Travel Light - Letting Go of the Past

For the next few days we will hear all about the top events of 2019.  In sports it was the Washington Nationals winning the World Series,

Tiger Woods returned and won the Masters,

and maybe the most exciting of all, Penn State men’s basketball is ranked in the top 25 for the first time in 23 years!

In weather we had Hurricane Dorian that leveled parts of the Bahamas,

in entertainment we currently have the latest edition of Star Wars, a movie franchise that spans 40 years,

and in politics…

... let’s not even go there.

As we approach the end of a year - and also an end of a decade - we will also think back and reflect on our own lives.  For all of us there have been highs and lows, joys and sorrows, triumphs and tragedies.  As we enter this New Year we need to learn how to let go of the lows, the sorrows, and the tragedies.  It is only in letting go of the problems and failures of our past and travelling light we are able to live into the fullness of the future.  If we constantly rehearse and rehash our past failures, we will never reach the full potential God has for us.  One of the most famous doctors of all time - Lucy Van Pelt - said it the most profoundly when she was talking with Charlie Brown at a baseball game.

The past got in my eyes.  If we don’t let go of the past it will constantly be in our eyes.  Our past mistakes, failures, and pain cloud our vision and if allowed to remain they will shape our future.  Looking back to reflect is one thing, looking back to learn from our mistakes and failures is ok, but to daily look back and remember - to literally rejoin ourselves to the painful and negative events of the past is something we have to let go.  Isaiah 43:18-19.

Forget the former things;  do not dwell on the past.
See, I am doing a new thing!  Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?

So once again, let’s travel light into the New Year and let go of the past, and that starts by acknowledging what it is in the past that we need to let go.  To truly let go, we need to acknowledge the pain or the problem.  We need to acknowledge the sorrow and the sin if we are going to be able to let it go.  If we can’t name what the problems are that we struggle with, and if we can’t name the sin that weighs us down, then we can never fully let it go.  We have to acknowledge our past and honestly deal with it.

King David was a man who had been called by God to lead the people of Israel and make them into a great nation, but he also had some deep flaws and failures.  He committed adultery with a woman named Bathsheba, and then tried to cover up that sin by having her husband killed.  After these events, David just went on with his life, he never acknowledged his sin or his failure.  Because he never acknowledged the problem, he never asked God for forgiveness or help.  Without asking for forgiveness, those failures were still a part of his life, and his past had the potential to shape his future.  In order for David to truly move on he needed to acknowledge his failure, so God sent a prophet named Nathan to help open David’s eyes.

David finally did acknowledge his sin, and in Psalm 51 he teaches us the process of letting go of the past, and it starts by acknowledging our pain and problems and sin.  Psalm 51:3-4.

For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.
Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight;
so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge.

Here David acknowledges his sin and confesses his failure to God.  At times, what we need to do is name our sin and failure to God.  While God knows what the problem is, we need to name it so that we can own up to it.  If it is sin, then we need to get honest about it so we can begin to move beyond it. Sometimes we need to name our sin so that we see what it is that has a hold on our hearts and lives.  Sometimes we need to own our failures so that we can learn from them and move beyond them.  Naming the sin and failure is helpful for us to move forward into the new life God has for us.

Sometimes what we need to let go of is not sin but the pain and hurt of our past, or the sorrow of loss.  In these situations, it is still important to name what is going on.  God never tires of hearing about where we are struggling in loss, and our disappointments matter to God.  Again, naming the situation isn’t for God’s sake, it is for us.  Being honest about how we have been hurt and disappointed allows us to work through the pain and learn how to let it go.  Whether it is sin, failures, disappointment, hurt, or loss, naming those things in our past that are holding us back is the first step in letting them go.

The second step in letting go is to Ask.  We might need to ask God for forgiveness, we might need to ask God for healing, or ask God for help, but in every situation, what we are asking God for is the grace we need to let go and move forward.  Psalm 51:1-2.

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.
Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.

David reminds us here that the One we are turning to for help is the One who loves us, according to your great compassion, and it is because of this love that God offers help and healing and wholeness.  It is because of God’s love for us that God is willing to listen when we come to him and reach out to us each and every day.  Lamentations 3:22.

Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.

New every morning is God’s compassion and faithfulness.  This means that every day we can turn to God and ask for his grace and mercy.  Every day we can ask God for help.  God never tires of hearing us ask for help because when we ask for help we are saying, God, we love you, we trust you, and we need you.  As a parent, is there any greater words you can hear?  God desires this kind of relationship with us.  The primary relationship in the three we focus on here at Faith Church is our Relationship with God.  One of the rhythms in that relationship is identity and part of our identity is that we are children of God who need God’s grace and love, and so God invites us to ask for that every day.  While we only need to acknowledge our past and confess our sin once, we do need to ask God for grace every day because it is that grace that helps us stay focused on the present and the future.  I would invite you to use Lamentations 3:22 as a daily prayer or daily reading to remind you of God’s grace that is new and available every morning.

So we acknowledge our past pain and problems, we ask God for grace, but then we have to accept what God offers.  Sometimes it is this step that is the hardest for us because what God offers is free.  We don’t deserve to be forgiven and we can’t earn God’s grace.  It is there as a gift - freely given.  Will we accept it?  If we never accept God’s grace, we never experience the power of forgiveness or the freedom of life that helps us move forward.

David was willing to accept God’s grace.  He imagined God’s grace washing over him, cleansing him from the stain of sin.  He willingly let God’s grace enter his heart and life.  He sought the healing power of God and allowed it to change him, to cleanse and purify him.  These are great images to think about.  Accepting God’s grace is like being cleansed.  It is like being washed clean from the filth of the past.  God’s forgiveness removes the stain of sin.  It washes away the hurt of the past, it wipes the slate clean so we can start fresh each day, and each New Year.

Accepting God’s grace and knowing that we are forgiven and washed clean is not always easy.  Because we often feel unworthy, we need is to hear this message day after day after day.  Read Lamentations 3:19-26 every day for a week.  Read 1 John 1:9 and 4:9-10.  Read Psalm 103:9-14.  Passages like these remind us that God does love us and his love is available to forgive us, to wash us clean, and to help us live a new life.

And then finally we need to Advance.  Psalm 51:13-15.

Then I will teach transgressors your ways, so that sinners will turn back to you.
Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, you who are God my Savior, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness. Open my lips, Lord, and my mouth will declare your praise.

David is looking ahead to what God has for him.  He will teach others who have sinned how to let go of their past, (which he is still doing today through his words given to us!) and he will sing of God’s goodness, and praise God for his mercy.  David doesn’t dwell on the past, he advances into the future to do all that God is asking him to do.  Letting go of our past also means walking into the future God has for us.  We can’t look back, we have to look at what we have and where we are today.  Psalm 118:24 says, this is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.

God wants us looking to the present and future and not focused on the pain and problems of the past.  While God was constantly calling his people to remember, he was not asking people to remember their sin and problems, he was asking them to remember God’s faithfulness and promises so that they would have the strength and power to advance into the life God had for them.  We look back to see the power of God, not the problems that keep us down.  We look back to the see the forgiveness God offers, not our constant failures.  We look back so we can move forward with faith that God is always with us and therefore our future can be better.

The apostle Paul said, Philippians 3:13 - 14,  Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

and in 2 Corinthians 5:17 it says if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come.  The old has gone and the new is here.  The new is here. 

A new year is here, a new decade begins, a new life for us is available because God’s mercy and faithfulness is with us today and will be with us every day.  God is inviting us into this new day, this new life, but we only experience it by letting go of the past so we can travel light. 

Acknowledge the past,  
Ask for God’s grace,   
Accept God’s grace.   
Advance into the future.   Into this new year.


Next Steps
Travel Light - Letting Go Of The Past

1. As you review 2019, what problems, pain, and sin do you need to let go?

2. Acknowledge the pain, problem, and sin and offer it to God.
Name the problem.
Write out the painful situation.
Confess the sin to God.
If you can, share this situation with a trusted friend who can help you let go.

3. Ask for God’s grace.
Daily ask God for mercy, strength, and peace.
Read Psalm 51 and use it as a weekly prayer.

4. Accept God’s grace.
Read Lamentations 3:22 each day for a week.
Read 1 John 1:9, 1 John 4:9-10 & Psalm 103:9-14.
Use images like washing away, erasing, and blotting out to help you see how God’s grace truly does forgive our sin and remove our past.

5. Advance into the new day.  This is the day that the Lord has made.  Let us rejoice and be glad in it.
How can you be glad in this new day?
What one new thing is God asking you to do in 2020?
What new disciple can help you deepen and develop your relationship with God, the church, or the world?

For more information on the 3 Relationships, go to bellefontefaith.com/3r and check out the 3R workshops coming on Saturday January 25.

Travel Empty - Merry Christmas!

