friend to Jesus. First he is paralyzed so they have to carry him to the house where Jesus is staying. When the crowds are so large that they can’t get through, they don’t give up they get creative and this is the part I love. You have to wonder how they came up with this idea to lower their friend through the roof. What a crazy idea – what a creative idea – what a great idea, but it meant they had to work hard. I can’t imagine it was easy to carry a paralyzed man up onto the roof and most roofs would have been made of hardened clay and twigs so digging through by hand would have been difficult – even a little dangerous. But they do it and again that’s passion. Passion is creativity, it is risk taking, it is working hard until you get the job done, and it’s not letting anything stand in your way, not even the criticism of the people.
While it’s not recorded in the story here, you have to know that the homeowner could not have been very happy to have his roof destroyed. Maybe he was yelling at them from inside the house to stop but he couldn’t get to them because the crowds were so large, or maybe Jesus just looked at the homeowner with some understanding and reassurance and somehow told him it was going to be ok. And what about the rest of the crowd that was also trying to get to Jesus – you have to believe that not everyone was happy as this scene unfolds – but the 4 friends didn’t care – they were focused on getting their friend to Jesus, so they kept going. They didn’t let negative criticism stop them.

Will we work hard and do whatever it takes to bring people to Jesus? In many ways Faith Church is a passionate church and our passion is seen as we welcome students after football games, and send people out on mission trips, and support those in need within our own community. We have not let obstacles stand in our way of doing what we can to bring people closer to God and we can’t stop now – we have to keep taking risks, and we have to keep thinking creatively, we have to keep moving forward to bring people to Jesus. I’ve been wondering this week what the next creative risk taking step is going to be for us. Somewhere out there (maybe in one of you) is God’s plan for us to do something outrageous so that we can bring others to Jesus. My hope is that when the plan is identified and we know it is of God, that we will not allow any obstacles to stand in our way and that together we will commit ourselves and work hard to make it happen.

And that’s the last thing I want us to think about as we look at these 4 friends – they were in it together. They worked together to help their friend get to Jesus. One man couldn’t have done it alone. A passionate faith is not a lone ranger faith it intentionally seeks to draw others in. Actually I think passion itself just draws people together. We have all been around those people who are so enthusiastic and energized about God’s plan that we can’t help but want to be with them and work alongside of them. Again think of these 4 friends. We’re not sure which one came up with the plan but which ever one it was spoke about it with such passion – such enthusiasm and expectation about what Jesus would do that the other 3 were eager and willing to go along with him. Passion is a like a flame that simply ignites everything around it so that the fire burns brighter.

And I think this is how passion is stirred up within us. I’m not sure we can set out today to just be more passionate, I don’t think we can will it to be within us – passion is caught from others who are fully alive. Passion is ignited within us as we spend time with people who are excited and enthusiastic about their faith and who eagerly anticipate God moving within them and around them. Passion is ignited within us as we spend time with Jesus who is the author of life and faith and who introduces us to the passion of living.