Life is to love others

Last week we began our series called Life Is and we learned that life is really all about love, but it’s not primarily the love we have for one another but the love God has for us.  In fact, before we can truly love God or anyone else we need to first accept the love God has for each one of us because the love we share with others is not something that comes from us; it is something that flows through us.  The Bible says God is love so in order for us to love others or love God we have to first receive God’s love.  So life is to be loved, but that love can’t stay bottled up inside us, it needs to flow through us into the world.

If you have been paying attention to the Pope’s visit to the US this week then you have heard him talking about love.  Beyond the history of being the first pope to speak to the congress and beyond everyone trying to figure which side of the political fence he is on, at the core of his message all week has been love, a basic love and respect we are to have for all people.  I heard a commentator say that what the Pope has done is remind us that behind all the issues that we face today from immigration to refugees, from religious freedoms to the sanctity of the family are people and every person is loved by God and needs to be loved by others but the kind of love that the pope is calling for is not easy and I would say it is not earthly – it is divine, it is the love of God.

The kind of love needed to solve the world’s problems is not going to come from our government because no government is ruled by the love of God; the solutions are going to come from the church which was created in the love of God.  For us to reach our full potential in life and for us to experience the fulfillment and purpose in life that all of us long for we need to accept the love of God so completely that we are moved – almost compelled – to  love others.  So today we are going to take about how to love others more, but how we do this might surprise you.

Beside the golden rule and a new commandment to love one another, Jesus called those who wanted to follow him to a life of sacrifice, look at Mark 8:34.   If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.  When we hear these words of Jesus we hear a call of self denial and service, but the disciples heard something very different.  For the disciples, this was a radical and difficult statement because they actually saw people carrying crosses on their backs not wearing them around their necks.  Crosses were instruments of torture that only had one outcome – death.  For Jesus to tell people to carry a cross he wasn’t calling them to a casual faith where you give up a few things now and then, he was calling people to a life of complete love and devotion to God.  A love and faith that would encompass everything.

When I first heard this call to deny myself and carry a cross, I thought it meant I had to go out and do something for God.  When I heard Jesus say I had to love God completely and love others fully, I thought of it in terms of what I had to do for God.  Following Jesus was about how I had to serve God and how I needed to help others.  It was all about how I was supposed to sacrifice and how I could give away my time and my energy and my life for the things of God.  Did you hear a problem with what I just said?  I made loving and following Jesus all about me when loving and following Jesus needs to be all about Jesus.

Early in my Christian faith I struggled with this sense of always having to do something and a friend challenged me on this and told me to read John 15:4-5a.  After I read it I asked him, so how do I do this?  How do I remain in Jesus?  He told me to read it again - and again – and again.  Each time I read it I asked him the same question, how do I do this and he said, Andy you don’t do anything, you simply remain in Jesus.  You rest in him, you abide in him, you trust in him, you love him.  This is a hard lesson to learn because we live in a society that is obsessed with doing.  We are judged by what we do, we are rewarded by what we do, we find our value and worth and meaning in what we do.  We define and find life in what they do but Jesus tells us that faith is not based on what we do as much as it is based on staying connected to him.

Now please don’t misunderstand, hard work is important and the bible says clearly that faith without works is dead, but our life in Jesus isn’t first and foremost about hard work and doing something for God, it’s about accepting God’s love and then allowing that love to shape what who we are and then what we do.

The author Judah Smith gives a great example of how remaining in Jesus shapes our hearts and lives and ultimately our actions by looking at the disciples Peter and John.  At the last supper, Jesus was reclining at the table with his friends and it says that John, the disciples whom Jesus loved, was next to him.  What it really says is that John was resting on Jesus.  He was actually leaning on him, which to us seems very odd and reveals a total lack of respect for one’s personal space, but in that culture it was a sign of John’s love and his complete commitment to Jesus.  During the meal, Jesus told his disciples that one of them was going to betray him.  When Peter heard this he wanted to do something to stop the betrayal so he asks John to find out who the betrayer is.  Peter always wanted to do something.  Peter wanted to fight for Jesus, he wanted to walk on the water with Jesus, he always wanted to do something for Jesus or with Jesus, but John simple stays seated next to Jesus.  He leans on Jesus.  He abides in him and loves him.

Now fast forward a few hours and when Jesus is hanging on the cross Peter is nowhere to be found, but John is right there.  In fact, John is the only disciple to be at the foot of the cross with Jesus when he died and when Jesus asked John to care for his mother and to love her as if she was his own, John was there to say yes.  When our focus is on simply loving Jesus, that love will give us strength to do things we never thought possible and shape our words and actions, but if our focus is on us and what we can do or what we should do, we will fail.  My guess is that we all experience this at times.  The more we focus on how we should be living for God and serving God and loving others, the more we see our failure and that’s because our focus is in the wrong place, it’s on us when it needs to be on Jesus.

