andy at faith

5 Questions ~ Are you looking for some real power?

2012-01-30T06:56:00.000-08:00

People today are looking for power and the evidence is all around. Physically people are looking for power which is why the P90X is the #1 home fitness program on the market today. P90X isn’t your regular home fitness videos, if you have seen it on TV then you know P90X is revolutionary system of 12 sweat-inducing, muscle-pumping exercises designed to transform your body from regular to ripped in 90 days. In other words it is a power workout which guarantees a physically powerful body and people are buying it and using it because they want power. But it’s not just physical power people want, there is also financial power which is why every week people turn to powerball. The jackpot last night was $146,000,000 and since I know nothing about powerball I actually went and purchased a powerball ticket this week. Guess what, I didn’t win, but many people play because they are looking for financial power in their lives.

People also look to food for power; after all, we have to maintain those powerful P90X bodies, so we have things like power bars and powerade. All around us we see the evidence that people are looking for power. We are looking for it in bodies and in our finances and in our relationships and we are looking for it in our society as well. People look to government for power and people are looking to the economy for power. Now, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but for the next 9 months we will hear endless debates and discussions about the appropriate power of government or how to make our economy powerful once again. As we gear up for this year’s presidential election we will be looking for the most powerful candidates with the most powerful solutions to lead the last remaining super-power.

We are all looking for power, a power that is real and a power that will last and the gospel of Mark makes it clear to us that real power and lasting power isn’t found in P90X or powerade, it’s not found in powerball tickets or powerbars and real and lasting power is not even found in a powerful economy or a powerful national leader, real power and lasting power is only found in Jesus.

Last week it was the power of Jesus love that we saw when he called ordinary fishermen to follow him. When the world said that these men didn’t have what it takes to be a rabbi or to even follow in the footsteps of a rabbi, the power of Jesus love and faith in the men reached out and called them to drop their nets, leave behind their ordinary lives and follow Jesus in the work of God, and they did. But that was just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the power we see in Jesus, there was so much more to come and what we heard from Mark’s gospel today opens our eyes to the rest of that power. The gospels are clear, there is real and lasting power in Jesus and people first saw this power, or actually heard it, in his teaching.

What made Jesus’ teaching so powerful was that it had authority. While other teachers taught from the authority found in the words of the teachers who went before them, Jesus taught people with the authority of His word and people could hear the difference. People could hear the power of truth in Jesus’ teaching and preaching and they could actually begin to see the power of God’s kingdom in the stories Jesus told and the images He used. But it wasn’t just the teaching of Jesus that revealed his power, it was his actions as well.

When Jesus was teaching in the synagogue one day he is confronted by a demon possessed man, actually, he is confronted by a demon in a man and Jesus shows his power over this demon and over all the forces of evil by silencing the demon and commanding him to leave the man he had tormented for years. When the demon has no choice but to silently leave the man’s body, mind and spirit, the power of Jesus is clearly seen, and this power, the power of Jesus’ word and actions caused people to flock to him.

Huge crowds began to follow Jesus and they came with demons and diseases that they wanted Jesus to drive out – and he did. The power of Jesus literally took people by the hand and lifted them up, it healed them. It cast out demons and restored people bodies and lives, and what Mark is making clear to us is here is that Jesus is the one who has real and lasting power for everyone’s life. There is power in Jesus love for people, there is power in his faith and trust in people, there is power in his teaching and truth, there is power in his authority over demons and evil, and Jesus is the one who has the power to change people’s live physically, emotionally and spiritually. There is real and lasting power in Jesus.

So if we are looking for power for our lives today, then we need understand that it is not going to be found from somewhere deep within us as we discipline and train our muscles, and it’s not going to be found by putting the right food or vitamins into us, and it is not going be found from anything in the world around us, real and lasting power only comes from Jesus and if we want to experience this power we need to start looking to Him.

Turning to Jesus for power is exactly what the crowds begin to do in Mark and I think it’s interesting that Jesus begins to reveal his power not thought mighty acts and miracles but through teaching and preaching. The first sign of power that we see in Jesus life doesn’t come from his actions but his words, he spoke with authenticity and authority. When other rabbis just quoted the words of the rabbi’s who went before them, Jesus spoke out of his own authority and he spoke with conviction and passion because he was the word. Jesus himself is the word of God in the flesh, so he has authority and power when he speaks. There was power in his teaching to reveal truth and there was power in his story telling to reveal to people what God’s heart and mind looked like and what life in God’s kingdom looked like.

If we want to begin to experience the power of God in our lives then we need to start by turning to the teaching and the preaching of Jesus. There is power when we come face to face with the truth of God shared with us through Jesus. It’s not always easy to face that power because sometimes the truth of God penetrates into the darkness of our hearts and it convicts us of sin and challenges us in life, but the power of that light can also bring forgiveness and healing. The power of God’s word can bring direction and purpose and life. So if we are looking for power, real and lasting power in our lives then like the crowds who were first drawn to Jesus because of his word, we need to first turn to God’s word. I would encourage all of us this week to read the most powerful sermon of Jesus, the Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew 5-7. In this sermon Jesus speaks with authority and in it we begin to hear the power of Jesus. The more we read God’s word the more power we will see and the power won’t just be in Jesus teaching us the truth, it will be in the miracles we see as well.

The miracles that are recorded in the gospels are the physical evidence of Jesus power in the world. As we saw earlier, Jesus had the power to overcome evil. Jesus literally drove out demons not just once but on many occasions and he restored people’s minds and spirits. He healed the sick and even raised the dead and Jesus is the one who had the spiritual power to forgive sin which released people to experience the fullness of God. But there’s more because in the gospels we read about Jesus walking on water, telling the wind and the waves to stop and multiplying bread in order to feed thousands of people. Over and over again we see that it is Jesus who has real and lasting power and the more we turn to Jesus the more power we see and one of the things we see is that Jesus not only had power but he shared it as well. Again, we heard that from Mark this morning. Jesus used his power to drive out a demon and restore a man’s life – he shared his power. Jesus used his power to heal Simon-Peter’s mother in law and he used his power to heal people.

Jesus didn’t hold on to the power of God that was part of his life – he shared it. During his lifetime Jesus shared his power with those who were sick and demon possessed. He shared his power with those where sinners and those whom society ignored and neglected. Jesus shared the power of God with others and that power changed people’s lives, but it goes so much deeper than that because Jesus actually shared his power to heal and teach and forgive and inspire with those who followed him. Look at Mark 6:7 and 12.

The disciples were given the power of God to teach and preach and cast out demons and heal the sick and they used it. Jesus literally shared his power, he gave it to his followers so they could help people and then God gave his full power to the church which means it was given to all of us. In Acts 2 we read about the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit thaws given to the followers of Jesus and that Holy Spirit was the full power of God and what we read about through the rest of the book of Acts is the story of Jesus followers using the power of God to do the same things that Jesus did. They teach and preach and heal and forgive. They change peoples lives and build God’s kingdom and then they offer people the power of God for their own lives.

If we are looking for power today we need to turn and see that the only real and lasting power is found in Jesus and then we need to understand that Jesus shares this power with us, and all of this leads us to ask… how can we receive this power and experience the power we want in our own lives? The simple answer is, we ask for it. Jesus said, seek and you will find, knock and the door will opened, ask and it shall be given to you. Now I don’t think this means that whatever we might want in life we will get, after all my ticket didn’t win the powerball, but if we ask God for something that He wants us to have and something He is willing to give us, then I believe He will give it to us when we ask. So if we want to experience power and God has power to give, and God wants to give us His power, then the simple answer of how to receive God’s power is to ask Him for it.

But, and you knew there was a but coming, but… we have to ask with the right heart and the right faith. On the day of Pentecost when the power of the Holy Spirit was given to the disciples, the reason they received it is because they were in Jerusalem when the Holy Spirit came and the reason they were in Jerusalem was because they were following the instructions of Jesus. Before he ascended into heaven Jesus told his followers to wait in Jerusalem and you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. God shares his power with us when we ask for it but he shares it with us when we ask with hearts that are willing to wait on him, listen to him and follow what he has already told us. In fact, I think what the day of Pentecost teaches us is that the power of God is experienced as we follow Jesus.

When we put into practice what we find in God’s word and as we follow the teaching of Jesus we find the power of God flowing into our lives. As we forgive others we experience the power of God ourselves. As we serve those in need we experience the power of God in our lives. As we worship and connect with God through prayer we experience the power of God. God shares his power with us willingly and abundantly when we ask but that power flows as we stay connected to God and walk in the footsteps of Jesus.

So if you are looking for power in your life today, real and lasting power, then first turn and see that Jesus is the one who has the power we want and need in life, and then see how willingly God shares this power with us, and then, let us ask. Let us just ask God for his power, a power that can fill us and a power that can change us. Let us ask…

Next Steps: Are you looking for some real power?
1. See that real power rests in Jesus.
Read Jesus Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7)
Reflect on Jesus miraculous power

Power to Forgive (Mark 2:1-12)
Power to Heal (Mark 5:21-43)
Power over Evil and Demons (Mark 5:1-20)
Power over Nature (Mark 6:45-52)

2. See that Jesus share real and lasting power (Acts 1:1-5, 2:1-13)

3. Ask God for His power.

Ask in simple faith.
Ask with open hands and willing heart.
Ask in faithful service.

5 Questions ~ What does it take for profound life change?

2012-01-22T06:48:00.000-08:00

I’ve always been amazed at the immediate response of these four fishermen when Jesus called them to follow him. 2 of them drop their nets, and the other 2 leave their boat behind with their father still in it as they all turn to follow Jesus. How did these fishermen make such a profound life change and how did they make it so decisively? What moved them to act so quickly and completely because this really was a complete change of life for them. While they still had ties to their boats and families and fishing business because later in the gospels we see them fishing once again, they never really go back to their old way of life. When they drop their nets and leave their boats behind to follow Jesus it is for good, this is a profound life change and I have always wondered what it was that enabled them to do this? I guess I want to know because I want to know how to make profound changes in my own life.

Many times when we reflect on this story and make the assumption that this is the first time Jesus had ever spoken to these men, but that is probably not true. Jesus had been teaching and preaching in this region for some time and most likely these men heard Jesus’ message about the Kingdom of God. At least one of the fishermen, Andrew, had gone out to be baptized by John the Baptist and last week we heard that he left John to begin to listen and learn from Jesus. We also believe that another one of these fishermen, John, was the other disciple of John the Baptist who went with Andrew. So Andrew and John had spent some time with Jesus, they heard his message and experienced the power of Jesus’ presence and personality. Whatever it was they saw and heard during their time with Him began to convince them that Jesus was not just a great teacher but that perhaps he was even the Messiah, after all, John the Baptist had called him the lamb of God.

So this encounter is probably not the first time Andrew and John had heard Jesus and it makes sense to think that Peter and James had also at least heard Jesus teach and preach, but there is still something powerful taking place here for all four of them to drop everything and leave behind all the security that comes with a job and a family business. What will help us understand how these men were able to make this profound life change will be to understand how they ended up as fishermen in the first place. They weren’t just fishermen just because their father was a fisherman, they were there because up until this point, they didn’t measure up to be a disciple.

In first century Galilee, the most honored and important people in the Jewish community were the Rabbis so it was an honor and a great calling to be invited to be a disciple of a Rabbi. Only the best families among the Jewish people were allowed to send their young boys off to study with them and they did this with the hopes that their sons might one day be chosen to become a discipli, and then maybe in time even become a Rabbi themselves. The learning process just to become a disciple, however, was difficult. First these boys would have to learn the first 5 books of the Bible, called the Pentateuch or Torah. Now, I don’t mean they had to learn the names of the Torah or even learn them well enough to pass a test on what happened when Moses got to the Red Sea, these boys would have had to memorize the entire Torah, that’s Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy – memorized. If they were able to do that – then they were chosen to keep going and if they weren’t the best of the best – they were sent home to learn the family trade.