By now, I hope your tree is up, your house is decorated, your cookies are baked, your gifts are bought and wrapped (or ready to wrap), and all that is left is to enjoy this night and the days ahead with family and friends.  But let’s be clear, Christmas is not about the tree, the decorations, the cookies, or the gifts.  All of that stuff is wonderful – it blesses us and others – it is a great way to celebrate the gift of God’s love and the grace given to us in Jesus, but all of that stuff is not what Christmas is all about.  In fact, it might be in letting go of that stuff that we are able to take hold of the gift we do celebrate tonight – the gift of Jesus. 

This month we have seen that the best way to experience Christmas, and really the best way to experience the life God wants for us, is to travel light.  In letting go all the stuff we accumulate in life, and maybe even downsize our gift giving, we begin to find room in our hearts and lives to experience what is ultimately important and valuable.  Letting go of distractions helps us focus on how to be faithful to God and how to be truly present with family and friends.  Letting go of bitterness and the pain we often feel in difficult relationships allows for forgiveness and healing to restore us both to God and one another.  And letting go of control, surrendering to God not just at Christmas time but at all times, can lead us to what God says is best for us.  While we often work hard to hold on to all of this, and then try to carry more and more baggage in life, God says that it is in letting it go and travelling light that we get the most out of life. 

Too often we really do think that the best way to celebrate Christmas is to try and do it all and have it all, but the best way to celebrate Christmas and to get the most out of this season is to empty ourselves, and this lesson was taught to us by none other than those whos down in whoville. 

The whos didn’t need all the trappings of the holiday to celebrate Christmas, they didn’t need ribbons or tags.  They didn’t need packages, boxes or bags.  In fact, it was when their homes and tables and hands were empty that they were able to come together and allow the light of Jesus to enter their lives.  Did you notice that?  It was when they were empty that they left their homes and came together to take the hands of their family, friends, and neighbors to welcome and celebrate the light of God’s love and grace.  The love of God, and the love God has for us to share with one another, is often only experienced when we empty ourselves and travel light.

The Christmas story is the story of travelling light, in fact, it is the story of God being willing to empty himself completely to travel into this world to love us and forgive us.  We would not be here tonight celebrating the gift of Jesus, God’s son, our Savior, if Jesus had not been willing to empty himself and be the first to travel light. 

When God came into the world he could have come any way he wanted to – he was God.  He could have come as a powerful king who simply appears and commands all power and authority.  He could have come as a spectacular religious leader whose every word and action would have been filled with the glory of God’s splendor for all the world to see.  He could have come as a spiritual force that would have compelled all hearts and minds to God by force.  God could have come full of authority, glory, and power, but he didn’t.  Instead God emptied himself of everything and came as an infant, born in a manger in Bethlehem. 

Jesus traveled light and came as a vulnerable infant.  He was empty of all power and strength.  He was 100% dependent upon his parents and others for survival.  Jesus arrived empty of position and honor.  No one was even willing to make any room for him so his parents had to clean out a manger – a feeding trough – to use as a crib.  And let’s be clear – Joseph probably did have to empty out a manger to use as a crib because Bethlehem was a city full of travelers who came with animals and all those animals had to eat.  The manger would have been full so Joseph had to empty it in order for it to hold Jesus. 

Jesus was God in the flesh, but to come to us in the flesh God had to empty himself of glory, and power, and strength, and then God emptied himself again and entered the life of an ordinary couple.  What we celebrate tonight is the choice God made to travel light – to empty himself.  We hear this from Philippians 2:6-11

Jesus, being in very nature God,
   did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
    by taking the very nature of a servant,
    being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
    he humbled himself
    by becoming obedient to death—
        even death on a cross!

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
    and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
    to the glory of God the Father.

I love that God didn’t choose to just send us his word.  God wasn’t content with a book or a set of commandments for us to read and follow, God wanted more than that, he wanted to come in flesh and blood so that we could see him, and hear him, and feel his touch, and experience a relationship with him.  God also came in the flesh and blood of a human being to show us how to live and how to love one another.  God emptied himself of everything so that we could have all things and God did that for a reason - LOVE.

John 3:16 it says, for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, so that whoever believes in him might not perish but have everlasting life.  God loved us so much that he knew the only way for us to fully experience his love and grace was if he emptied himself and came here to live among us.  God so loved the world that he emptied himself and instead of filling himself with wealth, possessions, honor, or glory in this world, he filled his life with our sin so that he could pay the price for that sin and forgive us. 

Jesus emptied himself so that in love he could fill up his life with our pain, brokenness, and rebellion, and take all of that to the cross.  And then when Jesus overcame death and rose from the grave, we see God’s gift of love and forgiveness at work.  Our sin is forgiven.  God’s love has restored us into a relationship with God, and the way of life eternal is now available to us all.

It’s ironic that we celebrate Christmas - God emptying himself and coming as a child in Bethlehem - by filling up our homes with decorations and our lives with more distractions.  We celebrate Jesus coming here empty by filling our hands with more stuff and our lives with more stress.  What began as the gift of God travelling light has turned into a season of us trying to carry more. 
Now please understand, I am not here to be the Grinch and say we should get rid of it all.  I love it all just as much as you do.  The answer isn’t to take down the trees, turn off the lights, and throw out the cookies and the gifts – the answer is to create some moments in our celebration where we can come to Jesus empty in order to receive all he has to give. 

No gift can be received if our hands are holding on to other things, and we cannot receive the gift of Jesus as our savior and we cannot receive the gift of life Jesus has to offer if our hands are holding on to the stuff of this world, the distractions of our lives, the bitterness of our past, or the ongoing battle to try and control our future.  We can’t receive a gift until we empty our hands, and we can’t fully receive God’s love and grace, and the gift of a savior, until we are willing to empty ourselves. 

The shepherds came empty and were able to see the newborn king, maybe even hold him in their arms.  Magi brought gifts but then laid them down, emptied themselves, to take up the truth that this was the new king who had come to reign.  Mary and Joseph had to empty themselves of pride and control in order to bring this child into their lives, and we can only receive the real gift of this day, the gift of Jesus and his forgiveness, the gift of Jesus and the life he has for us, if we will come to him empty. 

So tonight I invite you to empty yourself. 

Make this the moment in your Christmas celebration to empty yourself so that you can experience what this night is really all about - receiving the love of God.  Empty yourself and come to receive Jesus as your savior, the one who emptied himself and traveled light in order to forgive us, to free us for the fullness of life, and the one who says he will be with us forever.  Unto you is given this night the gift of a savior, empty yourself and receive him.

Travel Light - Letting Go of Control

Is there one part of the Christmas celebration that you like to control?  When I was growing up, my sisters and I could all help assemble our tree - yes it was artificial - but only my Dad could put the lights on - yes this was before pre-lit trees were a thing.  When the tree was all decorated, it was my Dad who said that the tinsel had to be put on one strand at a time.  You could not throw globs of it on and hope some of it would stick, you had to pull each strand off and place it on the branch. 

Is there a part of the Christmas celebration with your family that you like to control?  Beyond Christmas, is there at least one area of your life that you like to control?  Go ahead, own it, raise your hand, and if you want to raise your spouses hand right now then you really  have issues of control.  Let’s just be honest and say that we all have issues of control.  I have issues of control.

Those who know me and work with me know that I have a few control issues.  I like to make sure all the light switches in the lobby are all going the same way, and yes I have been known to turn lights off at one end of the hall and go to the other end and turn them on just so they are all going in the same direction.  I will move things around in the lobby so they look right - which really just means looks right to me.  I have turned flowers, straightened stacks of bulletins, moved wooden tables so that all the grain is going in the same direction, and moved hymnals and Bibles in the pews so they are all lined up.  I’m getting therapy for all this - but those issues of control are still there.

It’s not just the church, however, ask my family or friends and they will tell you that where I have real control issues is my refrigerator. 

Here is a picture of how I usually like my fridge to look.  I know, it’s almost empty - but that way it is really organized.  On the door, all the bottles have to be facing the same way, and organized by type and size.  There is a place for eggs, a place for drinks, a place for cheese and meat in the drawer and everything has to be in the right place.  But the sad thing is that it’s not just my refrigerator I try to control, it’s my family’s fridges as well. 

If I visit my family for more than about 24 hours, I will simply start to control their fridge.  I’ll collect the soda that is scattered all over and put them in one place.  I’ll organize the salad dressings and condiments so they are all placed by type and size, and I’ll put things in their proper place - i.e., the place I think they should go.  My mom loves it because it usually means I will end up cleaning her fridge at some point, but it is an issue of control. 

It’s not just fridges, however, it is also closets, storage rooms, and my garage.  I like things to be under control and one of the great things about living alone is that I get to control all those things.  What couples might argue about, like the right way to load the dishwasher, or whether or not you need orderly lines when you vacuum (by the way - you do), or the right way to squeeze out toothpaste is not a problem for me, I do it my way.  But before you judge me, let’s be honest, we all try to control things.