So the key to finding life in loving others isn’t to go out and try to love others, it is to love Jesus more because the more we love Jesus and the more we focus on God, the more our lives will reflect God and be filled with love for others.  I have used this example a few times before because it is the best illustration I have ever seen that shows us how this happens.  Think about a wheel where God is the center and our lives are the spokes on the wheel.  As we get closer to God, as we love God more – look at what happens – we get closer to one another – we love others more.  We don’t set out to do that – it just happens.  The more we love God – the more we love others.  The more we remain in the vine which is Jesus Christ – the more fruit we bear and this fruit is our love and care for others.

Let’s look at this principle at work in the life of someone else who encountered the love of Jesus – Zacchaeus.  Zacchaeus was a tax collector which means he was neither loved nor respected by his neighbors, but he was loved by Jesus who asked to have dinner at his house.  Zacchaeus said yes to Jesus and accepted his love and after dinner Zacchaeus made an announcement to the crowds that he was giving half of his possessions away to the poor and if he had cheated anyone as a tax collector he was going to repay them 4 times the amount he had stolen.  Jesus didn’t ask Zacchaeus to do this, these were not the conditions for being a follower of Jesus nor the requirements of salvation; this was love at work.  Zacchaeus accepted the love of Jesus and began to love Jesus and as he loved Jesus more, this is what happened – he began to love others.

The more we focus on Jesus and accept God’s love for us, the more we love others.  Stephen is another example of this principle at work.  Stephen was a leader in the early church who was very vocal about his faith which got him into trouble with the religious and political leaders of the day who wanted Stephen to stop preaching and teaching and talking.  Stephen loved Jesus so much that he could not keep quiet and one day after passionately speaking about Jesus as the Messiah, the religious leaders dragged Stephen out of the city and began to stone him.  Acts 7:54-60.
Through this ordeal, Stephen kept his focus on Jesus.  He looked to heaven.  He saw Jesus and it was his love for Jesus that didn’t just help him endure the stoning but it helped him love others until the very end.  The last words of Stephen were words of love for others – Lord, do not hold this sin against them.  As he was dying, Stephen was loving others; actually forgiving those who are throwing stones at him.  This kind of faith, strength and love is only possible if it comes from God.  The only way we can love others this completely and powerfully is if we will first allow God to love us and then fix ourselves on that love and allow it to grow and develop within us.

Stephen wasn’t the only one who allowed the love of God to shape their lives; many in the early church did this.  If we look at Acts 2 we see that life in the early church was characterized by the love of God and then a love for God flowed through them to others.  Acts 2:42-43.  First the people were focused on God.  They were devoted to Jesus and spent their time in worship and prayer.  They accepted God’s love and were growing in their love for Jesus.  As we read on we see that this love and focus changed them.  Acts 2:44-45.  Their love for God led them to love one another.  There was no law or command that told the people they had to sell what they had to give to others – the just did it.  The love of God compelled them to live differently.  The love of God flowed through them and they began to love others in very real ways.  They shared what they had, they ate together and they were filled with joy as they spent time together.

This love of God brought the church life.  In Acts 2:47 it says, The Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.  The love of God shaped their lives and brought them life.  Life comes when we love God and love others, but the way to grow in that love isn’t to go out and try to love God more or find tangible ways to love others, it is to allow God to love us more because when we receive the love of God, our hearts will be directed toward Jesus and the more we focus on and love Jesus the more we will love others and this is what we were created for. Life is to be loved by God and to have that love shape our hearts and lives so that we love others.

Next Steps
Life Is to love others.

Loving others comes from a heart that is sold out to Jesus and a life that is fully committed to loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength so this week’s next steps are not things we can do to show our love for others but things that help us remember why we love God and help us express that love more fully.

Scripture – Each day read one scripture that reminds you of God’s unfailing love and of His presence and power at work in your life.  Rewrite these verses in your own words.
• Exodus 14:13-14
• Psalm 136
• Isaiah 43:1-5
• Isaiah 54:10
• Jeremiah 31:3-4
• Romans 8:38

Prayer- Each day set aside five minutes to simply talk to God.
• Thank God for His love.
• Ask God to show you how to love him more.
• Ask God to show you how to love others more.