But the process didn’t end there, after memorizing the Pentateuch, they then had to go on and memorize the rest of the Hebrew Bible, or our OT, that’s 35 more books from Joshua to Malachi, all the history, all the psalms, all the words of the prophets: both major & minor - memorized. Now I don’t know about you, but I have a hard time even memorizing the names of the books of the Old Testament let alone the entire Old Testament and while we may think this is excessive, keep in mind that this was a time in history when they didn’t have a lot of written materials. Rabbis couldn’t carry round a pocket Hebrew Bible, they couldn’t look up a passage on their iphones, and yet they had to be able to quote any part of scripture at any given time. So they had to simply know God’s word – all of it.

So after a certain age the boys would be tested again and only the best of the best of the best would be chosen to continue on as an actual disciple of the Rabbis, the rest would be sent home to learn the family trade. So Rabbis only called the best of the best of the best to follow them. Rabbis only chose the men who they felt could do what they did. They invited people to follow them that they respected and trusted and believed in and no one else.

So when we see that Peter, Andrew, James and John are all fishermen it’s because they were not considered the best of the best of the best. They are fishermen because they either didn’t come from the right families to be able to go and study with the rabbis when they were young, or if they did get that opportunity, they obviously had been sent home somewhere along the way because they just didn’t measure up. But everything changes when Jesus comes along. Jesus’ teaching and preaching is powerful and he speaks as one with authority. Everyone is beginning to see in him the power of God and some are even beginning to think that this unconventional rabbi is the Messiah. So when this Rabbi approaches Andrew and Peter and says, follow me, part of what he is saying to them is that he believes that they have the right stuff. Jesus believes they have the ability to do what he is going to do. This invitation to become fishers of men is an invitation to learn how to do what Jesus was doing and to follow in the footsteps of a great Rabbi. This was an incredible honor that very few people received and it told these simple fishermen that they were valued and respected and that Jesus believed in them and I think that is what enabled them to make such a profound life change.

What enable Andrew, Peter, James and John to drop their nets, leave the boats and families and business behind was knowing that the God who they experienced in and through Jesus believed in them and saw in them not just value but potential. To follow in the footsteps of a Rabbi was the greatest honor and privilege, it’s like being called up to the big leagues in baseball or starting a game in basketball or being selected the first chair in the orchestra and knowing that God believed in them and loved them that much changed their lives.

Knowing that God loves us and believes in us can help us make profound and lasting changes in our lives. The author Rob Bell has said that we are often told to have faith in God and to believe in Jesus, but we don’t often look at the other side of that. We don’t often hear the message that God has faith in us and that Jesus believes in us and yet, that’s the truth we see here. Jesus doesn’t call the best of the best of the best; he calls these fishermen and the tax collectors. Jesus called ordinary people to follow him because he loved them and believed that they could be like him and I believe it was this faith and trust that Jesus placed in these fishermen that enabled them to make this profound and lasting life change and I believe that when we begin to understand just how much God believes in us and loves us and even trusts us that we can begin to make some profound and lasting changes as well.

Too many times when we look at the changes we want to make in life we tell ourselves that part of what we need to do is work harder and place more of our trust in God, but the problem with that thinking is that it places all of the work for change on us and it has always been my experience that I will fail. I can’t tell you how many times I have tried to make changes in my life and while I might be able to accomplish these changes for a while, there comes a point in time when I fail and then I am left feeling defeated and wondering if I can really make any kind of life change at all, but when we begin to change our thinking and tell ourselves that God loves us and that God believes in us and that Jesus believes that we can live like he lived and not just do what he did but do even greater things than he did it gives us the power to make substantial and lasting changes.

Think about it, when other people believe in us and when other people have faith in us it gives us the strength and power to live life a different way. When I was in college some friends approached me about leading a Bible Study, I didn’t think I could do it but they said I could. Their faith and trust in me changed me. I’m not sure I would be here today if that first step wasn’t taken and I would never have made that first step if someone hadn’t had faith in me. Maybe you have experienced this in school with teacher or in sports with a coach. When someone believes in us it gives us the courage and the strength to do things that we might not do otherwise and it gives us the power to make profound life changes. If people believing in us and having faith in us can give us the strength and courage to change, then think about what God believing in us can help us do.

So we need to hear and take to heart the truth that God loves us and that he believes in us and that this love and faith can do more in us than we ever thought or imagined. In Ephesians 3:18-21 it says… When we begin to fully comprehend God’s love and power at work in our lives and how that love helps us do far more than we ever thought or imagined, we will begin to find the courage and the strength to make changes that we feel are necessary and important.

So it is not our hard work and discipline that helps us make profound life change, it is God’s love for us and God’s faith and trust in us that enables us and helps us, but there is something else God shows us here. Have you ever noticed that the first disciple called by Jesus wasn’t an individual but a team of four? God didn’t ask Andrew or Peter alone to make a significant change in their lives and I think this is important. The first people Jesus called to radically change their lives was a team of 4 men who already knew each other and worked well together as a team. Peter and Andrew worked together as fishermen, they were already a team that communicated well together, worked on common goals and supported and encouraged each other in business and in life, now they were making a significant life change together. And then it is says that without delay Jesus went and called James and John. It’s as if Jesus knows that Peter and Andrew were going to need more support and encouragement if they were going to follow through on this life change so he immediately calls 2 more people to follow him so they could do this all together, but it wasn’t just any 2 people Jesus called, it was 2 more fishermen who were not only brothers but fishing partners and most likely fishermen who had worked closely alongside Peter and Andrew.

Maybe Jesus called these 4 men as a group to follow him because he knew that the kind of change he was asking them to make was going to be difficult and while he believed in them and had faith and trust in their ability, maybe Jesus knew that they were also going to need each other. The truth is that to make lasting changes in our lives we need people by our side who will support us and encourage us and believe in us. If you have ever tried to lose weight or start an exercise program on your own you know how hard it is and how important support and encouragement and inspiration can be. The truth is that we need each other if we are going to make lasting and significant changes in life and I think Jesus understood this which is why he didn’t begin his work by calling just one person, but 4 and then anytime he called another person to follow him they immediately had people there, a strong team, who would welcome them and then support them in their life change.

If we want to make successful changes in life we need to make sure we are also surrounded by people who will love us, inspire us, encourage us and hold us accountable. We need people in our lives who will help us follow through on the changes we want to make and help us become the people we want to be. No change is easy, but lasting life change is possible when we understand the power of God’s love and begin to trust the faith God has in us, and lasting change is possible when we surround ourselves with people who will encourage us and inspire us through the difficult days of transformation. If there are significant changes you want to make in life, trust in the power of God’s love for you and trust in the power that family, friends and a team of support can give.

Next Steps:
Making profound life changes requires us to know that God loves us AND has faith in us.

Take time every day this week to hear this message of love and faith from God through quiet times of prayer and daily reading of scripture:
• Monday – Jeremiah 29:11-14
• Tuesday – Judges 6-9 (Story of Gideon: especially 6:36-40)
• Wednesday – Psalm 23
• Thursday – John 8:1-11
• Friday - Romans 8:28-39
• Saturday – Matthew 28:18-20
• Sunday – Philippians 2:11

Making profound life changes requires the support of others:
• Name the changes you (and God) want to make in your life.
• Name the people who can support you as you make these changes.
• Invite these people to be part of a support team that will help you make profound and lasting life changes.

5 Questions ~ What are you searching for?

2012-01-15T06:47:00.000-08:00

Last week we heard that John’s message of confession, repentance and baptism drew huge crowds of people from all over the entire region and while many of these people would have gone out to John, listened to his message and then returned home, there were some people who stayed out there and followed him. Like many of the prophets and teachers of that day, John had his own disciples and one day as John is standing with some of them they see Jesus walk by and John says, look, there goes the Lamb of God. Now this is the second time John has said this about Jesus and so two of his disciples, Andrew and John turn and begin to follow Jesus and when he sees this, Jesus asks them, what do you want? In other translations the question is recorded, what are you looking for?

I’ve been asking myself this week, what where they looking for? While we don’t know for sure, they had to be looking for something more than self reflection and forgiveness because that is what John had given them. As followers of John they had engaged in confession and repentance and they had been baptized by John, so what were they looking for? My sense is that they were looking to experience for themselves and live out day to day the new life with God that John had talked about. I think Andrew and John were looking for a life that was intimately connected to the power of God. They were looking for a life that was infused with God’s passions and values and meaning. They were looking for something that was going to fill them up and never leave them hungry again. They were looking for the very same thing many of us are still looking for today and that is a deeper connection to the living God.

It’s important for us to see here that while Andrew and John do turn to follow Jesus, it is Jesus who initiates the conversation with Andrew and John. I think this is symbolic of how God works in all our lives. God knows that we are looking for something more and as soon as we acknowledge this in some way, God is willing to reach out and help us in our search. If we want to know more about Jesus or if we want to experience more of God, God doesn’t hide from us, God reveals himself. In fact, God is willing to come to us and take the first step in developing a deeper relationship with us. Jesus tells the story of a young man who asks his father for his share of the inheritance early and then he goes off and squanders that money on wild living. When all of his money is gone the young son decides to return home to his father and see if he can just become a servant in his home because he doesn’t deserve to be a son anymore. Jesus tells this story in Luke 15:20-21.

Now why is it that the Father saw his son while he was still far off? I like to think it was because every day: morning noon and night, the Father stopped what he was doing and took the time to look for his son hoping that he would return. God is always looking for us to turn toward him. God is waiting, even wanting us to search for him and when we make that turn, like these 2 disciples, when we make that turn to God – God not only turns toward but God reaches out to us. Jesus is the first to reach out here and he is the one begins the conversation with the question, what are you looking for?

It is interesting that the first recorded words of Jesus in the gospel of John is a question that is just as relevant today as it was 2000 years ago. Today we are all still looking for something and that is made clear by the popularity of websites like google. Did you know that every day google alone get’s hundreds of millions of hits and every year google worldwide does billions of searches? But google is just one search engine, there are hundreds of other search engines in over 20 different categories and each one will help you look for whatever it is you want. From Blogs to Business, Maps to Medical to Multi-media, News, People, Real Estate, Schools and Shopping there are specific search engines to help you look for information, inspiration, entertainment even friends and relationships, whatever you are looking for you can search for it online and every day millions of people are looking for something. So the question Jesus asks Andrew and John 2000 years ago is still relevant today, what are you looking for? Not what are you searching for online but what are you searching for in life?

If Jesus were here today, sitting in front of you and he suddenly turned around as asked you that question, what would you say? I don’t know about you, but I’m not sure I would have a good answer because sometimes when it comes to God and my relationship with Jesus Christ, I don’t know what I’m looking for, I just know I want something more. I think that is exactly where Andrew and John are when Jesus asked them. They don’t know what they want, I’m not even sure they knew why they turned to follow Jesus, they just know they wanted something more, so they end up saying to Jesus, Where are you staying?

Now I don’t think the exact location of where Jesus is staying or who he is staying with is really what they want to know, but I don’t think they know what else to say. They aren’t sure what they want they just know that after confession, repentance, forgiveness and baptism they are still searching for something, something that will change and fill their lives. Does that sound familiar? I believe that in all of us there is simply a hunger and longing for more of God but many times we can’t name it. We are looking for power or purpose, security or safety, we want deeper relationships, deeper insight into the world, answers for why things are they way they are. We are looking for a lot and while we may not be able to articulate things perfectly, or ask the right questions, how wonderful that God doesn’t wait for us to get the words right. Instead of laughing at these two for asking such an absurd question, Jesus understands their deeper needs and knows what they are longing for and so reaches out to them again with a simple invitation, come and see.