Parents try to control their kids and not always in good ways.  Many parents will push their children in sports or education and some parents will make plans for their child’s future before they are even out of diapers.  We have heard recently about the college admission scandals and how some parents used all the control and power they had to control where their kids went to school.  Making sure our children are in the right college isn’t just important for them, sometimes it is important to us, to our self-image, and in a social media world, our self-image is something else we all work to control.  If you have ever taken more than one photo, or selfie, to get just the right image to post on instagram or facebook, then there is some control issues going on in your life.

When I was in seminary I was talking with a friend of mine during my last semester and I told her how I was constantly organizing and reorganizing my room and she said, you know why you are doing that don’t you.  I said, no.  She said, you can’t control anything in your life right now but you can control your room and what you keep, what you throw away, and where you put things.  I was stunned because she absolutely nailed it.  Nothing in my life was under control as I was waiting to hear about an appointment at a church after graduation.  When I couldn’t control one area of my life, I was compensating and trying to control everything else.

I realize now that when I am stressed, when I feel like things are out of control, I work to control what I can.  So in the chaos of Christmas when we are feeling stressed and things are out of control, are there things we try to control?  Maybe it’s searching for that perfect gift.  Maybe it’s working to make sure every gift looks like it was wrapped by a professional.  Or maybe, like my Dad, you try to control the tree, the lights, the decorations, and the tinsel.  It’s ok to admit it.  I get it, but here’s the hard truth for all of us today - to really embrace the celebration of Christmas, and to really embrace the life God has for us, we have to learn how to travel light and let go of control. 

This season we have learned that to grab hold of all that God wants for us, we have to be willing to let go of stuff, and distractions, and bitterness, and yes - control.  If we want to celebrate Christmas to the fullest, we have to learn how to let go of control, because there would be no Christmas without a few people letting go of control.

Mary was a young girl who knew what she wanted in life.  Many scholars say she may have been as young as 13 or 14, when girls were given to men in marriage, but no matter what age she was, Mary knew what she wanted.  Like all Jewish girls in her day what she wanted was a man who would be faithful to God and to her.  Mary had that man, his name was Joseph, and everything was under control… and then this happened.  Luke 1:26 - 30.

Mary was greatly troubled, but another translation says she was confused and disturbed. That confusion and disturbance came because the plan God had for Mary was NOT the plan Mary had for her life.  Luke 1:30-33. 

This was not Mary’s plan at all.  There is confusion and uncertainty and she even asks God about it and how this can happen.  Luke 1:34-37. 

It’s not recorded in Luke, but I wonder how long Mary wrestled with all of this before she replied.  I wonder how long she remained confused and disturbed by the sudden change of plans and the loss of control.  I have to believe that if Mary was like most of us, which she was, there may have been more than a few seconds as Mary processed all of this and came up with a response.  Her response shows us the big idea we need to take away from her experience.  Luke 1:38. 

This is the big idea we need to take away from Mary’s story, we don’t always have the power to control our lives but we always have the power to surrender.  Mary surrendered herself to God’s purpose and plan and power and once she did, she found that God is always faithful. 

That’s the real take away from this story.  While we don’t always have the power to control our lives, we can always surrender to God, and every time we do surrender to God we see that God is faithful.  Every time Mary surrendered to God she saw and experienced God’s faithfulness.

● May it be…  and Mary found herself pregnant by the power of God.  God’s plan is at work
● May it be…  and an angel confirmed this plan to Joseph.
● May it be…  and Mary who may have been shunned by her neighbors was welcomed and her situation was affirmed by her cousin Elizabeth.
● May it be…  and after Jesus is born, shepherds arrived with the story that angels told them that the Messiah had been born and was lying in a manger – this was confirmation that what God had said was true.
● May it be…  and Magi arrived saying that a king had been born and a star proclaimed his birth and this child was the King.
● May it be… and Mary and Joseph got the news they need to flee to Egypt to protect their child from Herod and where did they get the resources for this trip - from the Magi who brought God.  Again, God was faithful and in control

Mary surrendered to God and at every step, God proved himself faithful - over and over and over again. 

Now fast forward 30+ years and Jesus is being asked by God to carry a cross.  It is the night before this is to happen and Jesus is praying in the garden of Gethsemane.  He is in agony.  He wants to be faithful, but it is going to be difficult and painful.  He knows that he will die on the cross.  Jesus is literally wrestling in prayer and when he finally surrenders he uses almost the same word his mother used many years earlier, may it be with me according to your will.  Not my will but Thy will be done. Both phrases are based on the same Greek word for God’s will.

Jesus surrenders and when he does he finds out that God is faithful. Three days after he died on the cross, Jesus rose from the grave and defeated sin and death.  Every time we surrender to God, God proves himself faithful.  It may not come in an instant, Mary went through periods of doubt during those nine months, and Jesus died on the cross and laid in a tomb for three days, but in time God proved himself faithful, and in time God will prove himself faithful in our lives.  For us to experience God’s faithfulness we have to be willing to surrender, and surrender means we give everything to God, and it means doing this every day.

The story of Mary tells us that we can find the blessing of God’s love and the purpose of God’s plan by letting go of control and surrendering to God.  Jesus calls us to let go of control and surrender to God, and he assures that every time we do, God will prove himself faithful.  Jesus says, those who lose their lives for my sake, those who surrender to God, will find life. 

So
What is it that you are trying to control that God wants you to surrender?  

What’s the burden that is causing you to be disturbed and confused that God is asking you today to let go of?  

 
Next Steps
Travel Light - Letting Go of Control


1. In what specific way can you let go of control during your celebration of Christmas that will help both you and your family experience a better holiday? 

2. Where have you seen God’s faithfulness in the past that might help you let go of control today?

3. What one area of your life do you seek to hold on to control?  Relationships?  Finances?  Your children’s future?  Job?  Surrender this area to God in prayer every day this week.

4. Join us for worship on Christmas Eve as we once again surrender ourselves to Jesus.  Invite others to join you. 

Travel Light - Letting Go of Bitterness

The Christmas season tends to magnify everything.  Snow is more beautiful and magical in December than it is in February.  Seeing lights on everyone’s homes fills us with joy during December, but we laugh when they are still up in April.  Candy canes taste sweet before Christmas but by New Year’s Day we are ready to throw them away, and Christmas carols fill our hearts this month but seem completely out of place on the Fourth of July.  Everything good suddenly seems great during the Christmas season - but everything that is not good also gets magnified.

Loneliness seems more acute and painful during the holidays.  The ache of lost loved ones is felt more deeply.  Financial problems are escalated, depression runs deeper, and disappointments in life seem so much greater and more tragic than at other times of the year.  For many, Christmas is simply a season to endure because everything just seems so much worse. 

Perhaps the thing that is most difficult to deal with during the holidays are the difficult relationships we have with family and friends.  Broken relationships also gets magnified during this season and what are painful situations on ordinary days become devastating and impossible situations during the holidays.   This month we are learning that to experience the fullness of this season, we need to travel light and that means letting go of the bitterness that comes with broken and difficult relationships. 

Jesus came to be the prince of peace but that doesn’t primarily mean the prince of peace among nations or political parties- although we need that kind of peace right now - it means the prince of peace in our own hearts and lives, but peace can never be achieved if we aren’t willing to let go of the bitterness we hold toward others.  Hebrews 12:14-15.

The author of Hebrews tells us that bitterness is a dangerous root that can undermine everything in our lives.  Think about the roots of a plant, we can’t see them, but they are there and they are growing.  Many times bitterness is not something we see, but left unchecked it will grow and strengthen and in time undermine everything in our lives. 

Bitterness comes when we are offended in some way and then hold on to the offense, and it can start in very small ways.  We text someone and they don’t reply quickly so we get offended, and with every hour that goes by we get more angry and more bitter.  Or we sent an email to a coworker and they never responded to it.  Their lack of a response holds up our work, makes us look foolish, and we tell ourselves we are not going to forget it.  We can be offended by the tone of someone’s voice, when we hear sarcasm or indifference, or worse yet, maybe we don’t hear anything at all.  Are they ignoring me?  I’m so offended!

Bitterness can start as a small offense, maybe even an imagined or misinterpreted word, but the offense is there and we hold on to it and just like a root underground, the anger grows.  We may not even be aware that the bitterness is there, which can be dangerous because if we don’t acknowledge the problem we can’t work to overcome it, so it simply grows and spreads.   Left unchecked, bitterness can undermine our hearts and all our relationships. 

Certainly not all offenses are small.  There are often very painful situations that we face and painful words and actions that scar our lives.  Even in these difficult situations, if we simply allow the bitterness to grow it will be that dangerous root that will undermine everything else in our lives.  While at times it seems impossible to think about forgiving those who have offended us, if we don’t, the destruction is often only experienced in our lives.  Most of the time, holding on to bitterness and anger does nothing in the life of the one who has offended us, but it destroys us.  Someone said that holding on to bitterness is like drinking poison and thinking that the other person is going to die.  They don’t, but we do. 