Journaling – Each day identify one way you have seen or experienced the love of God.
• Monday
• Tuesday
• Wednesday
• Thursday
• Friday
• Saturday

Life Is To Be Loved

If you have ever played the game of life then you know that there are very few choices you get to make.  You just spin the spinner, move your car that number of spaces and wherever you land – that’s your fate.  The one major decision you get make is if you go to college or if you go directly into the “real world”, but other than that you are at the mercy of the spinner.  While we know this is just a game, doesn’t it feel like our lives are exactly like this?  We have a couple of big decisions that we make at times like going to college or into the military or right into the job market, but even then our life seems pretty unpredictable and random as if we are just spinning a spinner and moving that number of spaces.  At times we are left wondering if this is all there is.  Is there anything more to life?  What are we here for?  What is ultimately important in life?  What will bring us lasting fulfillment?  Are there things I can do to make my life meaningful?.  If you are asking these questions then this is the place to be for the next six weeks because we aren’t going to play the game of life, we are going to explore what life is and what we can do to get the most out of it.  And it all starts with love.

It’s no secret that our lives are consumed by love.  Love in some form or another drives much of our entertainment industry and advertising.  Think of all the movies, TV shows and music that revolved around love.  As children we are dependent upon the love of parents.  As we grow older our lives revolve around the idea of love, it starts with flirting, then romance, dating, marriage, sex, family (hopefully in that order).  Life is love, but life is not given for us to love others as much as it is given for us to be loved.  We were created to be loved and more importantly, we were created to be loved by God.

If we believe that God created the universe and that God created us in his image and placed us in the universe then one of the questions we have to ask ourselves is, why?   Why did God create in the first place?  Why did God create us?  God didn’t create out of boredom and he wasn’t playing a cosmic board game where he spun a spinner, landed on the number 7 and moved his gigantic car to a spot that said, Create the World.
And the world didn’t just randomly come into being.  There is incredible precision and order and detail that only God could have set into motion.  So if God created the world he had to create it for a reason and the reason was love.  God created the world to express and share his love.  God created us in his image so we could know God’s love, so life is to be loved and specifically to be loved by God.

And God does love us – the Bible tells us so.  The Bible isn’t a book of rules and regulations and it isn’t a book that just gives us historic details and timeless truths and poetry, it is a love story.  The bible is the story of God’s illogical, all consuming and radical love for you and me.  A love that willing leaves everything behind to come and find us.  This love of God is beautifully expressed in Psalm 18:4-6 and 16-19.  God moves heaven and earth to find us and rescue us and the reason God does this is because he delights in us, he loves us and he wants us to know that we are loved.

In 1978, when I was 15 years old, a blizzard hit CT.  The night that it began to snow I put my dog, Mack, out on his chain in the backyard and when I went to bring him in again – he was gone.  He was gone, his chain was gone and I had no idea where he went.  It was dark and cold and snowing and Mack was a black dog wandering around in poor visibility at night.  I was beside myself  I ran through the backyard calling for him and looking for him, but couldn’t find him.  I got on my bike and began riding through the snow looking for him.  I remember riding through the snow and not being able to see and worrying about him being hit by a car or wandering off at night in the cold and snow and never finding him again.  I was a wreck and I was frantic yelling for him and riding up and down the streets of our neighborhood.

I will never forget how it felt when I saw him in the road running through the snow dragging his chain behind him.  In that moment my heart was full because as much as a 15 year old boy can, I loved that dog more than anything – Mack was my dog.  Not my families, he was mine.  I asked to get him.  I picked him out, the runt of the litter.  I named him and as you all know, I cleaned up after him.  He was mine and I loved him and that night I wanted nothing more than for him to know how much I loved him.  And that is just a reflection of God’s love for us.

God moves heaven and earth to rescue us.  God runs out at night in the middle of a blizzard to find us.  God calls us by name, searches for us when we are lost and doesn’t feel complete until he finds us and then makes sure that we know that He loves us and that he loves us unconditionally.  The Bible is God’s way of making sure we know just how much God loves us and loves us unconditionally.

We say that a lot in the church; God loves us unconditionally and yet that entire concept of unconditional love is hard for us to comprehend.  We are so used to be judged, accepted and loved because of our looks, behaviors and actions which makes true love – God’s love - hard to understand, so let me share how God tried to help his people understand just how unconditional his love was for them.  In the Old Testament there is a story about God’s love for his people and it is found in the book of Hosea.