Come and See. Again, I don’t think Jesus is inviting them to come and see where he is staying, I think he is inviting them to come with him, to literally go with him in life and in ministry and begin to find in Jesus all that they are looking for. I believe that this invitation still stands. No matter what we may be looking for today, I believe that we can begin to find some answers or direction if we are willing to go with Jesus and open ourselves up to what he has to offer. So let’s look at what it means for us to come and see.

When Jesus says to Andrew and John to come he literally wants them to go with him. Jesus is inviting them to walk with him, travel with him and to go to the places where he is going. Too many times when we are looking for God’s will or purpose in our lives or when we are searching for more of God’s power and presence we just stay put and expect God to come to us. The author Mike Slaughter has said, Being a Christian isn’t taking Jesus into our lives and asking Jesus to go with us - it’s going with Jesus into his life and adopting his lifestyle. While God does meet us where we are, the answers to what we are looking for in life begin to be found when we are willing to go with Him.

So when Jesus invites us to come it is an invitation for us to move. We have to be willing to move out of our routines, leave behind what is comfortable and easy and go where Jesus goes. Think of what this invitation meant for Andrew and John. They had to leave their jobs and their families to be able to travel with Jesus. They had to leave John the Baptist and their circle of friends and begin to develop relationships with people I’m sure they never had thought about associating with before, people like tax collectors, prostitutes, Samaritans and all kinds of sinners. They literally had to walk new roads, reach out to new people and be willing to do new things with Jesus. To find whatever it is we are looking for also means that we have to be willing to move.

God, and the life he offers, can not be found by simply sitting at home and doing a google search for Jesus. You can do that and let me tell you, it is fascinating what you will find, but all that you will find will be information about Jesus and while some of what you will find might be entertaining, much of it will not even be accurate. We are used to being able to search and do just about everything at home and find all that we want from the comfort, safety and security of sitting behind our computers, but if we never move beyond that – we will never really find what we are looking because the real life God offers isn’t found online it is found in the world. God is more than information and God is more than inspiration, God is life and relationship. God is alive and moving in our world. God is where people are hurting and hungry and happy and hopeful. God is where people are working and worshipping, where people are building relationship and building homes, sharing food and sharing faith. God is never going to be found unless we are willing to go where God is most visible and most powerfully at work and that is in the world.

Jesus said that we will see him when we feed the hungry, clothe the naked and visit those who are in need so Jesus is out there in the world and if we want to find answers in life - we need to go where he is and we need to begin to do what he is doing, and that is the second part of this invitation. When Jesus says come and see, I don’t think he is inviting Andrew and John to just follow and observe. This is a call for them to get invovled. Travelling with Jesus means we began to do what he did.

One of the most amazing miracles Jesus performed he did through the hands of his disciples, in fact, Andrew himself experienced this power of God. In John 6 we find Jesus and his disciples in a very remote place with thousands of people surrounding them. They have been listening to Jesus teach and preach all day and while the disciples want Jesus to send everyone home to eat, Jesus tells them, no you feed them. It is Andrew who brings to Jesus a boy with 5 barley loaves and 2 fish and gives the food to Jesus. Jesus then blessed the food and gave it to the disciples to distribute among the people. Can you imagine the fear and anxiety among the disciples as they think about trying to feed 5000 people with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish? I’m thinking that they started passing out very small pieces of bread, but then as they kept having more and more food to give, they gave out larger and larger pieces and with more and more excitement. Andrew didn’t just see this miracle take place – he was part of it and when Jesus performed miracles his disciples were often part of them and that experience changed their lives.

When Jesus calls us to come and see it is not to passively observe it is a call to do what he is doing and be actively involved. One of my greatest fears is that too many of us follow Jesus but from a distance. We observe instead of getting involved and what happens is that we not only miss experiencing the power of God for ourselves, but we never really find what we are looking for because the things that will meet our deepest needs and give us the greatest direction in life are only found when we are willing to get involved and experience the life Jesus offers.

I know I have shared this before, but when I first made the decision to attend seminary I didn’t know what I was looking for. I was like Andrew, I felt that Jesus held the answer but I didn’t even know what the question was. My first year in seminary, I was an observer. I went to class, I read books, I took tests, I wrote papers and I learned a lot about God but I still didn’t have a sense of direction or purpose and I still didn’t know what I wanted or needed in life. My second year of seminary I began work as a student associate pastor of a church in Graham NC, and as I actually got involved in the work of God, from teaching third grade Sunday school to helping with weddings, funerals and worship, and as I got more deeply involved in the lives of people on a spiritual level, I began to experience God’s power and the life God had for me. I didn’t get direction for my life and the answer to my questions from a book or a lecture or a class project, I got it by going to where God was at work and working with God and his people.

I still believe that we find what we are looking for in life when we respond to Jesus invitation to Come and See and I believe that it is this invitation that Jesus offers us today. Today we can turn and go to those places where we sense God is at work and today we can make the decision to get involved in the work God is doing which means that today we can begin to actual find what we are looking for.

Next Steps:
What are you looking for?

Make a list of the things you are looking for from God.

Share this list with God in prayer.
Share this list with a friend.

In response to our searching, Jesus invites us to Come and See.

What will it mean for you to Go with Jesus?
Where do you sense Jesus working in our community?
What would it look like for you to go there and spend time with Jesus?

What will it mean for you to See Jesus?

What work is God calling you to in the life His church?
What work is God calling you to in the community? World?

5 Questions ~ Are You Tired of Religion?

2012-01-08T04:16:00.000-08:00

So John the Baptist suddenly appears in the wilderness and begins to proclaim a message that calls people to confess their sin, repent and be baptized and while you wouldn’t think that kind of a message would have mass appeal, it did. It says that people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to John to be baptized. John was drawing huge crowds and the reason I believe the people were drawn to John and his message was because those same people were tired of religion. People were tired of long prayers offered by the priests; they were tired of meaningless sacrifices that had to be given again and again and they were tired of empty rituals that had long ago lost their meaning. They were tired of a religion that was heavy on rules and regulations and light on grace and freedom and power. They were tired of religion and were looking for something different, the people were looking for something real and something that would make a difference in their lives and maybe through them make a difference in their world. People were looking for something that would improve their relationships with family, friends and neighbors and they were looking for a new and fresh movement of God. John drew crowds because the people were tired of religion and I think that if we are honest with ourselves then we would say that many people today and maybe many of us here are also tired of religion.

I read a blog post this week from a young woman who said that after 34 years of regular weekly church attendance, she was bored. She was bored with long sermons and predictable liturgy, bored with rambling announcements and empty prayers, bored with endless sign-ups for small groups and lunches. She was just bored. Now let me say that while this young woman is not a member of this church, many of her words reflect what we do on a regular basis and so I had to stop and ask myself, how many of us are tired of religion and maybe bored with church and worship? It’s ok if we are; in fact that might be a good thing because when we get tired of religion and bored with church it is because we are looking for and hungry for something more. Like the young woman says, “I’m sincerely unsure of the solution, I just know I’m ready for something else.”

Many people today are tired of religion and looking for something else, they are looking for something real, and longing for something that will touch their lives to the core and make a significant difference. A young man wrote that when it comes to church he doesn’t want cool as much as he wants what is real. “If we are interested in Christianity in any sort of serious way,” he writes, “it is not because Christianity is easy or trendy or popular. It’s because Jesus himself is appealing and what he says rings true.” I think when people heard the message of John the Baptist they were drawn to it because it rang true and it offer them something real, so they left behind their religion and headed out into the wilderness to find the beginning of a relationship with the living God.

Today if you are tired of religion, and if you are bored with church, then I want to invite you to find what is real because what is real is the opportunity we have to build a relationship with the living God but that relationship only comes when we begin to get serious about who we are and how God wants us to live our lives. Our journey to find what is real doesn’t start by going out into the wilderness but by being willing to go inward into the very depths of our own hearts and lives. St. Augustine wrote, do not go outward, return within yourself. In the inward person dwells truth.

The real journey that John called people to take wasn’t out of their towns and cities so they could be baptized in the Jordan River but to go inward and look deep into their own hearts and lives to see what needed to be confessed and offered up to God so they could begin to see God for themselves and see God’s will for their lives. If you are tired of religion and bored with church then it’s time to look inward and get honest with God and to get honest with ourselves and begin a process of confession and repentance, but beware, because this is not an easy process.

After his fall from grace a few years ago, Tiger Woods said, “at first, I didn’t want to look inward. Frankly, I was scared of what I would find—scared of what I had become.” It is scary to look deep into our hearts and lives because many times what we find there are thoughts, attitudes and actions that are not pleasing and acceptable to God, or for that matter to us. We know there are things we want to change about our lives and we know there is sin that we want to overcome but many times we just feel powerless to do anything about it so we just let that sin remain. But sin doesn’t just go away on its own. Selfishness, pride, out of control habits that destroy our families and finances, these things just don’t go away on their own – they need to be confronted and confessed so they can be overcome.

The first step in confession is to get real and honest with ourselves. What is it that we see when we look into our hearts and lives? What are the habits and patterns of thought and behavior that need to change? Where is our life out of control? We need to get honest about these things and confront this sin and confess it to God. Maybe we need to take some time alone and reflect on what we see in our hearts and lives and maybe even make a list of what we find there. Actually writing down our sin so we can see it helps us confront it in ways that then help us confess it to God. There is simply something about seeing the truth of our lives written down that convicts us like nothing else can.

When a woman who had been caught in sin was brought to Jesus and the crowd was ready to stone her, Jesus wanted to turn that situation around and confront people with the reality of their own sin, so he bends down and begins to write on the ground. I imagine Jesus writing down specific words like lust, greed, anger, lying to your wife, cheating on your husband, pride, fraud, selfishness. When people saw their sin written down they had to own up to it and that moved all of them to the point where they dropped their stones and walked away. They were convicted. There is something powerful about sitting down and looking at the reality of our own sin literally spelled out in front of us. Once we see it we can’t ignore it, so maybe we need to spend some time doing some serious self-reflection and write out our sins.

As difficult as that is, what would be even harder would be to then sit down with someone we trust and share that list with them. When people went out to John to be baptized they confessed their sin and when they did they didn’t use some nice generic cleaned-up prayer written by a priest or rabbi in some synagogue or Temple far away. They used their own words and most likely words that flowed through their own tears and pain. They would have walked down into the muddy water of the Jordan River and said things like this, my life is out of control and I need God’s help. I have allowed anger and greed and lust to control my life and I need God’s forgiveness if I am going to be able to experience freedom and healing in life. I’m tired of trying to live life on my own and always falling short, I need God. Religion calls us to go through the motions of confession while a relationship with God calls us to confess our sins to one another and pray for one another so that we may be forgiven and healed. That’s what it says in James 5:16

When was the last time you confessed your sin to someone? Have you ever confessed your sin to someone else? I’m not talking about getting caught by someone in a lie or having someone else confront us about an issue in our lives, I’m talking about being willing to sit down across from someone and start getting real about life. This kind of honesty and vulnerability is not easy but it is the beginning of a relationship with God that will be anything boring. You see, religion gets tired and boring because it takes this idea of confession and turns it into empty prayers when what God wants is for us to be willing to come clean with one another and in love and grace start walking with one another in life. Generic prayers don’t bring life, generic prayers don’t bring the power to heal and forgive, that comes when we confess to one another and pray together using honest, heartfelt and often broken words.

Confession was just part of John’s message, the other part was repentance. You see, it’s not enough to just confess to God and to others all the darkness that we find in our hearts and lives, we have to be willing to take some steps to start living in the light. While confession means that we confront the reality of the sin and actually name it to God and others, repentance means we need to turn away from that sin and start living life different. Now as hard as confession is, repentance is even harder because it is not easy to change the way we think about ourselves, others and the world around us and it’s not easy to overcome habits that have become such strong parts of our lives – but we can overcome our sin and we can live life differently with the help and the strength of God. That’s why John baptized people because baptism was the sign that through the power and grace of God we can die to our old self and old habits and sins and raise up from the water to live a new life.