I had a roommate in college that never paid his fair share of the expenses in our apartment and instead of talking to him about it, I just allowed the offense to grow.  I got bitter and angry and tried to show it to him and thought, he has to feel bad about all of this.  He never even noticed.  I was destroying myself and he didn’t even notice.  That is often how bitterness and unforgiveness works, it only destroys us, we have to let it go. 

Bitterness is not only a dangerous root in our lives, it grows into a poisonous fruit.  Hebrews 12:15, grows up to cause trouble.  As we hold on to bitterness, the poison begins to impact our thoughts, our attitudes, and our assumptions about ourselves and others, and then it impacts our words, and actions, and every one of our relationships.  We become impatient and unkind with people, not just those who have offended us, but everyone.  Bitterness can lead us to making decisions that are not in our best interest, or in God’s greater plan, and if left unchecked, the consequences of this poisonous fruit can be devastating. 

In the Christmas story we see how bitterness began to grow and almost caused one person to miss the opportunity of a lifetime.  Joseph had his life all set.  He was a faithful man, engaged to a wonderful faithful woman named Mary, and life was good.  And then one day Mary told him that God had visited her and said she was going to be the mother of the Messiah.  IN fact, she said, she was already pregnant by the work of the Holy Spirit, and the child she carried was God’s son, the Messiah.  Matthew 1:18-19.

Mary being pregnant before they were married was an offense to Joseph.  Mary getting this news before Joseph heard anything from God may have offended him as well.  How could they possibly continue on in their relationship?  How could they get married now?  How could Joseph ever trust Mary again?  The relationship was strained to say the least.  While Joseph was honorable and didn’t want to publicly shame Mary, he also didn’t want to continue in the relationship - so he planned to dismiss her quietly.  Cast her aside and move on.  That is one way to deal with bitterness, but this doesn’t root out the problem.  The bitterness and disappointment would have remained hidden in Joseph’s life like an underground root poisoning every other relationship in his life. 

What happens to Joseph shows us how God wants us to root out and destroy bitterness in our lives.  What we see here is the appropriate way of letting go of bitterness.  Matthew 1:20-25.  Joseph is told to overcome his bitterness with compassion - don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife.  Don’t give in to the offense you feel Joseph, and don’t walk away - instead walk toward Mary.  Walk with Mary.

In Ephesians 4:31-32 it says, Get rid of all bitterness… Be kind and compassionate to one another.  Forgive one another as in Christ, God has forgiven you.  Forgiveness is how to root out bitterness.  Forgiveness isn’t walking away in anger or disappointment, it often means walking toward the person who has hurt or offended us to seek ways to work through the problems and resolve our differences and misunderstandings.  Forgiveness means walking with the person and working for lasting peace and reconciliation.  Forgiveness isn’t walking away and ignoring the situation, which is what Joseph wanted to do, it is confronting it, releasing any offense we may feel, and allowing God to heal and restore the relationship if possible.  For Joseph and Mary it meant becoming husband and wife and creating a family to raise up the son of God. 

In Joseph we see how to root out bitterness and overcome the poisonous fruit of anger and frustration.  We choose kindness.  We choose to forgive and release the offense of others.  The pastor and author Andy Stanley talks about choosing to fill the gaps that we often find in relationships with trust and not suspicion.  If a text goes unanswered, an email isn’t replied to right away, someone seems distant and unresponsive to us, or someone has offended or let us down - a gap in a relationship is created.  No matter what the gap is, we choose how to interpret the actions that have created it and what fills the gap.  Andy Stanley says, We choose what we place in those gaps.  Our choices determine the integrity of the relationships.  We can choose to fill them with trust or suspicion. 

Suspicion leads to feeling offended.  Being offended leads to bitterness.  Choosing to trust the other person, however, can lead us to compassion, understanding, forgiveness, and a restoration of relationships.  At first Joseph was offended and suspicious, but God leads him to a place of forgiveness and trust, and that restored relationship with Mary allowed Joseph to experience the power of Jesus in his life. 

To experience the power of Jesus in our lives, we have to learn how to let go of bitterness and choose to trust others when we can, but to trust God always.  Sometimes letting go of an offense and forgiving someone who harms us just doesn’t seem like the right thing to do, in those moments can we choose to trust God who not only tells us to forgive but to actually bless those who have offended us.  Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, Bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.  Luke 6:27-28

Joseph would have missed out on the gift of Jesus in his life if he had held on to the bitterness he felt when Mary told him about her pregnancy.  He would never have had the blessing of seeing the birth of the Messiah, hearing the message of the angels, or knowing that he was part of God’s plan of salvation for all the world.  He would have missed out on so much if he had allowed himself to continue to be offended and allowed the root of bitterness to grow and poison his life. 

We will miss out on the gift of grace and peace that God has for us and we will miss out on the life that God has for us if we hold on to the offenses we feel and allow the root of bitterness to grow in our lives.  To truly experience the gift of Jesus in this season, and all through our lives, we need to let go of bitterness and disappointment.  We need to choose
trust over suspicion, 
forgiveness over offense, 
compassion over bitterness. 



Next Steps
Travel Light - Letting Go of Bitterness

Questions for Reflection
● What offense and bitterness do I need to let go?
● Where can I choose compassion as a response to others this week?

1. Read the story of Joseph in Matthew 1:18-25.
● What offense did Joseph want to hold on to? 
● How would that bitterness have affected his life? 
● How did Joseph choose compassion?

2. Where has bitterness become a dangerous root in your life?  What offense caused this bitterness?  How is it producing poisonous fruit?

3. What gaps are there currently in your relationships
● At home?
● At work?

4. How can you choose to fill this relational gap with trust and not suspicion?

5. Who is it that you need to forgive?  Take one step toward forgiveness this week.

5. Compassion in any form can help keep bitter roots from growing or forming. 
● Look for one act of compassion this week and do it. 
● Commit to an act of compassion during the Christmas Season that can help make a difference in someone’s life. 
● Pray for eyes to see and a heart to act when compassion is needed. 

Travel Light - Letting Go Of Stuff

How do you pack when you go on vacation?  

Are you someone who tries to take it all?  

 A couple of years ago I flew to SC for a week to visit my parents and when I got off the plane with my bag, my Dad asked, is that all you brought for a week?  I said, yup - you do have a washer and dryer right?  I took about three days’ worth of clothes and figured I would just wash what I brought so I didn’t have to carry a lot with me.  

There are two kinds of travelers, those who travel light, and those who take everything with them.  I used to take everything with me on vacation, everything I thought I might possibly need for every conceivable situation, and then I realized that I never wore or used half of what I took.  I now lay out everything I am going to take on a trip and then remove half of it and take what is left.

Traveling light is not just for trips and vacations, however, it is how we need to travel through life.  Too many of us are weighed down by all that we have accumulated.  We have too much stuff, too many distractions, too much bitterness and hurt and pain, and too many things we try to control to really enjoy life.  All that we seek to hold on to in life is literally weighing us down and keeping us from experiencing more joy, more peace, more adventure, and more faith and trust in God.  As we move through this Advent season and prepare ourselves for the celebration of Jesus' birth, we are going to talk about how to start travelling light.

When I was in college, I wanted to be able to place all my belongings in my car, and my car was a two door Volkswagen Fox.

For a while I was able to do this, mostly because I didn’t own any furniture.  In 1990, I sold just about everything I had and packed up my little Fox and moved to CA.  That was the last time I was able to get all my stuff into my car.  Since then I have accumulated furniture, family heirlooms, 26 years of sermons, and two closets full of nativity scenes.  I also live alone and have 4 TV’s!

While we spend our lives trying to hold on to more and more, the author of Ecclesiastes says, Better one handful with tranquility than two handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind.  While we often tell ourselves that less is more, and that we probably don’t need all the stuff we have accumulated, there is something inside of us that calls out for more.  If one tv is good, 2 is better, and 4 is ideal.  This drive for more stuff and the idea that more is better and that more will make us happy is ingrained in us, it is part of our culture, part of society, and probably even part of our DNA.  We can go back to Adam and Eve and see that what got them into trouble was a desire for more.

Think about their story.  Adam and Eve were placed in paradise and told that they could have it all.  Literally - it was all for them and yet they weren’t content with everything - they wanted more.  More is always better - they thought that.  We think that.  And that’s why we have more stuff than we can ever use, and why we are even paying people to store our stuff for us.

There is currently 2.3 billion square feet of storage space in America.  That is enough space for every man, woman, and child in the US to stand together.  Half of this space is storing what won’t fit in our homes, and 15% of all storage unit renters say they are storing what they don’t need and don’t want, and yet won’t let go of.  Our stuff is weighing us down.  We have larger homes than a generation ago, and yet we can’t fit what we own into our homes.  Our stuff has taken over, our two hands are full and with it comes the toil of taking care of it all.