Hosea was a prophet among God’s people and the job of any prophet was to speak God’s truth or instruction to the people, but every once in a while God would use the prophet’s life as a kind of object lesson.  Instead of having the prophet go out and speak, his life was to be the example of God’s message and this is what God wanted to do with Hosea.  God wanted Hosea’s life to be an object lesson of God’s unconditional love so God told Hosea to go out and marry a prostitute.  Yes, a man of God known for his faithfulness and integrity was to go out and marry a prostitute.  So Hosea goes to the seedy part of town where no God-fearing person was supposed to go and he married a prostitute named Gomer.  Hosea and Gomer then had three children.

Hosea going out and marrying a prostitute was an example of God’s unconditional love for his people.  Hosea was a symbol of God and Gomer was a symbol of God’s people who had turned away from God and were searching for their own pleasures and security in the world around them.  While the people of God had turned to their own ways and were living far from God, God still loved him and was willing to reach out and make them his own.  God’s love was unconditional, but the story doesn’t end there.

At some point after they had children, Gomer left Hosea and returned to her life as a prostitute.  Gomer left the love of Hosea and the security, honor, respect and life that Hosea offered her and returned to a life where she lived only for herself.  In time her life led her to being sold into slavery and so now she was owned by another man.  When Hosea found her, he not only had to buy back his own wife but he had to ask her to return and live with him in a faithful relationship one more time.

Once again, God was using Hosea as an object lesson.  Hosea was God and God was telling his people that even though they had wandered off, God as willing to go out and search for them because he loved them, and when God found them, no matter what condition they were living in, God humbled himself and invited them to return to live in a relationship of love with him.

Now here’s the thing, Gomer is not just the people of God in the Old Testament, Gomer is you and me.  We are the ones who live far from God and at times willfully run from God, but God’s love is so strong that it runs out to find us.  God’s love invites us to return to God and to know that we are loved by God.   It doesn’t matter what we have done, or what we are doing or how far away from God we have run – God runs out to find us because God loves us and wants us to know that we were created by God to be loved by God.

That we are loved by God is certainly the message of Jesus.  In fact, the most memorized and familiar saying of Jesus talks about this love and it is John 3:16.  God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, so that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.  While those first three words focus on God’s love for us, it is the next two that I want to focus on for a moment – the world.  When we say that God loves the world we are saying that God loves everyone, not just those who are nice and kind and faithful and love God in return.  God loves everyone – even those who will never love him.  God loves those who mock him and ridicule him.  God loves those who will never return to him.  That is a very powerful and radical love.  At times it seems to make no sense to us, but God’s ways are not our ways and God’s love is certainly not our love.  God’s love is for everyone and it reaches out to everyone and it is there to help us experience the fullness of life that God has for us.

While God loves us unconditionally, God’s love doesn’t bring us life until we accept it and that is always our choice.  Love is always a choice which is why God gave us free will.  God wants a relationship of love with us but he won’t force us into that relationship so God gives us the freedom to choose and the first choice we have to make is whether or not we will accept God’s love.  Today we are free to choose.  We are free to choose to be loved by God and allow God’s love to bring us life, or we can choose to keep running from God and living on our own and separating ourselves from God and from the love and life that God has to offer.

We will not find life from the things of this world but in the knowledge that God, the one who created the world and created us in his image and placed us in this world, has chosen to love us and wants us to accept and live in that love.  Choose to be loved today.

In the game of life it’s all about chance and random numbers that come up when we spin the dial, but in life we have choices and to experience what life is all about we need to choose love, to BE loved and to be loved by God.


Next Steps
Life Is to be loved.

1. What concerns or doubts do you have about God’s love for you?  What specific situations in your life make it difficult for you to think that God loves you?

2. Read Psalm 18 and identify all the ways God’s love is reflected.  How can this picture of God’s love help you?

3. Read Romans 8:28-39.  What are the circumstances of your life that you think will separate you from God’s love?  How does this passage help you overcome those circumstances?

4. Read John 3:16 (memorize it this week).  Who are the people in “the world” that you don’t think God loves?  Pray for them to know and accept God’s love.  What would it look like for you to share with them the good news that God loves them?

5.  In what ways has God’s love for us been seen in Jesus?

6. Think again about the story of Hosea and Gomer (See Hosea 1 - 2).  In what ways do we live like Gomer?  How has God’s love rescued and saved you from yourself?

7. The fullness of life won’t be experienced and lived until we first know that we are loved by God.  Ask God this week to help you accept His love in ways that will heal, forgive and set you free to experience the fullness of life.