Baptism was the reminder to the people that new life was possible and the same is still true today. New life is possible for us. It is possible to overcome our sin and experience a freedom and forgiveness that can change us but this new life doesn’t come from ourselves and it doesn’t come from trying harder or thinking better or disciplining our bodies, this new life comes from God. It is God’s forgiveness that makes new life possible because it is God’s forgiveness that actually removes our sin from us. In Psalm 103:12 it says as far as the east is from the west, so far has God removed our sin from us and it is because God has forgiven us or removed our sin from us that we can experience new life. When John baptized people it was to remind them that there was real forgiveness from God which makes new life possible.

New life is still possible for us today and I believe that it is this new life that people are searching for and it doesn’t come from religion. The new life God offers us doesn’t come from believing the right things or following all the right rules and traditions. New life comes when we are willing to build a relationship with God where we turn away from our selves and walk with God. 1 John 1:7-8 says, if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus his son cleanses us from all sin. Walking with God day in and day out and trusting Him cleanses us from sin which in turns gives us the strength and power we need to begin living life a different way.

So what does it look like for us to walk in the light as God is in the light? It means walking in the light of prayer and the light of God’s word. It means taking seriously what we find in God’s word and understanding that the real joy and thrill in life doesn’t come when we try to figure out how to avoid doing what the Bible says but we actually start living it out. So many people who are searching for something real and powerful in life find Jesus appealing and what he says rings true but they never experience the adventure Jesus offers because they never really follow him. We have to take seriously the word of God and apply that word to our lives. In Jesus God has shown us the way to live and it’s not an easy road of religious rules and regulations, it is a personal journey of seeking the direction and power of the living God just like Jesus did each and every day.

So if you are tired of religion and if church has become boring, what you are feeling is nothing new and the answer is nothing new. The answer is getting serious about a relationship with God which begins with confession and moves to repentance and then calls us to step out to live a new life. The answer is to get honest with God and real with one another so that together we can experience the power and life of Jesus.

Next Steps: If you are you tired of Religion:

Confess your sin to God and others:
• Take some quiet time this week to reflect on your heart and life.
• Write out the specific sins that you struggle with, and don’t avoid the hard stuff.
• Confess your sin to God.
• Find a trusted friend and put James 5:16 to work.

Repent (turn away) from sin and find the power to live a new life
• Experience freedom in God’s forgiveness .
• Read and reflect on Psalm 103:12 and 1 John 1:7-9.
• Look up other biblical passages on forgiveness and repentance.
• Walk “in the light” with God
     o Pray for God’s strength and guidance every day
     o Live out what you read in God’s word
     o Trust God to raise up new life in you

The Journey of the Magi

2012-01-05T09:31:00.000-08:00

Today we end our journey to Bethlehem by looking at the last group of people who make a journey to find the Christ Child, and that is the Magi. One of the things that we have seen in our study of the Nativity this year is that sometimes the story of Jesus birth is shaped more by images from Christmas Cards and Carols and pageants than the Bible and nowhere is this more true than in the story of the Magi. Our understanding of this story is probably shaped more by the Christmas Carol we three kings, than from Matthew 2 because we always see these men pictured as 3 kings, but nowhere in Matthew does it say that these men were kings and nowhere does it say that there were three of them, just that there were three gifts. And while many Christmas cards and pageants have the magi arriving at a stable and kneeling down at a manger, what Matthew says is that they find the child Jesus in a house with his mother, which leads us to believe that they arrive some time after Jesus had been born, which makes sense because if the star appeared at Jesus birth, it would have taken some time for the Magi to make their journey.

So what do we know about these travelers? Matthew says they came from the East which means they most likely came from Persia, which is modern day Iran, and this means the Magi may have travelled up to a 1,000 miles to find Jesus. Now a journey this long would have taken several months, if not years, so again, the Magi would not have found Jesus at the stable and in a manger, and they would not have been surrounded by sheep and shepherds like we see in so many Christmas cards. What Matthew does say is that they find Jesus and his mother at a house in Bethlehem. Now as we have seen, if Joseph was from Bethlehem, this house would have been Joseph’s parents home which had now become their home. Remember, after a couple was married they would move in with the groom’s family until they had enough money to move out on their own, so it makes sense that the Magi would find Mary and Jesus living in the home of Joseph’s family in Bethlehem.

Another thing that Matthew tells us about these travelers is that they were Magi, which comes from the Greek word Magos and this doesn’t mean they were magicians but scholars and because they noticed a new star in the sky and understood that this star meant a new king had been born in Israel, we believe that the type of scholar they were was a cross between an Astronomer and Astrologer. In Persia at this time the scholars who read the stars were Zoroastrian priests. Part of the religious beliefs of these priests was that good words and good deeds were necessary in order to be happy, so when they see the sign that a king had been born, they would have wanted to welcome that king so they set out on the long journey to find him. Not being well versed in the prophetic writings of Israel, the Magi travel to Jerusalem because Jerusalem was the capital of Israel and if a king was to be born that was the most likely place to find him. When they arrive in the city they ask the religious leaders of Israel where the king was to be born and when they are told in Bethlehem they once again head out to make the very short trip to Bethlehem and as they make their way they once again see the star that had led them on their journey and the star stops over the place where they find Jesus.

One of the interesting things we see in this passage is that it’s when the star stops that the Magi are filled with joy. As a cross between an astronomer and an astrologer it was the stars that spoke to those men so when they see that the star has stopped they know they have found what they are looking for and even before they see Jesus, it says they are overjoyed. These men find joy in the journey they are taking and when they know they are close to finding what they have been looking for, when they know they are about to meet this amazing king whose birth is proclaimed in the stars, they are filled with joy. Sometimes I wonder if we are filled with joy on our journey of faith. Are we ever overwhelmed with joy just by the thought of being in the presence of Jesus? If not, why? Why does the thought of God in the flesh, or a savior, redeemer and king present with us not move us the way it did these Magi, or the shepherds, or the angels?

One of the common themes we see in the Nativity story is overwhelming joy. The message that the angel gives to the shepherds is good news of great joy and it is so great a joy that as soon as it is spoken all of heaven breaks into songs of joy. Once the shepherds see Jesus for themselves they are filled with joy and go away glorify and praise God and now these Magi are overwhelmed with joy even before they see Jesus because they know that he has to be something special for a star to announce his birth.

Since today is a day for New Year’s resolutions, how about we make a resolution to be a people filled with overwhelming joy? Let’s resolve to be a joy filled church and we can do this because joy isn’t an emotion that we feel when things are going well joy is the byproduct of committing ourselves to walking with God and keeping ourselves in the presence of and staying connected to Jesus. It was the journey that helped fill the Magi with joy, so we need to commit ourselves to our own journey of faith in the New Year.

Walking with God and being in the presence of Jesus calls us to be in prayer and in the word of God on a regular basis and for joy to be sustained we need to worship together and work together in mission and ministry. Joy comes in our journey of our faith – it is not an end result of faith. Let me say that again, Joy comes in our journey of faith – it is not the end result of faith, isn’t that what we see here. The Magi were filled with joy before they ever saw Jesus, but they were on their way – joy came to them on their journey. The shepherds grew in their joy as they first heard the good news and then travelled to find the baby and then shared the good news with others. Joy grows and was sustained on their journey and joy for us will grow and be sustained on our journey and so to be a people of overwhelming joy we need to be people committed to the journey of faith. Maybe that should be our New Year’s resolution, to be people committed to travelling together on our journey of faith.

There is one more thing to note about this story of the Magi and that is what it tells us about God. By placing a star in the sky at the birth of Jesus, God spoke to these foreign men in a way that they could understand. As astrologers or astronomers, they understood the message of the stars so God spoke to them through the stars and God guided them in life and to faith through the stars. What this says about God is that God is willing to use any and every means available to proclaim his message about Jesus. To shepherds God used angels, to Magi God used a star, to us today God uses people, books, songs, movies, nature, science, the internet and all sorts of means and media to share his message with us and the reason God does all of this is because God wants us to find him.

The star in the sky and the journey of the Magi shows us that God wants to be found not only by his people, but by all people. God doesn’t hide from us and he doesn’t hide his truth from us, God reveals himself to us and to the world because God wants us all to find him and follow him. Through the prophet Jeremiah 29:13-14 God says, You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by declares the Lord. While God wants to be found by all people and as we see with the Magi God reveals himself to all people, even a group of Zoroastrian priests in Persia, we also see from this story that not everyone finds Him.

The Magi search for Jesus and find him because they were open to God and searched with all their heart. They wanted to know God more and even wanted to worship this new born and divine king. Herod, on the other hand, did not find Jesus. Herod was also an outsider who heard about the work of God and I believe God wanted Herod to come to him as much as anyone, but Herod was not open to God. His heart was closed and his only interest and passion was self preservation. Herod only cared about Herod, so instead of finding Jesus – which he easily could have done because Bethlehem was just a few miles from Jerusalem, he closed his heart toward God and never found him. So in the Nativity store we see God revealing himself to everyone, a faithful couple, Jewish Shepherds, foreign priests and even a ruthless king, and those who were open and wanted to find God found him. Those who closed themselves off from God did not.

There is a lesson for us here as we enter into the New Year. It’s not enough for us to know that God reveals himself to us and wants to be found by us, we also have to be willing to search with an open heart. We have to want to know God more and that is my prayer for all of us, that we would have a desire to simply know God more, because that desire will move us to seek God and when we seek God with all our heart – when we joyfully follow the light of the start - we will find Jesus.

Next Steps: (A New Year Resolution)
To be a people filled with Joy and since Joy comes in the Journey of faith I will seek God this year with an open heart.

In 2012 I will:
Connect with God through…
Weekly Worship and Daily Prayer

Serve God through…
Monthly ministry in the church and mission in the world

Grow in my understanding of God through…
Personal Bible Study, Small Group and/or Sunday School Participation

After-Christmas Angels

2012-01-05T09:23:00.000-08:00

If you could place yourself in just one scene of this entire Christmas story, where would you want to be? Would you have wanted to be there when Gabriel told Mary that she was going to have a child? Would you have wanted to be at the stable and heard the first cries of the son of God, or watch as Joseph gently laid Jesus in a manger? Or maybe you would have wanted to be at the stable when a group of shepherds arrived and watched the wonder on their faces as they saw for themselves the Savior of the world? Would you have wanted to see the star first appear in the sky hundreds of miles away from Bethlehem and maybe travel with the Wisemen? As you look at Nativity scenes, hear the story read and see it acted out, where would you want to be?

I would have wanted to be on the hillside with the shepherds because I would have wanted to see what the angel looked like and what that great company of heavenly hosts looked and sounded like. Was it a spectacular array of winged heavenly beings filling the sky or was it, perhaps, just a group of men – similar to the shepherds – who walked over the hill and told this lowly band about the birth of the Savior? Remember, angels in the Old Testament weren’t necessarily heavenly creatures with wings and halos and radiant light shining around them – they were simply men who came bringing a message from God. So could the angel who came to visit the shepherds have just been a man, or a group of men, who approached them on the hillsides with the good news that the long awaited savior had been born?

The only problem with that scenario is that unlike the angels of the Old Testament, this angel shines with the glory of God, but it’s not just the glory of the Lord that appears, when this angel gives his message to the shepherds, the news is so great that all the hosts of heaven suddenly appear and break into some kind of song of praise. And then as quickly as they all appeared, notice what happens, they all disappear. The Christmas angels – all of them - return to heaven and they are never seen or heard from again.

So the Christmas Angels share with the shepherds the news that a Savior has been born, but then they return to heaven and as far as we know never share that news with anyone else. I wonder why? I wonder why the angels didn’t continue to share the news on other hillsides and throughout the village of Bethlehem or the nearby city of Jerusalem. Why did they stop with this group of shepherds? Maybe it was because the angels knew that this group of shepherds would spread the word about Jesus themselves so they knew that their job was done. Well, that is exactly what happened. After the shepherds received the message of the angels it says they hurried off to find the child, and once they find Jesus in a Bethlehem stable, lying in a manger, they know that the Angel’s message is true and that the Messiah has come and the first thing they do is begin to share this good news with others. In fact Luke wants to make sure we get that detail so he mentions it twice. Luke 2:17 & 20.