This is what Jesus said about all our stuff, Watch out, be on guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.  Luke 12:15.  Wanting two handfuls of stuff is such a powerful force that Jesus had to warn us not once but twice.  Watch out.  Be on your guard.  Our stuff is dangerous because over time it robs us of the joy we can find in life when we are able to focus on God, and it erodes our faith as we trust more in our stuff than we do in God.  What we need to do is work to develop a one handful way of life.

The first thing we might need to do live a one handful life is to learn how to throw out what we don’t want and don’t need.  Some people say we need to think about downsizing as if our lives depended on it.  A few years ago I was thinking that when I die my nieces and nephews are not going to want any of my stuff.  What was I keeping for?  Why am I accumulating more?  And why is it so hard to give things away?

That’s the real question we might want to ask ourselves as we seek to travel light, why is it so hard to give things away?  Sometimes we hold on to things out of fear.  We are afraid that if we give something away, that is going to be the very moment we need it.  Sometimes we are afraid to let things go because they mean so much to us and we don’t want to forget those memories.  If what we have has come from a family member or friend, and we cherish them, we cherish what they have given us.  Our stuff reminds us of them and if we let it go, we are afraid we are letting go of them.  Sometimes it is a fear of losing something valuable, and therefore losing money, so we hold on to all we have with both hands.  After all, we were told in the 80’s and 90’s that those Beanie Babies were going to be valuable someday - we can’t let go of them now. 

Learning how to downsize and throw things away is not easy, but it can be helpful and freeing.  Giving clothes away that we will never wear so that others can wear them not only blesses others, it blesses us.  Giving things away to those in need can lift our own hearts and lives as well as lift up the lives of others.  Remember, it is Jesus who said it is more blessed to give than to receive.  So let’s give stuff away.

Letting go of things that might have sentimental meaning will also show us that the strong connection we have for our family and friends is not tied into things.  When the things are gone, the memories and relationships are still there.  What we learn is that love doesn’t go away when the stuff goes away.  Love endures and love remains.

Does this mean we need to give everything away - no.  It’s ok to hold on to some things.  Marie Kondo, in her book the life-changing magic of tidying up, talks about looking at our stuff and keeping those things that spark joy.  If it doesn’t bring joy, if it’s just sitting in a closet or storage unit and weighing us down, can we begin to let it go.

The second thing we need to learn how to do is buy less.  I know what you are thinking right now…. Too late.  Black Friday was two days ago and all my Christmas Shopping is done.  That’s ok.  I’m not talking about buying less just at Christmas (although now might be a great time to start), I’m talking about buying less all year.  Too many of us buy things because we think we need it, or worse, we think it will make us happy and our lives more fulfilled.  Too often we look to our stuff to do what God alone can do.  We need to shift our eyes from the world and put them back on God.

Can we say what the Psalmist said, Turn my heart toward your statutes and not toward selfish gain.  Turn my eyes away from worthless things and preserve my life according to your word.  Psalm 119:36-37.  When our eyes and our hearts aren’t focused on the world around us, we begin to realize that much of what we think we need - we don’t.  And much of what we currently have - we can do without.

Throw out, buy less, and then finally we need to learn how to give more.  Last month, we talked about giving and how we experience a blessed life by giving, and we need to keep that perspective all through the year and all through life.  A lifestyle of giving doesn’t just focus on giving more money or more of our possessions, it also means giving more of our time, our faith, our love, and ourselves.  1 Timothy 6:17-19.

This is a command to all of us because all of us are rich.  If we can order a pizza from our phones, right now, we are rich.  Notice that what Paul says is that when we are rich in good deeds, when we are generous and willing to share what we have, then we begin to take hold of a life that is true life.  In other words, we start really living not by getting more and holding on to more stuff, but by giving it away, and giving ourselves away.

As we begin to let go of our stuff and live a one handful way of life, something wonderful begins to happen, we find that our other hand is now free to do some wonderful life changing things.
We are able to reach down and lift others up.  
We are able to reach out and welcome more people into our lives. 
And we are able to reach up to God with thanks and praise.   

One handful living allows our free hand to grab hold of the life God wants to offer us. As we learn how to travel light on our way to Christmas, can we commit to letting go of our stuff so we can grab hold of the gift that makes all the difference - Jesus?


Next Steps

Travel Light - Letting Go Of Stuff
As you light a candle at your home, or see the candles in your windows at night, reflect on these questions:
● How has holding on to all my stuff with two hands been keeping me from God?
● What do I need to throw out and give away this week?
● What is God asking me to do with my free hand?  Reach down to help?  Reach out to welcome?  Reach up in praise?

Steps we can take to travel light:
1. Throw Out:  Go through your basement, attic, and closets and throw out items that can both lighten your load and bless other people.  Donate to the Habitat Restore, Faith Centre, or Centre Peace.

 2. Buy Less. Buy fewer gifts and purchase gifts that will encourage spending time with one another.  (board games, coupons for family time together, calendars that include family time set aside each week and special times each month)

3. Give More.  Commit to giving in one new way this season.
● Give to a family in need.
● Give to a neighbor who lives alone.
● Give to someone in the church who needs a smile.
● Give time to Habitat for Humanity or Toys for Tots.
● Set aside money to give to our Christmas Eve Offering
● Give time in prayer for a person or family that needs to know the love of Jesus.
● Give an invitation to someone to join you in worship during Advent or on Christmas Eve.

The Blessed Life - A Heart to Serve

This Thursday is Thanksgiving and I want to invite you to take some time this week to write down a few things for which you are thankful thanks.  Even when we face problems with our health, finances, jobs, and relationships, we can still look around and see many good things for which we are grateful.  We are blessed, and we need to identify these blessings and give thanks for all we have, but we have been talking this month about how a blessed life isn’t just found in what we have received, but when we give.  Jesus said, it is more blessed to GIVE than to RECEIVE.  The true blessing of God doesn’t come from all that we have received in life, but all the ways God shows us that we can give to Him and to others. 

We have looked at different ways of giving, and when we think of giving we often think about giving our money, or a portion of our wealth and resources, but today we want to shift from thinking about money to another way of giving that Jesus says will bless us in life.  To do this, we are going to look at a story found in John 13.

To set the scene, the disciples were together for a meal and while it wasn’t Thanksgiving dinner, it might as well have been.  It was the Passover meal, which means it was the most important meal of the year.  Families would travel from all over Israel to come to Jerusalem for the Passover, just as many of us will travel to be with family this coming week. 

As the disciples gathered for the meal, each one of them walked by the place set aside for a servant to wash the feet of the guests.  The problem was that there was no servant that day, and not one disciple wanted to stop and wash their own feet, let alone the feet of the others.  So they gathered at the table with dirty feet. 

To imagine what this might be like, imagine everyone at your Thanksgiving table has just gathered together after a nice long walk through a field - filled with cow manure - that no one saw in time - and no one bothered to clean or take off their shoes when they came in.  Or imagine that your teenage son has invited everyone from his soccer team to join you for dinner and they all show up after a long practice, in their soccer clothes, and they have taken off their shoes.  The place would have smelled and the disciple’s dirty feet wouldn’t have been tucked under the table because they were all reclining at a low table, which means that Peter’s feet were close to the noses of James and John, and Andrew’s foot was in the face of Thomas. 

Imagine the aroma of roast lamb mixed with manure, or the aroma of roast turkey and sweat socks.  It would not have been pleasant, and yet no one wanted to be the one to do something about it.  They all walked right by the basin and towel.  They could smell the problem, but no one wanted to do anything about it, and this is where we pick up the story: John 13:4-17. 

You will be blessed if you do them.  The blessed life comes not by waiting to be served but by being willing to serve.  Jesus makes clear that he did not come as the Son of Man to be served but to serve, and he said that we will find life, a blessed life, if we will shift our attitude and perspective from being served to being the one who serves others.  A blessed life comes from a heart that is set on serving and while serving others might not be second nature to us, we can train our hearts to beat for service. 

The first thing we can do to develop a heart of service is to ask God to open our eyes so that we can see ways to serve.  We talked about this last week when we talked about spontaneous giving.  All around us are ways we can give to others, we just have to be able to see the opportunities, and the same is true with serving.  All around us are ways we can serve others, and if we can see them, and then act on them, we train our hearts for service. 

The first place we need to look is at home. Can we see ways to serve our own family? Sometimes it is those closest to us that we overlook.  Do we see our children needing love, inspiration, and support?  Do we see our parents needing time and care as they get older?  Do we see the changing needs of our spouse?  As we gather with family this week, let’s ask God to show us how we can serve those around the table, and those in our family. 
Beyond our family, can we see the needs of our friends, and those we work with?  What needs do we see in our schools and community?  My first week as a pastor in Lewisburg, a woman asked me after worship where the children who got free lunches ate during the summer when there was no school.  I wasn’t sure how to get to the grocery store myself - I had no idea what the answer was.  Was this a need?  Was this something the church had been talking about?  I had no idea, but her question led us to look for some answers. 