Dear God, help me accept the fullness of your love and life that you make possible through Jesus.  Thank you for your love and that it is your love that brings me life.  AMEN

The Power of a PIcnic

I want to invite you to think about a memorable picnic in your life.  Maybe it was special because of the location or the people who were there.  Maybe it was special because something important happened on that picnic or something unexpected.  As I thought back on the picnic’s I have been able to attend in my life, there is one that stands out and it was a church picnic.  I was the student associate pastor at the Mount Hermon UMC and one Sunday after worship they had a picnic, but they called it “dinner on the grounds”.

What the church did was stretch out what looked like a chain link fence between two trees which made a huge table that went on for yards and everyone brought their food and placed it on this table.  I have never seen so much homemade food in all my life and it was one of those picnics where you seriously wanted to try everything.  People brought their best dishes and best desserts to this picnic and it was an amazing event.  Not just the abundance of food but the abundance of God’s blessing and love and joy experienced in that picnic still resonates in my heart.  It was a small experience of what I think heaven will be like; a huge banquet with all the best foods and where the picnic table literally goes on forever.

Picnic’s can be powerful.  They can be places where we experience the blessing of abundance, or the beauty of creation, or the love of a family or the joy in an unexpected proposal or even wedding.  I was invited to crash a picnic several years ago where the couple decided to get married at the picnic but they didn’t tell anyone they were going to do it.  It was a great day and a picnic I’m sure they and all their family and friends will remember forever.  So picnics are powerful and throughout the bible God used picnics to teach people about who he is and who God wants us to be and today we are going to look at a few of those picnics.

The first picnic comes from the book of Genesis.  Did you know that the very first meal in the Bible was a picnic?  Think about it, Adam and Eve were created and placed in a garden and told they could eat of any of the fruit and vegetables and so when they did, it was a picnic.  They ate on the ground, they ate outside, their first meal and the very first meal ever was a picnic, but they didn’t just eat it by themselves, they ate it with God.  God created Adam and Eve for relationship and God walked and talked with them in the garden and so this first picnic wasn’t just a time to eat, it was a time to commune and share with God.  This picnic was to teach us the power of relationship.

We were created to be in a relationship with God.  We were created to know God and for God to know us.  We were created to be loved by God and to love God and one another.  Each and every day we need to set aside time to simply be in relationship with God.  When we stop working and sit down to eat, we have an opportunity to commune with God.  When we say grace or a prayer before we eat we are inviting God to join us and we open ourselves up to God’s presence.  Of course, we lose that sense of intimacy, connection and relationship when we don’t sit down to eat.  When we eat while we work, driving our kids to soccer practice, or rushing out to catch the bus, we aren’t taking the time to remember that God is with us, so maybe we need to carve out some time to eat together on a regular basis to not only strengthen our relationships with one another but to reestablish and strengthen our relationship with God.  If you don’t have a family meal at least once a week, I want to invite you to do that.  Understand the power of relationship that comes with a picnic

The second picnic I want us to think about is one we heard about this summer because it comes from the life of Moses.  When the people were in need of food, God provided food every morning – it was called Manna and talk about a picnic – it was literally food on the ground.  Six days a week, every week for 40 years, manna covered the ground like dew when the people woke up and each day they could go out and collect what they needed.  This picnic reminds us of God’s power to provide, but it wasn’t just bread or manna God provided, in time he also provided them with quail and when they needed it water.  Food and drink a picnic – God provides.

When we come together for a picnic it is an example of God’s power to provide.  It is God who provides us with food to eat and water to drink and God is the one who sustains us with this every day of our lives.  While we may work hard at cultivating food – God is actually the one who provides it.  God is the one who makes the sun shine and God is the one sends the rain and God is the one created the world in such a way that fruits and vegetables grow.  Every once in a while we are reminded about how much we are dependent upon God.  When there is a draught and crops fail, we are reminded that we cannot make it rain and we cannot make the crops grow on our own.  We need God and we need God for every aspect of life.  The picnic that the Israelites experienced every day for 40  years teaches us that we are dependent upon God to provide for us not only food to eat but air to breath and water to drink.

The third picnic is another one we heard about this summer and it is the picnic Jesus provided when he fed the entire community with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish.  The power of this picnic wasn’t in how are what Jesus provided, the power was seen in the leftovers – God’s power of abundance.  After everyone ate the disciples gathered up 12 baskets filled with bread.  There was more than enough for everyone, there was an abundance.  In many picnics what we see is the power of abundance because we usually have more than enough for everyone to eat – that certainly is our hope today!