So the Christmas angels return to heaven because they know that a group of shepherds would now become the after-Christmas angels. You see angels are simply messengers of God’s word and God’s truth, so when the shepherds see Jesus for themselves and begin to share the message that the Savior of the world has been born , they in effect become angels – or messengers - themselves. And every person who has shared this message of Jesus, that he is Christ the Lord becomes an after-Christmas angel and today God still needs after-Christmas angels to spread the news and share the love of Christ in all the world.

All of us are here today because of an After-Christmas Angel. There has been someone in our lives who shared with us the truth that God loved us so much that he sent Jesus to save us from sin and death. There has been some angel who shined forth the light and love of God and helped change our lives and bring us life. Who was that angel for you? Who was the one who told you about Jesus and shared with you the love of God? My after-Christmas Angel was Dave DeGraaf. Dave was a friend of mine at Michigan State who didn’t just tell me about Jesus but shared with me the love and joy of Jesus and he just radiated out the grace and power of God.

Today Dave is still an After-Christmas Angel because he works to translate the Bible into the native languages of Africa, so he literally continues to share God’s message of good news and great joy with people who have never heard of Jesus and that message is changing their lives – he is still an angel, but we don’t have to be a bible translator or missionary to be an angel, God wants us to be After-Christmas angels right where we are and we learn how to be that kind of an angel by simply following the example of the Christmas angels.

We’ve already seen that the Christmas angels were different from other angels we read about because they seem to be surrounded by the radiance and glory of God. There is some kind of light or power that literally shines forth from these messengers; it’s so real and visible that it catches the attention of the shepherds – they are filled with fear. Now as After-Christmas Angels we will not shine with a physical light, but our lives can reflected the presence and the light of God. Do people see in us the joy and peace and power of God? Do people look at us and listen to us and say, Wow, there is something different about that person? Do people see God’s light and glory in us and through us?

As I have been thinking about the people I know who do radiate out the light of God I realized that none of them work at it – the glory and presence of God just flows from their hearts and lives and the reason it does is because their hearts and lives are fully surrendered to Jesus. Like the angels and then the shepherds who become angels, they simply can’t help but share God’s good news of great joy because it has touched their own hearts and lives and they can’t help but share the love of God because that love has changed them.

If we want to be the kind of angel that shines God’s light into the darkness of our world then we don’t work on being the light – we work on reflecting God’s light and we do this by just surrendering our hearts to God every day and I am convinced that this needs to be an every day process. The darkness of our world is strong and whether it is the bad news we see around us or the depression and despair that tries to settle deep within us, the darkness of the world seeks to steal our joy and peace and so every day we need to ask Jesus to enter our hearts and lives and fill us up. We need to be filled with a light that simply won’t go out.

Like the Christmas Angels, we don’t just shine forth God’s light, we also have to speak God’s message. The Christmas angels told the shepherds the good news of great joy that was told to them – that a Savior had been born. The Shepherds simply told the world the good news of great that was told to them and that they had seen with their own eyes that a savior had been born. Today we are simply to share that same message, a savior has been given to the world, has been given to us, and it is Jesus Christ. It’s important for us to be able to speak the truth about God’s word which means that it is important for us to know God’s word, so I hope that you will make a commitment in the coming year to continue to study the word of God so that together we can share that word with others. Again, I’m amazed that the Christmas angels told just one group of people and then went back into heaven, God had faith in those shepherds to spread the word and you know God’s plan hasn’t changed, he isn’t sending heavenly beings to share his message with the world today because his plan is to use us and God still has faith in us as after-Christmas angels.

The last thing that I think we After-Christmas angels need to do today is something not seen in the Christmas Angels and that is to share God’s love in real and personal ways. The Christmas Angels return to heaven so quickly that they don’t spend any time building relationships with the shepherds so that they can really share God’s love, but as After-Christmas angels we have that opportunity. We have the opportunity to not just speak God’s word but to share God’s love in very real ways with one another. Dave DeGraaf didn’t just teach me about Jesus, he became a friend who shared with me the love and grace and power of God. He walked with me during difficult times, patiently answered all my questions about life and faith and personally cared about me and my life and I think that is part of what God wants from us today. We have an opportunity the Christmas Angels didn’t have, we get to build relationships with others and through those relationships we get to share the love of God. We get to offer people grace and mercy, we get the privilege of telling people that they are forgiven and loved by God and then share that forgiveness and love as we walk through life with them. What an honor and what a joy we have in being After-Christmas angels.

So on this Christmas Day as we hear the Christmas Angels, their great glad tidings tell, let’s become those angels who will tell the world that God loves us all so much that he came to in the person of Jesus to be our Savior. Today let’s be those After-Christmas Angels who will go forth and shine God’s light, speak God’s word and share deeply God’s love.

The Manger

2012-01-01T09:14:00.000-08:00

When the angels announce to the shepherds that the Messiah had been born in Bethlehem, it wasn’t enough for them to just tell this good news to the shepherds, and it wasn’t enough for them to break into songs of great joy praising God, the angels wanted the shepherds to go to Bethlehem and find for themselves this Messiah. The angels knew that the real power in Jesus wasn’t going to come in knowledge about him but in a relationship with him, so they tell these shepherds how to find this new born king for themselves and what’s amazing to me is that to help make sure the shepherds find the right child, they don’t describe what this Messiah looks like, and they don’t describe the parents or even give their names (which might have been the smart thing to do, I mean how many Mary and Joseph’s could there be in Bethlehem who had just given birth to a baby boy). No, the angels don’t give that kind of information and they don’t even given an address or clear directions on where to find the stable. Look at what information the angels did give, Luke 2:12. Now since every newborn child in Bethlehem would have been wrapped in strips of cloth, the unique sign that would tell the shepherds that they had found the right child – the Christ child – was the manger.

The sign to the world that God had come to dwell among us and that a Savior has come to redeem us was that the shepherds would find this savior lying in a manger. A manger is just a common, ordinary feeding trough. It could have been made of wood, or maybe even a stone that had been carved out or worn away to make a simple trough, but no matter what it was made out of, it was most likely dirty. While mangers would have been cleaned out occasionally, they would never have been scrubbed down and ready for an infant, and in the crowded city like Bethlehem at the time of the census, chances are this manger wasn’t even clean. So the sign for the Shepherds that they had found the Messiah was that he would be the child lying in a messy, dirty feeding trough – that says something about the heart of our God.

That God chose to enter this world and be laid in a manger tells us that God loves us so much that he is willing to enter into the chaos of our world and the mess of our lives. When we look around at the world today we see a lot of chaos. There is economic instability and a financial future that is really troubling. There continues to be violence and instability in places from North Korea to Afghanistan and even as a nation we are deeply divided in our social, economic and political viewpoints and the chaos of the coming election year will only make this situation worse. We live in a pretty chaotic world, so when God chooses a manger as the first place to lay his head, God is making a bold statement that he loves us so much that there is no chaos, no uncertainty, hopelessness, fear or anxiety that will keep him from us. That’s part of the good news of great joy that the angels sing about.

God is willing to enter directly into the problems of our world and he does it to bring the needed hope and peace. God enters our world in Jesus to show us a different way of living, a way that gives us the hope and strength we need to overcome the problems and rise above the chaos we see around us. The good news tonight is that God is willing to enter directly into the chaos of our world but God’s love is also very personal and so he is willing to enter directly into the problems of our own lives and the fears of our own heart. The manger doesn’t just stand for the chaos of our world it represents the mess of our lives. Last summer a group of us went to Harrisburg for a work camp and three of us spent an afternoon cleaning out water troughs for horses. After emptying out the water, we literally had to scrape out the mold and milder that had accumulated over the months and because these were huge 100 gallon tubs, at times it seemed to make more sense to clean them from the inside of the trough.

That experience will always stick with me because it seems to me to be exactly what Jesus did on the night he was born. Jesus not only entered the world, he loves us so much that enters into the mess of our lives. Through Jesus we see God patiently, powerfully and persistently working to scrape away the hardness of our hearts so we can experience the life God wants for us.

For some of us, the mess of our lives is years of pain and sadness that God wants to scrape away so that we can experience lasting joy. For some of us there is deeply entrenched sin that needs to be blasted away with the forgiveness and grace of God so we can experience freedom, and for some of us there is just the hardness of a heart that is skeptical and critical of all of things spiritual. Many of us just have a hard time believing that there really is a God who loves us. I think that was what the shepherds faced that night, wondering if there was a God out there who really loved them.

Shepherds were looked down upon in their community, they were not trusted and because their work kept them ritually unclean they often found themselves on the outside of church and the outside of society looking in. The circumstances of their lives made them outcasts and therefore maybe skeptical of a message that God loved them and cared for them. Like many of us today, they may have had a difficult time believing that there was a God who was willing to come and redeem them, so they may have needed the years of hardness scraped out of their heart to experience this love and the acceptance of God. I have to wonder what they thought that night as they saw the Messiah, the one who comes to save, lying in a dirty manger. Did seeing that manger tell them that God was willing to enter into the mess of their lives? Did it tell them that the love of God was for them? In so many ways the mess of the manger represents the mess of our lives and the good news for us tonight is that it doesn’t matter what that mess is, God is willing – even wanting – to enter right into it so he can clean it up and clean it out bring salvation and life.

So how do we allow Christ to enter into our lives and bring about this cleansing and transformation? The angels give us the answer. The angels tell us that salvation and life isn’t found in knowledge about Jesus but in a relationship with him, so we need to make our own journey to find Jesus and once we do we need to accept him and ask the power of God’s love to enter our lives and not only fill us but to change us. Now our journey to find Jesus won’t take us to Bethlehem and we don’t even have to come to this manger or any manger, our journey is a spiritual one where we need to just stop and ask God to enter our hearts and lives to forgive us.

A relationship with God begins by simply asking Jesus to meet our spiritual needs and fill us with spiritual food. You see, a manger was not just a messy place, but it was a place where animals came to get food. If you have any kind of pet, you know it doesn’t take long to train an animal to go to their own manger or food dish when they are hungry. I feed my dog in the basement and when he is hungry he doesn’t go to the kitchen for food he goes to the basement and he stands right in front of his dog dish because he knows that is where the food will be placed that will fill him up and meet his needs.

Our spiritual hunger will be met in Jesus and so we need to turn to God and ask him to fill us up and meet our needs and stop looking to the world around us. The world can not meet our deeper spiritual hunger. Presents under the tree and the food on our tables will not fill us and feed us spiritually. History has shown us that the world can not bring lasting peace or hope and joy, but God can. God can offer us a forgiveness that frees us from the power of sin so that we can experience the fullness of life and God can establish a lasting peace in our lives and in our relationship with one another and this peace will give us the strength to move forward no matter what our past may be and it will give us the power to live life the way God meant it to be lived. God can bring us peace and joy that will endure no matter what goes on around us.

The manger tells us that God is willing to enter our lives no matter how dark and messy and sinful they may be and the manger tells us that no matter what we hunger for: forgiveness – acceptance – joy – strength – peace – hope – whatever it is, God is here to fill us up. All we have to do is come to the manger, come to Jesus, and accept the grace and love he offers. The shepherds found Jesus in the manger and when they saw him, they found what they longed for. They found acceptance and redemption and life and it says that they left the manger praising God for all they had experienced – their lives were changed. Tonight I still believe that our lives can be changed because the invitation of the angels to find in Jesus all that we long for still stands.