We found out there was no lunch program for kids during the summer, but there was a community center that served lunch to many children and youth in the community who needed help.  We started providing lunch for them one day a week.  Do you know that in Bellefonte there are 115 elementary school children who are given backpacks with food in them so that they will have something to eat at home on the weekends?  I can tell you that those who help fill those backpacks are blessed because they are serving.

We need to ask God to help us see ways we can serve and making lists of service opportunities can help keep our eyes open.  Seeing is only the first step, however, the second step is to stand up.  In John 13 it says that Jesus got up from the table.  He stood up to do something.  He didn’t just see - or smell - the need, he acted, and there we see that moment of decision that is important in all of our lives.  Great ideas and good intentions are nothing without follow through, so we need to learn how to stand up when we see a need.

One way to motivate ourselves to stand up is to commit to serving someone in some way every week.  If we commit to doing something on a consistent basis and plan to do it, we will be more likely to act.  Can we make a commitment this week to meet one need when we see it?  Can we commit to serving our family in one new way on Thanksgiving?  Can we commit to serving a neighbor or friend in one way over this holiday weekend?  We learn to stand up by simply standing up. 
Another way to help us stand up and serve is to ask others to help us.  If you know someone who is serving at the food bank - ask if you can join them.  Know someone who volunteers at the Faith Centre?  Ask if you can go with them.  Want to serve here at the church? Let us know and we will work to get you standing up and serving.  While asking others to help us serve is one thing, we also need to be bold and invite people to serve with us

I am very good at procrastinating and telling myself that now is not the right time to serve, or I don’t have the right skills to help, so I need people who will be bold and ask to serve with them.  I also need people to hold me accountable to serving by asking me how and where and when I am serving others.  Too often we are like the disciples sitting around the table thinking someone else will get up and do it, or it is someone else’s job, when all the time God is asking us to stand up. 

The third thing we see in Jesus is that he was willing to stoop down.  He stood up to act but then he literally had to get down on one knee, or both knees to wash the feet of his disciples.  The one to whom all knees will eventually bow to in humility, is the one who is stooping down to do the dirty work.   He did the job that no one else wanted to do.  He picked up a towel and basin, the tools used by the lowest servant in the household, and went to work.  A heart of service stoops down to work in ways that others may not want to - but that work and service, Jesus says, brings a blessed life. 

There was a real servant like this here at Faith Church.  After going through a group study on the purpose driven life, she said that after a lot of thought, she came up with the idea that her purpose was doing the jobs that other people didn’t want to do.  She said that she couldn’t play the piano or sing, and she didn’t think she was a great cook like her good friend Jane Shuey, but she did like washing dishes.  She enjoyed cutting up all those labels that the UMW collected for missions.  She came in early on Saturday to set up communion, and on Sunday to set up coffee for her Sunday School class.  She called to check on people others often overlooked, and she sent cards to people that she knew and those she didn’t know.  She also served at Centre Crest where she didn’t wash feet, she washed the resident’s hair. 

In very quiet ways, Betty McDonell did those things that others didn’t want to do.  She served and blessed all of us, but if you knew Betty then you know she would be first the one to say that she was blessed by serving.

Stooping down to serve often means doing those things that no one else wants to do and being willing to get dirty and learn humility.  My very first job in the church was as a leader in my high school youth group.  My job was called house and transportation committee, and the committee was me.  It was my job to line up transportation for all our youth events, but I also had to make sure that every time youth group was over, no matter where we were, that we left the place cleaner than we found it.  While I tried to get everyone on board with cleaning bathrooms, it didn’t always work, so I would clean up after our group.  For a year I learned to serve and do those jobs that no one else wanted to do. 

Many times as a pastor I have learned that stooping down to serve is part of the true blessing of ministry - and I do mean blessing.  My life has been blessed.  I’ve cleaned toilets, cleaned up after people who have been sick, and even cleaned up my neighbor’s house after she passed away at home and the first responders left with everything pretty chaotic.  I have taken people to the ER, helped clean up after parishioner’s dogs, and yes, even carried a dead dog out of a woman’s house when the dog died in the living room and needed to be taken away.  You just learn to do what needs to be done, and I have learned that with each experience, I am more blessed by serving.  I know that what I have done has been helpful, but as I look back on all of those experiences I realize that I am the one who has been blessed when I have been willing to stoop down and serve. 

If we can let go of our pride, or position, and seeking out those places of importance, and stand up to help and stoop down to serve - we will be blessed.  In this season of the year, there are always opportunities for us to stand up and stoop down.  I want to invite you to stand up to serve - not literally - but make the commitment today to serve in some intentional way during this next month. 
(See Next Steps)

We all have good intentions of giving our time and serving others during the Christmas Season, but the busyness of the season can eat up all our time and wipe away all our good intentions.  Stand up now and commit to serving, and then ask someone to hold you accountable to doing it.  Commit now to serving and invite someone to serve with you.  Nothing will bless your life more

Jesus said, I have given you an example of service and you will be blessed if you do it.  We will experience the blessed life when we develop a genuine heart of service that helps us see the needs, stand up to help, and stoop down to serve. 


Next Steps
The Blessed Life - A Heart of Service

I am thankful for:


1. See the need
Ask God to show you the needs of:
● Your family
● Your friends
● Your neighbors
● Your coworkers
● Your community
● Your church

When you see a need, write it down.  Create a journal or list of needs to train your eyes and heart to see the needs of others.  Share the list with someone.

2. Stand Up
I commit today to standing up to do something to serve.
● Here is one way I can serve this week of Thanksgiving:

● Here is one way I can serve in this season of Advent and Christmas:

3. Stoop Down
Pray for the humility to serve in ways that no one else wants to serve.  Read John 13:1-17 and Philippians 2:1-18. 
Ask God for a heart that is willing to serve others in humility. 

Who has humbled themselves to serve you? Use this example to inspire you to be humble and serve others.

The Blessed Life - A Generous Eye

This month we are talking about how we can experience a blessed life and grow in the rhythms of generosity and blessing and we come back each week to the words of Jesus who said, it is more blessed to GIVE than to RECEIVE.  Last week we talked about a system of giving called the tithe that helps us make sure that money has not taken hold of our hearts.  The truth is that the only way to grow in our giving and our generosity is to find ways to give more, so today we are going to look at three different ways we can give and how each of them can help us give more and therefore experience more of God’s blessing. 

My sophomore year of college, a friend and I were headed to CT from MSU and our train stopped in NYC where we spent the day.  We didn’t have any plans, we just visited stores like Macy’s, FAO Schwarz toy store, and Tiffany's.  It was December and it was a grey, cold, and windy day.  As you might imagine, we saw many homeless people on the streets but there was one woman who caught my attention.  She was huddled between two buildings trying to get out of the wind and I would have said she was old, because she had grey hair (might not say that now).  The reason I remember her so clearly is that she had on a maroon windbreaker exactly like one I had.  I got just a split second glimpse of her, but I have never forgotten her imagine. 

For days I kept thinking about that woman.  Every time I stepped outside into the cold, I thought about that woman wearing only a windbreaker.  I told myself there wasn’t much I could have done.  I was a poor college student, without any money, spending only a few hours in the city.  There was nothing I could do for her, but I couldn’t get her image out of my mind.  I was thinking of her one day when I went to get my coat out of the closet and saw several other winter coats.  Then it hit me, I could have done something for her.  I could have given her my coat.  I had more coats at home.  I could have gotten a new coat at Christmas.  There was something I could have done, I could have given spontaneously. 

In Luke 10, Jesus tells a story about a man who was on his way home when he was beaten, robbed, and left along the side of the road.  A priest came along and saw the man, but he passed him by without helping.  A religious leader came down the road and saw the man, but he also passed him by.  They each saw the man in need but thought, I don’t have time to help.  There really isn’t anything I can do, I’m just a poor college student on my way home, I can’t do anything.  But then a Samaritan came along and saw the man.  He stopped.  He bandaged the man’s wounds, carried him to an inn, and paid for his care until he could return.  He gave spontaneously. 

Spontaneous Giving is one way we can grow in our giving.  Spontaneous giving is meeting a need when we see it.  It is giving when we think about it.  It’s acting on the idea of giving when the idea comes into our mind.  Spontaneous giving looks like taking off our coat when we see someone in need whether we have another one at home or not.  Spontaneous giving looks like paying the bill for someone behind us in line at the store, or passing on the gift card given to us to someone we know really needs it. 

Spontaneous giving doesn’t always have to involve money - sometimes it is serving or helping when we see the need.  Baxter Caldwell, an active member of the UMC in Altoona, was delivering turkeys at Thanksgiving when he got to one man’s house who asked him, “what am I supposed to do with it?”  Baxter said, “you put it in a roaster and cook it.”  The man said, “I don’t have a roaster, and I don’t have an oven that works.”  Baxter asked what he cooked on and he said, an electric skillet.  So Baxter went with the man into the kitchen, asked for a knife and deboned the turkey so the man could cook it in his electric skillet. 