When I was in NC, this is what I experienced  We had an abundance of food and it was an example to me that God doesn’t just provide what we need, there are times God provides in abundance which teaches us that God loves us and that God wants us to love others.  The abundance God provides isn’t a blessing for us to horde, it is a surplus given so that we can share.  God has blessed us as a church, as a community and as a nation and the physical abundance he has given isn’t to be stored and saved it is to be shared with those who need it.  If you have an abundance of shoes – share them with those in need in Africa.  If you have an abundance of food – give it away to the food bank – share with your neighbors.  If you have an abundance of time – volunteer to help in the church or community.  If you have an abundance of love – find those who are lonely and in need and love them.  It could be infants who need to be held, teenagers that need to be coached, young couples who needs support or older adults who need to be visited – if you have love to share – which we ALL do – find ways to share it.  The power of the picnic Jesus provided for the community was that he taught us that when we share God’s abundance – we get even more in return.

Another picnic that Jesus provided was much smaller and it was a breakfast cookout that Jesus hosted for the disciples after his resurrection.  The disciples were out on the sea of Galilee when Jesus appeared along the shore and made them breakfast.  It was at this picnic that Jesus reached out to Peter and showed us all the power of forgiveness.  The night before Jesus died, Peter failed Jesus by running away when Jesus needed help and then denying that he even knew who Jesus was.  This failure was painful for Peter and Jesus knew that Peter would forever feel the guilt of his failure, so three times that morning Jesus gave Peter the opportunity to express his love and support of Jesus which means that three times Peter was able to experience forgiveness.  Sometimes the power of a picnic comes in the forgiveness and grace that comes when we share a meal together.

I have shared with you before that when I was a young pastor in Altoona I faced some opposition.  In fact, one day I received a pretty nasty letter from a man who never came back to worship.  A few years later this man was dying and a friend from the church who served him communion asked if I would go with him.  I jumped at the chance and one morning we sat at this man’s kitchen table and we talked a little bit and together we shared in communion and in that meal – there was forgiveness.  As we shared together in that bread and juice, there was a sense of reconciliation and peace that I know I felt and it was a spiritual moment of grace that I will never forget.

If you need to reconcile with a friend, if you need to patch things up with your spouse or rekindle a relationship with a parent or child – take them on a picnic.  Seriously, buy some hot dogs or fried chicken, go to a park or sit in the backyard and eat together.  Remember the picnic in Genesis – part of the power of a picnic is in the ability they have to form and strengthen and heal relationships so like Jesus, use a picnic to extend forgiveness and if you are the one being invited on a picnic – be quick to seek forgiveness and ask for grace.

The last picnic I want to highlight comes from the life of the early church and it shows us that picnics have the power of community.  Acts 2:44-47.  They ate together in each other’s homes and they had glad and generous hearts which means they were having fun eating together.  They were have a picnic, or maybe a pot luck or covered dish – whatever it was it formed community.  This took place in the very early days of the church.  Thousands of people were coming to the disciples and wanting to join their movement and follow Jesus and God used a picnic to help form and strengthen this growing community.  God used people eating together to form relationships that would help nurture and support people.  There is power in a picnic to form community but it goes beyond that, God used this picnic to grow the community.  It says here that the Lord added to their number those being saved and so God was bringing people to his new community and they came because they saw the power of community in part by how people ate together with glad and sincere hearts.

Because the early church was a positive and powerful place to be people wanted to be part of it.  They wanted to be part of what was going on.  When I worked in Yellowstone National Park, our ministry team came from all over the US and we didn’t know each other at all so we decided that we would all work to take Monday as our day off so we could go off together to hike and sightsee and honestly – to have picnics together.  Each week we did this and each week we came back with so many great and fun stories that soon everyone was asking for Monday’s off to go with us.  We picnicked on trails, sitting in the rain watching the geysers go off, on the top of mountains and watching the Cody WY fourth of July parade and every picnic not only brought us closer together but became an event others wanted to be part of.  We were building community and God was making that community grow and that is the power God shows us can be found in a picnic.

So what we are going to do today is powerful because through our picnic God will develop relationships, remind us that God provides and God provides in abundance so that we can share with others.  God will be present to heal and strengthen friendships, marriages and families and God will be working through our picnic to build his church and community.  There is power in a picnic – so my challenge to us today is to go forth and eat and let God move among us.

 
Next Steps
The Power of a Picnic

What picnics do you remember from your past?
 What made them so special?  What did you learn from them?

1.  The power of relationship:  Adam and Eve picnic with God in the Garden of Eden.  (Genesis 1:28-31)
• Make family meals a regular part of your week.
• Begin every meal with a pray of thanks and invite God to join you.

2. The power of provision.  The Israelite's picnic with God in the wilderness.  (Exodus 16)
• Identify five ways God provides for you and your family.
• Give thanks for God’s provision.