God invites us, all of us, to come to the manger, to come to Him, and find all that we really hunger for. Whether it will be for the first time, or the 100th time, it doesn’t matter, I just want to invite you to come to Jesus and find forgiveness. Come to Jesus and find the hope you need for broken hearts and dreams and relationships. Come to Jesus and find hope for an uncertain future. Come to Jesus and if you ask him into your heart and life and into your world – you will find a joy that will remain long after the presents are opened and the food is gone. So come to Jesus and find real love and everlasting life. That is the gift that has been given to us all.

The Journey ~ From Nazareth to Bethlehem

2011-12-20T19:04:00.000-08:00

For the past three weeks we have been looking at the unusual journey that brought Mary and Joseph together and eventually led them to Bethlehem and what I have appreciated is a new perspective on an old and familiar story. For example, a few weeks ago we heard how Joseph may not have been from Nazareth where Mary lived but from Bethlehem which was about 80 miles away. Arranged marriages over long distances were not uncommon in those days so it’s possible that Joseph was from Bethlehem because as we heard today, that is where they travel at the time of the census when people were called to return to their hometowns. If Joseph was from Bethlehem, he most likely heard that Mary was pregnant while she was visiting with her cousin Elizabeth who lived in Ein Karem, which was a small town just a few miles from Bethlehem.

Last week we heard that Mary spent the first 3 months of her pregnancy with her cousin Elizabeth and then we assume Mary and Joseph travelled back to Nazareth where they quickly got married and waited for Mary to give birth. Now the custom in those days was for a young couple to return to the groom’s home where a room would be set aside or built onto the house for the newlyweds to live until they saved enough money to move out on their own, but because Mary was pregnant we assume they planned to stay in Nazareth at least until the baby was born so that Mary’s family could help her at the time of the delivery. While that may have been their plan, that plan changed when a Roman Centurion arrived with the news that the Emperor Augustus had called for a census which meant that all men had to return to their hometowns to be counted. Joseph, being from Bethlehem, now had to return home so he and Mary were forced to take the long and difficult journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem.

Before we look at the actual road that Mary and Joseph would have travelled, let’s stop and consider the census for a moment. In those days a census was called for one reason, to levy taxes. By including this detail in the story, Luke is making a point of reminding those who are reading this that when Jesus was born God’s people were living in an occupied land. The people of Israel were not free – they were being ruled over by Rome and the people hated that and they longed for the day when they would be free. In fact, the Jewish people were looking forward to the day when the Messiah would come and it was this Messiah that the angel said would be born to Mary, look at Luke 1:32-33.

This is the kind of Messiah the people were looking for, someone who would sit on the throne of David and overthrow the Roman government so the people could be free. While Jesus didn’t come to be that kind of Messiah, he did set people free from bondage – from the spiritual bondage of sin and death. So today when we hear about the Emperor Augustus and Quirinius the governor of Syria it reminds us that at times we also live in bondage and look for a Messiah to set us free. The apostle Paul talks about the bondage we live in, in the bondage of sin, in Romans 7:15, 19-20.

It is the power of sin which compels us to do those things we know we shouldn’t do and it is the power of sin which keeps us from doing what we know God wants us to do. This is the bondage and oppression that Jesus was born to take away. When we accept Christ and allow the power of God’s Holy Spirit to work in our lives, we begin to experience freedom from this kind of sin and bondage and we begin to experience the joy of new life. This freedom and new life is available to all of us today if we are willing to accept the power of God and allow God’s spirit to work in us. One of the carols we sang today said, cast out our sin and enter in, be born in us today. Freedom and life can be born in us by simply accepting Jesus as our Savior and allowing God to begin to develop new life within us. That’s a spiritual journey that can begin today by simply asking Jesus to be born in us, it won’t mean everything will suddenly be perfect and easy – it wasn’t easy for Mary and Joseph, but when invite Christ into our lives we begin a journey where we will experience the fullness of life.

For Mary and Joseph, their journey took them to Bethlehem and there are two roads they could have taken.

The road on the eastern side of the Jordan River would have been the easiest road to take. Literally, it was an easy road to travel because it was flat and followed the river which meant there would be food and water, and this road also passed through areas that were much more acceptable and friendly to the Jewish people, but this road was longer so it would have taken Mary and Joseph more time to get to Bethlehem which meant they ran the risk of having their child along the way.

The other road, which lies to the west of the Jordan River, ran through a much more difficult terrain. There were sections of this road that went through the mountains and it was very dry and having enough water was always a concern on trips in those days, so the physical journey would be difficult for anyone, let alone a woman 9 months pregnant. The western road also travelled through Samaria which was considered an unclean land by the Jewish people. The Samaritans were despised by the Jews and because many Jews considered the Samaritans ritually impure and unclean, the region was often avoided by many faithful Jews, but this road would have been the fastest way to Bethlehem and so most scholars believe that this was the road travelled by Mary and Joseph.

What is interesting about this road through Samaria is that it is called the Way of the Patriarchs because it is in this region that much of the history of the Old Testament took place. For example, this was the land where Abraham was shown the land God was going to give him and his descendants forever. It was in this land that Joseph was buried and it was here that Joshua set up the Ark of the Covenant. This was also the road that Israel would have travelled when they were led away into captivity, travelling from Jerusalem to the land of Babylon in the northeast, and this would have been the road God’s people would travelled when they returned to their homeland to rebuild the Temple and the city of Jerusalem. This road was rich with history and in many ways it was a road God was very familiar with because he had travelled it with his people for generations. How interesting to think that now God was going to travel this road in the flesh, in the womb of Mary.

Mary and Joseph’s decision to take this road to Bethlehem also reveals something to us about their heart and character. Because they were travelling through Samaria, Mary and Joseph must have been ok interacting with people that others considered unclean and impure. When we consider the life of Jesus and remember all the times he reached out to those others considered unclean, we begin to see just how his heart and life were shaped by his earthly parents.

As an adult, Jesus would travel through Samaria and not just pass through like other Jews would, but actually stop and engage in ministry. In fact, a well that Mary and Joseph would have stopped at for the night was the same well where Jesus stopped and asked a Samaritan woman to draw him some water. Jesus shocked his followers by not just reaching out to speak to Samaritans but he offered them forgiveness and salvation. While this was shocking to many people in Jesus day, it makes sense that Jesus might be like this when we think about his parents. They were compassionate people who also may have been willing to reach out and embrace people who were different than they were.

All of this makes us stop and ask ourselves if our own hearts are open to all people? Do we really believe that God’s love and forgiveness is available to everyone regardless of who they are and what they have done in life? Do we believe that God’s grace is deep enough to forgive and wide enough to receive everyone? We have been wrestling with this very issue in our community recently as we have had to come face to face with the reality of child abuse. We have had to ask ourselves if we believe that God’s grace is for all people, even those who are accused or found guilty of crimes. This doesn’t mean there isn’t justice for criminals and consequences for sin, but is God’s grace big enough to forgive everyone? May and Joseph were willing to open themselves to everyone, to all people – the angels told the shepherds on the night that Jesus was born that a savior had come for all the people - Jesus offered God’s grace and life to all people – will we offer God’s grace and love to all people?

So we believe that Mary and Joseph travelled through Samaria and arrived in Bethlehem where it says in Luke 2 that Jesus was born and laid in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn. So now we come the question many of you have been thinking about for the last couple of weeks, if Joseph was from Bethlehem, then why did Mary and Joseph have to go to an Inn instead of to Joseph’s home? That’s a great question and one possible answer is that maybe they did go to Joseph’s home.

If we look at Luke 2:7 it just says that they laid Jesus in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn. Now the word inn here is the Greek word kataluma and the only other place this word is used in the Bible is in Luke 22 where Jesus tells his disciples to prepare the Passover meal in the kataluma or the guest room of a home. Luke 22 translates kataluma as guestroom and if we read Luke 2 that way, it changes the whole tone of the passage. She wrapped him cloths and placed him in a manger because there was no room for them in the guest room. Another reason we might want to read it this way is because in the story of the good Samaritan when Jesus talks about an actual Inn, Luke uses a different word, so if Luke wanted us to see this as an actual Inn, then he might have used a different word. So if we read Luke 2 and see it as a guest room that was full, we would assume the guest room was in Joseph’s home and it would make sense that the guest room was full because the census would have brought everyone home.

But, you may ask, why wouldn’t the family have given the guest room to Mary and Joseph since she was pregnant and in such need? Another good question; according to Jewish law, when a woman gave birth – because of the blood involved in the process of childbirth – the woman and all that she touched and all that the blood came into contact with would be considered unclean for a period of time which meant that if Mary had given birth in the guest room, the room would have been off limits to the entire family and most homes didn’t have more than one guest room, which meant that most of Joseph’s family would have been displaced, so it makes more sense to send Mary and Joseph to the stable to give birth and not disrupt the entire family.

Now while we may think this stable would not have been a good place to have a child, in many ways it was ideal. Stables were often built onto the back or side of the house which means that they were protected from both the weather and wild beasts, and the location could have been close to Joseph’s family, which means that they would have been there to help if and when needed.

I have to say that this new way of looking at the story was a challenge for me; after all, when I was in 5th grade I played the part of the Innkeeper who turned Mary and Joseph away, but did you notice that there is no innkeeper in Luke? While this new perspective might change your image of what took place on the night Jesus was born and while it might change how we write and present Christmas pageants, here’s what I like about it. It comforts me to know that Jesus didn’t enter the world in a strange location all alone, but in the stable of Joseph’s family. Think about it, if the feeding trough was made of wood, maybe it was something Joseph built with his father when he was a child. The stable would have been a familiar place for Joseph, maybe a place of happy memories, and his family would have been close by so in the city of Bethlehem there may not have been a better place for Jesus to be born – God provided what was best.

I think that is what encourages me the most when I look at the stable from this perspective, maybe Mary and Joseph weren’t as alone as we picture them on that night. It encourages me to know that God provided a good place for Mary and Joseph to deliver their child because that tells me that when we are in need, God will provide. If you are on a long difficult journey and if like Mary and Joseph you are asking God why things are so hard and why things aren’t turning out the way you thought they should and if you asking why God’s will is so hard to see, then I hope you will take home this one important lesson from Mary and Joseph – God will provide. God provided for Mary and Joseph all along their journey to Bethlehem and God provided for them in Bethlehem and God was going to continue to provide for them in the future because their journey wasn’t over. God never abandon them, and God does not and will not abandon us.

As faithful Jews, Mary and Joseph would have known their scripture and I wonder if the words of the prophet Isaiah rang in their hearts and minds as they travelled the road to Bethlehem or faced an uncertain future in a stable:
Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name and you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.

On our journey today, I hope we will hear this promise of God? God loves us so much that He will not only be with us, but in love and grace and in power – He will provide.

Next Steps:
Jesus came to “cast out our sin” and set us free. What sin do you need to confess to God so that God’s forgiveness and grace and set you free? Confess that sin to God this week and allow God’s grace to bring you the gift of freedom and true life.

By travelling through Samaria on their way to Bethlehem, Mary and Joseph remind us that the gift of Jesus and God’s salvation and grace is for all people. What person (or groups of people) do you struggle to love? How can you reach out to them in love in the coming year?

The stable (or cave) where Jesus was born may have been attached to Joseph’s home and the Inn that was full may have been the guest room in Joseph’s family home, so when you see Nativity scenes this week thank God that He sent Jesus to your home and to touch the hearts and lives of your family.

Invite someone who is “hungry for God” to worship with you this Christmas Eve at 4:00, 7:00 or 9:30 PM.

The Journey ~ Mary's Visit to Elizabeth

2011-12-20T19:00:00.000-08:00

Today as we continue to explore the journey of Mary and Joseph that led them to the manger of Bethlehem and the birth of Jesus, we are going to turn our focus to a part of the story which is often overlooked. There are no Elizabeth and Zechariah’s in our manger scenes or Christmas pageants so we don’t often remember the vital role they played in Mary and Joseph’s journey, but in many ways it was this visit of Mary to see Elizabeth that played a key role in Mary and Joseph making it Bethlehem together at all.