Spontaneous giving is something we can all do, but we have to be looking for the opportunities and then act quickly.  Opportunities to give and serve are literally all around us and if we ask God to open our eyes so we can see these needs - God will give us generous eyes to see these needs, but once we see them we have to act quickly because it is too easy to talk ourselves out of giving. 

A few years after I that trip to NYC, two friends and I were in downtown Lansing.  As we passed an alley, we saw a man digging through a dumpster and eating what he found left in a McDonald’s bag.  We all saw it, but only one of us stopped - and no, it wasn’t me.  It was my friend who stopped and said, “we have to do something.”  We pooled our money and invited the man to lunch. 

While I had seen the need, I wasn’t quick to act, and if we aren’t quick to act we will find all kinds of excuses to keep on walking.  We don’t really know the situation, or how to help.  We don’t have the time now, we will help the next time, or we will send a check to the food bank later.  I don’t know what it’s like for you, but I do know what it is like for me, I can too easily justify not helping.  Giving spontaneously is something we learn to do but the only way to learn is to step up and act when we see a need and give when we feel compelled to give. 

While spontaneous giving is one way to give and one way we can grow in our generosity and experience of God’s blessing, we can not leave all of our giving up to spontaneous needs,  God also calls us to Strategic Giving.  Tithing is strategic giving.  It’s sitting down and looking at our budget and our resources, and then planning what we need to return to God.  One of the greatest stories of planned giving is found in the gospel of Matthew and is a familiar story we often hear at this time of year. 

The Magi were strategic givers.  They saw a new star in the sky and knew that it meant a new king was born in the nation of Israel.  They wanted to welcome this new king and honor him, so they purchased gifts fit for a king - gold, frankincense, and myrrh.  They purchased the gifts before they left home to make sure they had them to give to the king once they found him.  They planned their journey, researched where the king of Israel might possibly be born, and then made all the strategic plans for the journey taking the gifts with them.  In many ways the first gifts we see given to Jesus were strategic and planned gifts that teach us the value of strategic and planned giving. 
If we don’t make plans to give to God - we won’t give to God.  As the old saying goes, those who fail to plan - plan to fail.  Those who fail to make a plan to give - in the end won’t have anything to give.  This is one reason why God calls us to give our first fruits.  If we plan to give to God first, then we will always have something to give and always have what we need left over.   

Tithing is certainly one way we can give strategically, but there are other times and places where strategic and planned giving is important for us to consider.  Most economists say that over the next 3-4 decades we are going to see the greatest transfer of wealth in human history take place as one generation passes on their wealth to the next generation.  Planned and strategic giving is vital when we think about how to share our assets at the end of life.  While most of us might just think of passing our wealth on to our families - what about supporting the work of God both here and around the world? 

Some of the endowments and gifts given to us by people in the past are blessing us today.  Alan Blakeslee left us a percentage of his estate and that money has helped us make sound and lighting upgrades in the sanctuary.  It has helped us upgrade electrical work throughout the church and has freed up resources to expand our ministry.  Planned giving now can also support missions in the future as our mission team seeks to establish an endowment fund to always keep missions going here at Faith Church. 

Planned giving is important because it forces us to give in ways that are intentional, ongoing, and proportional, but spontaneous and strategic giving really only prepares us for the third kind of giving God calls for, and that is Sacrificial Giving.  While we often picture sacrificial giving as emptying out our bank accounts, or selling all we have to give to the church or to the poor, let me share a story of sacrificial giving that touched my heart. 


Edna was a faithful member of my congregation in Altoona and there had recently been a death in her family so I decided to stop by to see how she was doing.  She lived between the church and my home, so I stopped around noon on my way home for lunch.  Edna was happy to see me and invited me into her small kitchen where she was making lunch - a single can of soup.  That was it.  She didn’t have anything else out to eat, and may not have had anything else in her house to eat, and yet she insisted that I stay and have lunch with her.  I tried to leave but she persisted and got out two bowls and shared her soup with me.  Edna didn’t have much in life.  She didn’t have much in her home, and she didn’t have much to eat that day and yet she shared it with me.  I ate with humility and began to understand what sacrificial giving looked like. 

Jesus shows us what sacrificial giving looks like. Mark 12:41-47.  It’s interesting to note that Jesus is watching what people put into the temple treasury.  God sees what we give, he not only sees the gift but he sees the attitude of our heart as we give.  I just want to point that out as food for thought.  What Jesus sees here is that while many people were giving big gifts - this woman gave the most because she gave sacrificially.  She gave all she had to live on. 

I’m not sure we can ever get to a place of sacrificial giving until we have learned how to give spontaneously and strategically, but one way to practice and grow in sacrificial giving is to simply give more than what we think we can give.  If we think we can give only $1, then maybe we need to give $2.   Think we can give only $10, give $20.  At the other end, if we  think we can give only $1,000 maybe we need to give $2,000 and see what happens - see how God can still meet our needs and maybe bless us in ways we never imagined. 

Giving sacrificially is important because it teaches us not to trust in ourselves or the things of this world, but to trust in God alone.  It also helps us become more like Jesus because Jesus is the one who gave himself sacrificially.  While we see the sacrifice of Jesus when he gave his life on the cross, long before that day God gave himself sacrificially in Jesus’ birth.  When God came to us in the person of Jesus, the Bible says, God emptied himself.  God gave up all the authority of heaven to come into this world as a man, and then once here, God chose to come not as the wealthy but the poor, not as the most popular but the most lowly and humble.  Sacrificial giving marks the beginning and end of Jesus’ life, it marks his entire life, which means that to follow Jesus we need to find ways to sacrifice and to give more than we think we can. 

We grow in giving when we open our eyes and hearts to give spontaneously, when we sit down and plan ways to give strategically, and when we step up in faith to give sacrificially.  We grow in giving by simply giving and when we give we are blessed and experience the blessed life. 


Next Steps
A Generous Eye - Seeing How to Give More

Spontaneous Giving
Think back to a time you gave spontaneously.
● How did it make you feel?
● What did you learn from the experience?
● Who was blessed?

Think back to a time when you could have given spontaneously but didn’t.
● Why didn’t you give?
● What did you learn from that experience?

Ask God to show you the needs of those around you and how you can give today to help meet their needs - then give.

Strategic Giving
How has strategic and planned giving made a difference in your life?

Where can you plan to give today so you don’t plan to fail in giving tomorrow? 

Sacrificial Giving
When have you given more than you thought you could?
● In what area did you give?
● Time?  Money?  Service?
● What did you learn? 

Read Mark 12:41-44.  If Jesus watched you give your offering today, what would he say? 
What is God asking you to sacrifice in order to be truly generous?  What one step can you take to move yourself toward sacrificial giving? 

The Blessed Life - The Blessing Test

This month we are talking about how to experience the blessed life and most of us know that by almost any standard we might use, we are blessed.  In financial terms, we are blessed.  The global poverty rate is defined as living on less than $2 a day.  By these terms, we are blessed.  In Sierra Leone, where we support pastors and churches, the average person earns $1.14 per day.  In Belize where we just helped send a second container, the average person earns $7.65 per day.  In the US the average person earns over $87 per day.  By any standard we use, we are blessed.  That’s good news for us and we need to thank God for all that we have. 

That’s the good news, here’s the bad news…  Jesus said, it is more blessed to GIVE than to RECEIVE and when it comes to giving, we don’t always do a very good job.  I looked at a lot of different studies on giving to charities this week and while the numbers and percentages often changed, the same picture always emerged.  The more money people make, the less money they give.  For example, those in the bottom 20% of income in the US gave an average of 3.2% of their income to charity, while the top 20% gave 1.3%.  Every study said the same thing, the more blessed people were financially, meaning the more money they had, the less they gave. 

Why, when we have more money to give, do we begin to hold on to it more tightly?  Why do we struggle to give when we have been given so much?  The answer is that money is the #1 competitor for our heart.  As we hold on to our money and as we get more money, the temptation is to trust our money more than everything else.  The more money we get, and the tighter we hold it, and the more we believe the promises that money makes.  Money promises to do for us the very things that God wants to do.  In other words, money is trying to be our god.  Think of it, money promises to bring these things that God has promised: Security, Freedom, Power, Significance. 

Money promises us security.  We are told that when we have enough money, which usually means MORE money, we won’t have to worry about anything and all our future needs will be met.  With more money we will be secure, and so we begin to trust our money more than God.  While there is an element of truth in the fact that money does bring some financial security, and we need to be wise about our finances to have a secure future, we can’t trust the money to bring the security.  God is the one who keeps us secure.  God alone is the one we need to trust when we look at the future because money can be here one day and gone the next, but God is always there and always will be there.  The psalmist says, God is an ever present help in times of need.