3. The power of abundance.  The community picnics with Jesus.  (
• Where have you seen the abundance of God’s blessing in your life or in the world today?
• What can you share so that you help others see the abundance of God’s blessing?

4. The power of forgiveness.  Peter picnics with Jesus on the shores of the Sea of Galilee.  (John 21:4-19)
• Who do you need to invite on a picnic so that a relationship can be healed and restored?
• Where is God’s forgiveness needed in your life?

5. The power of community.  The church picnics together!  (Acts 2: 42-47)
• Join Faith Church for a picnic today at 12 Noon.
• Organize a neighborhood picnic.

Wisdom For Students

This week school started which means that students are getting off the bus with homework neatly tucked away in their backpacks, but it’s not just students who are having to learn these days, it’s parents too.  How many of you have had to help a child with math problems?  If you have then you know that we aren’t supposed to just add or subtract, multiply or divide anymore, we are supposed to find ways of doing math that make us feel comfortable and we need to always remember that 10 is our friend.  Let me show you, I’ve been learning this myself this week and I think I have it.

Counting up method of Subtraction

Lattice Method of Multiplication
28 x 36 = 1008

As I was learning all of this I thought to myself that this new math doesn’t really look very new, in fact it looks kind of similar to this.

Old Math



So it’s not just children and youth who have to start learning again when the school year starts, we all do, so today I want us to look at some wisdom for students – meaning all of us.  This is timeless wisdom that is good for children and youth as they return to school and interact with their friends, but it is also wisdom we need to take to college, into the workplace, and use as we spend time with our family and live together in our church and community.  This wisdom comes from the book of wisdom, Proverbs, chapter 22.

Proverbs 22:1 A good name is more desirable than great riches, to be esteemed is better than silver or gold.

#1. SEEK a good name.

Over the past couple of weeks I have taken part in 5 funerals and one thing that I never heard said was how much silver or gold these people left behind.  No one stood up and gave a testimony to the great riches these people amassed on earth.  What was shared was how good these people were.

I heard about a man with a servant’s heart who gave sacrificially to help build our community.  I heard about a couple who opened their home to dozens of children and helped young adults develop solid families.  I heard about a man who could make people smile and laugh and always lifted others up.  I heard about men who served this church and community with great joy and faithfulness and were willing to help anyone they could.  I heard about people who placed faith in God, loved their families and lived to make our church and community a better place.  These people were more focused on living good faithful lives than amassing gold and silver.  They developed a good name and lived life with character and strong values in order to become people who were respected and honored by those who knew them.

We need to spend more time seeking a good name, than setting our hearts and minds on gold or silver.  In school that might mean being good sports instead of winning at all costs.  At our jobs it might mean working to be part of a team instead of climbing the corporate ladder.  At home it might mean giving in to our spouse and not always demanding our way and in life it means being more concerned about what comes from our heart than what goes in to our wallets.

Jesus said, do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.  But store up treasure in heaven.  Matthew 9:19-20.  This treasure in heaven is the good fruit that comes out of our lives.  It’s the loving acts, thoughtful words and faithful deeds that flow from us as we seek a good name.  This way of life needs to be embraced by us all and it needs to be taught to our children and grandchildren.  I am thankful for those simple things my parents and grandparents taught me growing up, like saying please and thank you and always being willing to go the extra mile in helping someone. They taught me the value of a good name instead of always looking to get ahead

The second piece of wisdom we find in Proverbs 22:2.  Rich and poor, we all have this in common, the LORD is the Maker of us all.

#2.  SEE the good in all people.  

As we look at the world today, it seems like we have forgotten this wisdom.  We are quick to divide ourselves into different groups because if we can divide ourselves then we can think highly of ourselves and put others down.  So we divide ourselves as
rich / poor
black / white
American citizen / undocumented worker
Republican / Democrat
Christian / Muslim
Dividing people makes it easier for us to judge others and feel superior and yet what we forget is that God is the one who has made us all and each person on earth has been created in the image of God.  We need to learn that all people have been created in the image of God and that all people deserve to be treated with honor, dignity and respect.

One of the greatest gifts that I get to see on a daily basis here at the church is lines of children walking to the bathroom.  Do you know why this is such a great sight, because when they are very young, they all walk together holding hands (picture). There is no rich or poor.  There is no liberal or conservative.  There is no blue collar or white color.  They are all equal and important and loved by God and they are loved by others and as much as children are able to, they are loved by each other.  It’s a great picture of what our world should be, and can be if we are willing to remember that in every person on earth there is a reflection of God.  If we can teach this and live this out in our lives then our schools and community will become healthier places to live

The third piece of wisdom we find is from Proverbs 22:4.  Humility and fear of the LORD bring wealth and honor and life.