What we know about Elizabeth comes from Luke 1. We know that she is the wife of Zechariah who as a descendent of Aaron which meant that at some point in time Zechariah would serve as a priest in the Temple. We also know that Elizabeth was barren and, as it says in Luke, they were both well along in years. It is when the angel Gabriel visits Mary that we find out that Elizabeth is a relative of Mary, we assume a cousin, and it is Gabriel who tells us that while Elizabeth is both beyond child bearing years and thought to be barren and unable to have children she was, in fact, currently in her sixth month of pregnancy -Luke 1:36-37.

Now this may be the first time that Mary is hearing about her cousin’s pregnancy because if we go back to Luke 1:24 it says that after Elizabeth became pregnant she went into seclusion for five months and if you remember the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth, when Zechariah was told by God that his wife was pregnant he didn’t believe God so God made him unable to speak until the child was born. So the reality is that the news about Elizabeth being pregnant in her old age may not have spread throughout their small town let alone travelled to Elizabeth’s family living in Nazareth.

So not only does the angel tell Mary that God has chosen her to be the mother of the Messiah and that her child is to be conceived in a miraculous way, but that her cousin Elizabeth is also pregnant. Now one of the reasons the angel shares this news about Elizabeth with Mary is to help her understand that God is able to bring forth a child in impossible situations. If God can have Elizabeth, an old and barren woman conceive a child, then God can have a young virgin do the same thing. In other words, nothing is impossible with God. So Gabriel uses Elizabeth as an example of what the power of God can do to help assure Mary that God can bring forth a child in her. As soon as Mary receives this news she rushes off to visit Elizabeth and the question we ask ourselves is – why?

It could be that Mary wanted to help her cousin in the final weeks of her pregnancy and act as a midwife or helper at the time of the birth, but I think more than that Mary rushes off to see Elizabeth to make sure that what the angel said was true. If Mary goes and finds Elizabeth 6 months pregnant then she knows that what the angel said is true and she knows that God can bring about children in miraculous ways. A pregnant Elizabeth gives Mary the assurance that what is going to take place in her is from God. Mary may also have gone to see Elizabeth because if what the angel said is true, then of all the people Mary knows, Elizabeth would be the one to understand what Mary was going through. If nothing else, at least Elizabeth would believe her story about the angel and finding herself pregnant.

Now tradition tells us that the name of the Judean village where Elizabeth and Zechariah lived was Ein Karem and as we heard last week it was just a few miles from Bethlehem which were both a short distance from Jerusalem. While close to Bethlehem and the town where Joseph may have lived, Ein Karem was 80 miles from Nazareth and the journey for Mary to get there would have taken 9 or 10 days. Most likely, Mary would have joined up with other travelers who were making their way to Jerusalem because Mary would not have travelled that distance and that difficult and at times dangerous road alone.

Can you imagine what that journey must have been like for Mary? At this point she doesn’t know if Elizabeth is pregnant or for that matter if she is pregnant, after all it has only been a few days since the angel’s visit. Why had God chosen her? What was Joseph going to say if all of this was true? Would he still marry her? What would the rest of her family say? Who was going to believe her? All of these questions, doubts and fears must have been swirling in Mary’s mind as she makes her journey and all along the way she has no one to talk to. What a long and lonely road that must have been. When Mary finally arrives at Elizabeth’s home and calls out to her cousin it says that when Elizabeth heard her voice the child in her womb leaped for joy and then filled with the Holy Spirit Elizabeth immediately says to Mary, Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb. So in an instant Mary not only sees that Elizabeth is pregnant, so what the angels said is true, but Elizabeth’s greeting also confirms that not only is Mary pregnant but that her child is indeed holy and blessed. Elizabeth goes on to actually call Mary’s son Lord, (Elizabeth is the first person in all the scriptures and in all the world to call Jesus Lord) which again confirms for Mary that what the angel said is true and that the child she carries is the son of God.

When we stop and think about it, this entire scene is amazing. Elizabeth doesn’t know Mary is coming and she certainly doesn’t know Mary is pregnant but as soon as Elizabeth hears Mary’s voice something profound happens deep within her. Not only does her child leap for joy because he recognizes the child Mary is carrying, but Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit which helps her understand that Mary is pregnant and that the child she is carrying is the long awaited Messiah. And all of this happens for one important reason, to help assure Mary that what the angel said is true. You see God doesn’t give us a message or purpose and plan and then not work to confirm it in different ways. While God wants us to walk in faith, it isn’t always blind faith; God loves us enough to work through others and through the power of the Holy Spirit to help confirm his purpose for our lives.

There was a point in my life when I needed some guidance and prayed for God to give me that clear direction. In a dream God gave me that direction and as I shared this story with a group this week they asked me, how did you know it was God’s voice? The answer is that God didn’t just speak and then walk away. God used his word to help confirm that message and then as I stepped out in faith to follow God’s plan – God guided me every step of the way. God opened doors that needed to be opened and God sent people into my life and like Elizabeth, they helped confirm God’s plan.

While we often by-pass this story of Mary visiting her cousin and just jump to Mary and Joseph travelling to Bethlehem, I’m not sure that trip to Bethlehem would have taken place if Mary had not first visited Elizabeth. This visit gives Mary the confirmation she needed to keep going and maybe this visit helped Joseph as well (we’ll look at that in a moment). Elizabeth not only provides assurance that what the angel said is true, but she also provided inspiration and support for Mary. Elizabeth becomes a mentor for Mary who not only helps her understand that what is taking place in her is from God, but that it was also a blessing. Three times Elizabeth uses the word blessed, twice to talk about Mary and once to talk about Mary’s child and all of this had to have been an encouragement to Mary. So many times when we are faced with difficult situations we feel like Mary on the road to Ein Karem, we feel lost and alone and we think that there is no one who can possibly understand what we are going through, but the truth is that God always provides someone for us to turn to in times of need. If we will open our eyes, and maybe the eyes of our heart, we will find mentors and friends who are right here to support us and pray for us when we need it.

In every church I have served God has provided people who have been there to give support, encouragement and inspiration when it was needed. It Altoona it was a wonderfully faithful couple, Gene and Jackie Ross, who supported me during times of conflict and change when many others were pretty unsure about my leadership and ideas. Jackie was one of the leaders in the church and she faithfully stood with me at all times and supported what she saw God doing in me and through me. In Lewisburg there was a retired minister named Luke Brinker who served as a mentor and prayer warrior for me and he always made sure I knew he was behind me when I needed support or strength. Jackie and Luke were my Elizabeths; they were the people who with a word could encourage me when I was filled with doubt or fear.

We all need an Elizabeth in our lives and I believe God provides them if we will open our eyes and our hearts to those around us. I want to encourage you to think about the Elizabeth that God has provided for you today. Who is the man or woman that God has placed in your life that will support you and encourage you and maybe help show you what it means to walk with God? God has provided these people for us, but we do have to work to build the relationship with them. Think about Mary, God provided her someone for support, but she had to work to deepen that relationship. Mary had to make the long journey to visit Elizabeth, but it was definitely worth it.

We all need an Elizabeth in our lives but we also all need a Mary. No matter who we are we need to be looking for people who need some support and encouragement because God has placed people in our lives that need guidance and direction and He is asking us to step up and help them. Are we willing to reach out and mentor others? It takes time to build relationships where trust and love can flow in such a way that others are built up and in the midst of our busy world it may not seem like it is worthwhile taking that time, but when we look at Mary and Elizabeth we realize it is. Because of Elizabeth, God’s plan of salvation was accomplished and today God wants to use us to help bring about his plan in our lives in and in the lives of others.

Mary needed this time of encouragement, but you know, I think Joseph did as well. Last week we saw that if Joseph was from Bethlehem, which was just a few miles from where Zechariah and Elizabeth lived, then it makes perfect sense that Joseph would have travelled to Ein Karm to see Mary while she was there and that may have been where he learned about Mary’s unexpected pregnancy. Now while the angel gave Joseph the assurance that Mary’s story was true and that the child she carried was from God, think about what seeing a pregnant Elizabeth must have done to help Joseph come to terms with the situation. Seeing the miracle of birth in Elizabeth may have been the encouragement and assurance that Joseph needed to know that Mary’s child was indeed from God. This visit to Elizabeth was not just encouragement to Mary but it was important to Joseph as well and it may have been Elizabeth and Zechariah who helped Joseph get to that place where he felt comfortable taking Mary as his wife which in turn helped complete God’s plan for bringing Jesus into this world.

Again, while we often overlook this story because we don’t see Elizabeth or Zechariah in our Nativity scenes, they are vital to the journey of Mary and Joseph because they help confirm the message of the angel and their situation offers both Mary and Joseph the support, encouragement and inspiration they need. If you need support, encouragement and inspiration today – God has provided it for you and at the same time God wants to use you to support, encourage and inspire others. My hope is that as we make our way through this season we won’t get too busy to see the Eliabeth’s and Mary’s God has placed in our lives because these relationships will not only be ones of support and encouragement for us, they may the relationships that will help us both discover and then live out God’s plan and purpose for our lives.

Next Steps:
1. Who is your Elizabeth? Identify that older person who serves as your mentor and guide and take the time to deepen that relationship. Tell them you appreciate their wisdom and support.

2. Who is your Mary? Identify the younger person you are encouraging and investing yourself in. Make sure you carve out the time to deepen that relationship and share with them the blessing and joy they bring you.

3. Read Mary’s Magnificat found in Luke 1:46-55 (read it in several different translations). What does this song of praise tell us about the character of Mary? The character of the God who chose Mary? The work Jesus would do?

4. Part of Mary’s Magnificat says that God has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty. Help fill the hungry this season by donating time, food or supplies to the Christmas dinner.

The Journey ~ Joseph of Bethlehem

2011-12-20T18:56:00.000-08:00

When we think about the story of Jesus birth, there are certain assumptions we make about how all they events took place. For example, we assume that both Mary and Joseph were from Nazareth and that after they each heard from the angel about Mary’s unexpected pregnancy they quickly got married and then at the time of the census travelled to Bethlehem where Jesus was born and laid in a manger. But with a closer reading of Matthew’s gospel we see that Nazareth is not mentioned at all until chapter 2 which is several years after Jesus has been born. According to Matthew, itis only after Mary and Joseph have had the visit of the wisemen, which could have been several years after Jesus was born, and after they had travelled to Egypt that we find them finally settling down in the village of Nazareth. What Matthew seems to assume is that Joseph was not from Nazareth but from Bethlehem, so let’s explore that possibility for a moment.

The first question that comes to mind if Joseph is from Bethlehem and Mary from Nazareth is how they came to be engaged if the towns they lived in were so far apart. The simple answer to that is that most marriages in those days were arranged by the family and these arranged marriages often involved people from different villages or towns, so while Mary was from Nazareth, Joseph could very easily have been from Bethlehem.

The second question that comes up is how did Joseph hear about Mary’s unexpected pregnancy if they lived in different villages? Again the answer is pretty simple. In Luke’s story it says after Mary’s visit from the angel she travelled to visit her cousin Elizabeth who was also expecting a child (Luke 1:39) and Mary stayed with Elizabeth for 3 months (Luke 1:56). Now the Judean town where Elizabeth and Zechariah lived was called Ein Karem which just happens to be 4 miles from Bethlehem. So while Mary was visiting with Elizabeth it would have made perfect sense for Joseph to visit her and during one of those visits to hear the news of this unexpected child. You can almost picture Joseph walking home to Bethlehem disillusioned and disappointed after hearing that his fiancé is pregnant and he knows that he is not the father. While Mary said the child was from God, Joseph simply does not believe her. When it says that Joseph decided to dismiss Mary quietly and not expose her to public disgrace it is because Joseph doesn’t believe Mary’s story about the child being from God. If Joseph had believed Mary he would have taken her immediately as his wife, but he doesn’t do that. Joseph doesn’t believe Mary’s story about the angel and the baby, which only leaves one possibility – Mary had been unfaithful.