Money also promises freedom.  If we have more money we will be free from worry, free from stress, free from problems, and maybe even free from having to work.  While we think money brings freedom, the reality is that when we trust our money we become its slave.  Trusting money means always working to get more money.  It means always managing our money, and worrying about what we have, and where we have it, and if we need to move it.  People who trust in their money are the ones who check their accounts daily to see how much they have, how much they have earned, and if their accounts took a hit with the changes in the market.  There is no freedom when we trust in money.

Money also promises power and significance.  From business to sports to entertainment to politics, it is the ones who have the money that the world listens to and follows.  It is the people with money that seem to be important and powerful.  For the next 12 months we are going to hear this constantly.  In politics we are told that the one with the most money has the most power and is the most significant and therefore is the best candidate and has the best chance of winning.  But the power and importance that comes with money is fleeting because it is gone when the money’s gone. 

While money promises these things, in the end it always fails, and it fails because it is trying to do what God alone can do.  Only God keeps us safe and secure - even in the midst of a storm.  When Jesus healed the sick, cast out demons, and forgave sinners he was showing us that God alone is the one who sets us free.  Only God provides us with a power that can endure through all of life, and a power that can do all things and even greater things than Jesus, and it is God who made us for a purpose and we find true significance when we start living for God.  Money can never provide the things that God desires to give, and yet we turn to money over and over again, and the more money we have - the more we lean on it, depend on it, and trust in it. 

Because money is the #1 competitor for our hearts, Jesus said, You cannot serve both God and money.  Jesus didn’t say this about anything else because there is nothing else that has the same hold on us.  Now most of us would probably say that we don’t love and trust money more than God, but let me ask this: would your life be better if you had a little more money?  While we may not love money, we like it, and it is necessary, and helpful, and so yes, a little more money would be good.  But then listen to this.  Ecclesiastes 5:10.  Whoever loves money never has enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income. 

It’s a fine line between realizing that money is necessary and that a little more can be a good thing, and trusting in our money.  Thinking that money is the answer to all our problems and that more money will always be better is a dangerous trap for our hearts, but God has given us a way out of the trap.  God has provided a system of giving that can allow us to put money in its proper place in our hearts and lives and it is a practical way we can show ourselves that our faith and trust is in God alone.  This system of giving is called the tithe. 

The word tithe literally means tenth, and it is the tenth of all our income, our resources, and the work of our hands that does not belong to us but to God.  Leviticus 27:30.  Notice that the tithe belongs to God.  The tithe is not our possessions that we give to God as a gift, it already belongs to God and we are returning it to him.  When we look at the tithe this way, if we don’t tithe then we are actually stealing from God, and while this sounds harsh, it is exactly what God says.  Malachi 3:8

The people of Israel had been told to return to God their first and best as the tithe, Proverbs 3:9-10.  While this is what God had told them, they had come to a place where they didn’t give their first fruits, and they didn’t give their best, they gave what they had left over.  They gave  to God what they thought they could.  This way of giving, over time, led them to trust more in the work of their hands, their money, than in God.  God was testing the people here and reminding them that if they really loved Him over all things, and trusted God to provide for them, then they would return to God what already belongs to him - the full tithe. 

I have often wondered why 10% was the amount God chose, and I have no answer to that, but it is interesting that when God wanted to test people’s faith the #10 often appears.  When God wanted to test his people and see if they would follow and obey him - how many commandments did God give?  When God tested Pharaoh to see if he would soften his heart toward the Israelites - how many plagues did God send?  When Jesus healed a group of lepers to see if they return and give thanks to God - how many lepers did Jesus heal?  And how many returned?  (one - a tenth).  And when Jesus chose his disciples and formed the church - how many disciples did Jesus choose?  (OK, I was just testing you.)

Over and over again we see the #10 emerge as part of God’s testing his people to see if they would be faithful and live for him instead of for themselves and the tithe is the same thing.  Giving God a tenth of our income and resources tests our hearts to see what it is we truly love and trust.  Do we trust God or our money?  It’s a difficult test, and it’s hard to do, but it is one very practical step we can take in order to experience the blessed life. 

Jesus said it is more blessed to give than to receive, which might lead us to ask, what should I give or how much should I give?  What percentage of giving shows God that I trust him and love him more than the things of this world?  A tithe is a great place to start. 

Giving 10% is a very practical step that shows us that we have placed God first in our lives.  If we say we love and trust God above all things, this is one clear way to show ourselves that it’s true.  It is a test of our faith. 

But the tithe is also a way that God invites us to test him.  Usually testing God is not seen as being a good thing.  In fact, Jesus quoted the Old Testament scriptures when he said, do not put the Lord your God to the test.  But in one area we are invited by God to test him, and that is in giving.  The tithe is not just a test of our faith but it is also a test of God’s faithfulness.  God invites us to test him to see if it truly is more blessed to give - Malachi 3:9-12.

Test me, God says.  Give me the tithe and see how you will be blessed.  Test me and let me prove to you that I will not only be faithful but generous.  It’s a blessing test.  If we give - we will be blessed and receive all that God has to give us. 

Giving 10% to God is not always an easy thing to do because when we figure out what that amount is, it might be more than we have ever given before.  My first week as a pastor I thought about what I needed to put in the offering.  I’ll be honest, I had never tithed before.  In fact, during college and seminary and the few years in between when I worked, I was in and out of so many churches that I never gave anything more than a few dollars when an offering plate passed by.  But I was now living as part of a church community and family, what was I going to give.  I thought about a tithe so sat down to figure out just how much money that would be.  When I did, I thought, wow, that’s a lot.  It was more money than I had ever given before, and then I realized that I was going to have to give that every week.  I wasn’t sure I could do it, but then I read these verses and realized it was a test of my faith and God’s faithfulness. 

It can be financially difficult to tithe and it might call for us to re-prioritize our lives and reorder our finances in order to give.  We might need to spend less on phones, tvs, computers, and other electronics in order to put God first.  We might need to eat out less, buy fewer shoes and clothes, shop thrift stores instead of retail, and we might need to forgo that new car and drive the old one for a few more years in order to return to God what is rightfully his.  It’s not easy to reorient our lives around the tithe, but once we do - we will be blessed. 

But let’s be clear, God’s blessing is not always financial. Sometimes the blessing we receive is the joy we feel when we give to God.  Knowing that we are lifting up a child and family and village with the gift of a box, and seeing the excitement of the children in the videos is a blessing we get when we give.   

Sometimes the blessing we receive when we give is knowing that we are helping people come to Jesus and experience God’s love  Your tithe to Faith Church helps children learn and trust Jesus on Sunday mornings, during VBS, and all week at our Daycare and Playschool.  Your tithe helps youth know Jesus through our youth ministry and outreach programs like the 5th Quarter.  Your giving supports people in need.  It helps feed the hungry, house the homeless, and it cares for those who are sick and alone in our community.   

Your tithe also helps us care for people in Belize, and the church and pastors in Sierra Leone.  We support God’s work around the world and we know that our giving makes a difference in the lives of others.  But our tithe doesn’t just help other people know and trust Jesus, it helps grow in our faith as well.  Our tithe provides us the opportunity to worship and learn together every week.  It helps us  create a community where we can use our gifts and share our faith in countless ways from singing to sewing to teaching to cooking, and as we share our gifts and serve God we find our significance and experience the power of God.  Our tithe to the church helps us grow in our relationship with God, the church and the world, which means it helps us become more like Jesus. 

The blessed life comes when we give and not receive, and God has called us to give our first and our best, and he invites us to return to him a tenth not as a test of our faith as much as a test of God’s faithfulness.  As I close, let me be clear that the tithe is not the law and it is not a requirement for being a follower of Jesus.  If we are honest, Jesus called people to go beyond the tithe in order to love and God others.  Jesus called people to give sacrificially, and generously, and to anyone who was in need. 

The tithe is not the law, it is a test, a test of our faith and God’s faithfulness.  It is also a system of giving that can help us make sure that money and wealth never gets a hold our hearts.  So take the blessing test, test God and return what belongs to him.  Test God and find out that the blessed life comes as we give. 


Next Steps
The Blessed Life - The Blessing Test

Read about the tithe
● Genesis 14:20, and Genesis 28:20-22
● Leviticus 27:30-32
● Malachi 3:8-10

Tithing teaches us that all we have comes from God.
● Ask God to help you see that all you have comes from Him and then give thanks
● Thank God for the financial blessings we have simply because we live in the United States. 

Money promises Security, Freedom, Power, Significance. 
● In what ways do you find money providing these things in your life? 
● How has money and wealth take the top place in your heart and life?

Giving 10% to God’s work through the church is a clear sign of our faith and trust in God. 
● What percentage do you currently give back to God?
● Figure out what a tithe would be for you and your family.
● What steps would you have to take in order to give the tithe to God?  What would need to be reordered and re-prioritized in your life?  What might you have to give up?
● What one step can you take this week to move toward tithing?

Information about giving to God through Faith Church can found at bellefontefaith.com/give.