#3 SINCERE hearts build a solid life.

It is humility and faith in God that gives shape to a sincere heart and humility isn’t thinking negatively about ourselves it is thinking more of others.  Philippians 2:3 says; in humility consider others better than yourselves.  Each of you should look not only to your own interests but also to the interest of others.

A sincere heart places the needs of others before our own and looks to Jesus as an example of how to live our lives.  Jesus was always placing the needs of others before his own and he went out of his way to serve and help others.  Jesus went out of his way to serve us by taking our sin to the cross so that we could experience forgiveness and the fullness of life and that is the model of how we should live.  We need to teach this kind of humility to our children but we need to teach it not with words but with our actions.

Last week I had dinner with some friends from my church youth group and our youth group leaders.  As we were reminiscing, our youth leader said to me, Andy I remember how patient your mom was.  Every Sunday night you would hang around and talk with your friends until we had to kick you out of the church and your Mom was always so patient just sitting in the car waiting.  I laughed and said, you don’t know the half of it.  She sat at piano lessons, tuba lessons, guitar lessons, band practice and spent a weekend sitting in the car when I made All State Band.  If I have learned anything about being humble, it wasn’t from a book or even the Bible, it was from watching my Mom consider my sisters and me better than herself and looking to our interests and meeting our needs before her own.  (Thanks Mom.)  May we live out this wisdom with our children and in our own families and church.

The fourth piece of wisdom is from Proverbs 22:9.  A generous person will be blessed as they share their food with the poor.

#4 SHARE what you have.

Isn’t this something we learn in kindergarten?  Isn’t this one of the first pieces of wisdom we learn as we head off to school?  Share.  Share your lunch, share your crayons, share you toys.  Share.  Today we still need to share and we are never too old to share.  We need to share our time, share our faith, share our resources, share our love, share our families and share the fullness of who we are with the people God has placed in our lives.  Today there are people who need time, attention, love and support and we have that to share.  Today there are people who need to know the love of God and that the grace and power of Jesus can work in our lives and we have that knowledge and faith to share.  Sharing is one of the basic pieces of wisdom we teach our children and again it needs to be something we don’t just teach, but live out in our lives.

The fifth and last piece of wisdom comes from Proverbs 22:11.  Those whose speech is gracious will have the king for their friend.

#5 SPEAK kindly.  

In a world of harsh and critical rhetoric, kind words are not only refreshing, but they are powerful.  Here is what else the wisdom of proverbs teaches us about kind words.
Proverbs 15:1 – A kind word turns away wrath.
Proverbs 16:24 – Kind words are like honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body.
Proverbs 24:11 – A kind word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.

Kind and support words are needed today and they are needed at an ever increasing rate.  Since we tend to remember all the negative things said about us and not the positive, it takes that many more positive and kind words to shape our hearts and lives. Children need to hear kind words.  Parents need to hear kind words.  Teachers and coaches need to hear kind words.  Bosses and those we work with need to hear kind words.  Politicians and police need to hear kind words.  Speaking kindly can make a difference in the lives of others, but more importantly, it makes a difference in us.  The more kind things we say, the more kind and generous we become and if you don’t believe me, then give it a try.  This week try and speak only kind words to those around you and see if your attitude and perspective changes.

So this brings us to some homework.  Look at your next steps because this our homework for the week:
Next Steps
Wisdom for Students

Here is our homework for the week:

Lesson 1. SEEK a good name. Proverbs 22:1
Assignment:  Instead of trying to get ahead this week, find one way to help someone else get ahead and succeed.

Lesson 2. SEE the good in all people. Proverbs 22:2
Assignment:  Look for God in people around you who might be very different than you are.  Write down how they are a reflection of God and if appropriate, share it with them.
*Extra Credit:  Reach across the divide to build a relationship with someone new.

Lesson 3. SINCERE hearts build a solid life. Proverbs 22:4
Assignment:  Place the needs of someone you know at school, at work, in the church or in the community before your own and meet that need.

Lesson 4. SHARE what you have.  Proverbs 22:9
Assignment:  Share what you have!  Give away your time, faith, love, energy, food or finances to someone who needs it and needs you.

Lesson 5. SPEAK kindly. Proverbs 22:11
Assignment: Every day this week speak only kind words to those at school, at work, on your team, in your home or in your circle of friends.  Document how your heart and life changes.

BONUS POINTS
Sign up to be part of an upcoming small group to learn how to finish this statement with wisdom and faith: LIFE IS           .