Being unfaithful during an engagement was just as bad as being unfaithful in marriage because an engagement was a legally binding contract. Mary and Joseph were already legally united, all that was left was the wedding ceremony and then the honeymoon. Since they already had this legal arrangement, with Mary breaking that covenant and being pregnant and Joseph knowing that he is not the father, he has every right to make Mary suffer the consequences of her unfaithfulness and publically shame and disgrace her, but it says that Joseph was righteous and didn’t want to do that. It’s interesting how Matthew is interpreting righteous here. His righteousness is not for the law or for the pursuit of justice but for compassion and mercy. That says something about Joseph and it says something about the God who chose Joseph. By choosing Joseph as the earthly father of Jesus who will guide his life, God is choosing a man who is more concerned about mercy than the law and let’s be clear, God chose Joseph as much as God chose Mary.

Think about it, Joseph could have continued on with his plan to dismiss Mary quietly and wash his hands of the whole situation. Joseph could have stepped away and had no involvement in the life of the child that Mary was carrying – but God intervenes and changes Joseph’s plan so that he becomes the earthly father of Jesus. By sending the angel to Joseph God is now choosing Joseph to be the father of the Jesus and God chose Joseph because he was a man who was righteous not about law and justice but love and mercy. That was the kind of man God wanted shaping the heart and mind of Jesus because that is what lies at the heart of God. The righteousness of God is not seen in his pursuit of justice but mercy, but love and grace. God’s righteousness offered forgiveness to the sinner and grace to the world through the life of Jesus.

So God chose Joseph and if he was from Bethlehem than God is also choosing Bethlehem. Like Nazareth, Bethlehem was a small town not far from the larger city of Jerusalem. The population of Bethlehem was perhaps 500-1,000 people and while it was small like Nazareth, unlike Nazareth, it was very well known. Bethlehem was the village where King David came from and according to the prophet Micah it was the place where the Messiah would be born (Micah 5:2). While Bethlehem was going to be the birthplace of the future king, at this point in time it was a working class town that was home to both shepherds and farmers. While the shepherds of Bethlehem are well known because they were the ones who were worshipped Jesus in the manger, the farmers in this area also play a significant role in the larger life of Jesus. The farmers in this area grew wheat and barley which were sold to the bakers in Bethlehem who were known throughout the region for producing bread which helped feed the people of Jerusalem and it was this grain which helped Bethlehem get its name because Bethlehem means, house of bread. Again, I don’t think it is a coincidence that from a city that was known for producing bread came one who not only provided bread for those who were hungry but who also said, I am the bread of life. That God choose to find the father of Jesus in Bethlehem not only fulfilled the prophecy that Jesus would come from the house of David and the town of Bethlehem, but it shows us once again that God loves to choose the humble, meek and hard working people of the world to accomplish his will.

While not much is known about Joseph’s life we do know that he was a simple carpenter. The word carpenter that is used to describe Joseph is the word tekton which means builder and usually refers to someone who built things out of stone or wood and teckton is part of our word architect. But Joseph was not an arch-tekton or master builder, he was just a tekton, a simple builder or wood-worker who helped provide doors and roofs for the people of Bethlehem and for the larger city of Jerusalem.

So Joseph was a simple hard working man who as we have already seen, had a very human reaction to the news of Mary’s unexpected pregnancy. Let’s go back to that reaction for a moment. Joseph has just learned that Mary is pregnant and he knows beyond any doubt that he is not the father. This has to be the lowest moment of Joseph’s life. No matter what he does he will face shame and ridicule because people will talk and make up their own minds about what really happened. If he dismisses Mary, people will think that he was cheated on, and if he takes her as his wife and do the math when the baby arrives, they will assume that he didn’t wait for the wedding to consummate the marriage. There is no easy way of the situation and Joseph is disillusioned, disappointed, and maybe even a little bit angry at Mary and at God, and yet think about this, in the midst of the lowest moment in his life – what is God doing? As Joseph is wrestling with the mess of his life, God is at work in Mary bringing about the child who will save Joseph and all the world from the mess of sin. Not only is God working to save Joseph, but God is also working to include Joseph in this grand plan. While Joseph is struggling with his situation, God is at work sending an angel to Joseph so that he can be part of God’s plan. When we step back and look at this moment in Joseph’s life we see that in his moment of great disappointment, pain, frustration and doubt - God was still at work bringing about salvation and purpose. Can we see that today in our own lives?

In the midst of great disappointment or disillusionment when our lives haven’t turned out the way we wanted them to or thought they should, can we stop and see that God is still at work to bring about our salvation? And can we see that God is working to help us see the plan and purpose he has for our lives? While Joseph is wrestling with his doubts and fears – God was preparing Gabriel for another mission and issuing another invitation. Even when we can’t see it, God is working to bring us life and the fullness of life is there for us if we will just keep walking with God.

Think what Joseph’s life would have been like if he had walked away from Mary. He would never have been blessed to hold Jesus in his arms. He would never have worshipped with the shepherds and wisemen, he would never have experience the thrill of working with God to bring salvation to the world and that was the mission God gave Joseph. Look again at what the angel said to Joseph. Take Mary as your wife – which also means take the child she carries as your son and name him Jesus for he will save people from their sin. Joseph has a part in God’s plan to bring salvation to the world and if he walks away – he misses the adventure and the blessing of working with God.

Sometimes it is tempting for us to walk away from God when we are disappointed with life, but think of what we will miss out on if we do that. God wants to use us to help bring love and joy and salvation to the world. God wants to work in us and through us and with us to accomplish his purpose and plan and there is nothing more satisfying than the experience of working with God. We may not see the world change as we walk with God, but neither did Joseph or Mary or for that matter Jesus. They didn’t see the world transformed by their faithfulness, but they did see lives changed. One at a time they saw lives changed. Joseph saw the lives of Shepherds and Wisemen changed when they came to worship Jesus and so can we. By offering the compassion and mercy of God to those around us, we can change thir lives. By reaching out to love and forgive we can change lives. When we share with others that the God of the universe cares for them and loves them - we can change lives. Like Joseph, God wants to change lives through us and he can if we will simply keep walking with Him.

Joseph kept walking with God. He walked back to Mary and together they walked to Nazareth, Mary’s hometown where there was a wedding. Then Joseph walked with Mary to Bethlehem where their child, God’s Son, was born. And then Joseph kept walking with God and was used by God to help protect Jesus as an infant shape his heart and life as a child and we know that Joseph shaped Jesus heart and life. Think about the righteousness we see in Jesus. It wasn’t zeal for the law but for love and it wasn’t a call for justice but for mercy. Jesus learned what true righteousness was all about from both his fathers – God and Joseph and all of that happened because in the midst of his disappointment and disillusionment in life – God was still at work in Joseph and Joseph kept walking with God. Today, no matter what we are going through – God is still at work in us so let’s keep walking with him.

Next Steps:
What disappointment have you experienced that you need to ask God to help you through? What will it mean for you to walk with God through this time and not away from God? List three ways you can continue to walk with God:

Through Joseph’s disappointment, God was still at work, how is God at work in your life? Identify three specific ways you see God working in your life and use this list to help you see the purpose and plan God has for you:

Identify one person who is going through a difficult time and offer them words of hope. Be the voice of an angel (God’s messenger) and remind them that God is still at work and has a plan for their lives.

Continue reading the journey of Mary and Joseph found in Luke 1 and 2 and Matthew 1 and 2, as well as the prophecy about Bethlehem found in Micah 5:2-5a. What do these passages tell us about the character of Mary, Joseph and the coming Messiah as well as the heart and character of God?

The Journey ~ Mary of Nazareth

2011-12-20T18:53:00.000-08:00

For the next four weeks we are going to take a journey into one of the most familiar stories we know, the story of Jesus’ birth. It’s a story most of us have heard all our lives and while all the major characters are familiar to us: Mary, Joseph, shepherds, Wiseman and angels, there are probably some details that we have never stopped to think about. One of the problems with any familiar story is that sometimes when we hear it we forget to really listen and so can we miss out on some of the deeper truths. My hope and prayer is that during our Advent journey we will hear together new details about this story that will open our eyes, minds and hearts so that we will not only see the richness of this journey but that we will see the power and love of God in some new ways.

Every journey begins with a single step and the first step in the Christmas story is found in Luke 1:26. Now we have heard this so many times that it may not strike us as being out of the ordinary or even very significant, but that God sent an angel to Nazareth, for the people who first read Luke’s gospel this would have been startling because at this point in time Nazareth was not well known at all. The village of Nazareth is not mentioned in any of the official secular history recorded by the historian Josephus, and even in the Jewish writings, Nazareth is not mentioned at all. The town of Nazareth is not once mentioned in the Old Testament and it is not mentioned at all in the expanded Jewish writings known as the Talmud. Nazareth is a totally obscure and insignificant place with maybe a population of 400 people.

While Nazareth was not well known it was the suburb, if you could even call it that, of the much larger and well known city called Sepphoris. Sepphoris was known as the ornament of Galilee and it was the city that Herod Antipas chose as his capital in 4BC. At the time of Jesus’ birth, Sepphoris was an affluent and prosperous city that boasted a population of over 36,000 people. Sepphoris was not only the capital but it was known for the luxury villas that people built on the hillsides and many of those villas had beautiful mosaic floors. (show picture) So Sepphoris was well known and important – Nazareth was obscure. Sepphoris was wealthy and prosperous, Nazareth was poor and struggling. Sepphoris was the home of rulers, leaders and the wealthy businessmen of the day, Nazareth was the home of farmers, servants and the laborers who installed the mosaic floors. If God was going to choose a woman to be the mother of the Messiah and he was looking at this area, most people would have thought that Sepphoris would have been the place God would look. So that an angel went to Nazareth would have been surprising.

While Sepphoris held all the money and artistic beauty of the area, Nazareth did have one important feature that made it vital to the larger community – it had a spring that provided water for the surrounding area. Being such a dry region, villages usually developed around springs of water and it is believed that this is how Nazareth became a village in the fist place. Why that spring is important is because there are some who believe that the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary at the spring when she went to draw water. Drawing water would have been Mary’s job as a young girl and so much of her time would have been spent at the spring and so the Orthodox Christian Church believes that Gabriel appeared to Mary and spoke to her not at her home but at the spring.

I have to say that I found this fascinating because I always pictured this story in Luke taking place in Mary’s home, in a simple bedroom during the middle of the night. Again, some stories are so familiar that we don’t really listen to them, but if we go back and look at Luke 1, nowhere in the story do we hear that Mary was at home or that it was at night when the angel appeared so this encounter could very well could have taken place at the spring early in the morning or in the evening when Mary went to draw water. But let’s push this idea a little further.

The Orthodox Christian Church also believes that while Gabriel was an angel - he appeared to Mary not as a heavenly being with wings and radiant light, but as a man who simply walked up to Mary and began a conversation. When we read the account in Luke1, this again makes some sense. Nowhere does it say that Mary was terrified by the sudden presence of a heavenly being like the shepherd were, so Gabriel could very easily have been a messenger in human form who simply walks up to Mary and brings her this message from God. This makes a lot of sense because that is often how angels appeared to people in the Old Testament.

In Genesis 18 there is the story of 3 visitors who simply walk up to Abraham and Sarah and give them the message that even though they are well beyond child bearing age, they will indeed give birth to a child just like God had promised. It is clear from the story that these men were considered angels or messengers of God but they aren’t heavenly beings, they are simply men who come with this message that a promised son will be born to a woman who physically shouldn’t be able to give birth. Sound familiar? This story of the angel Gabriel visiting Mary to tell her that she is going to have a son even though that seems physically impossible since she is a virgin is actually very similar to the story of the angels visiting Abraham and Sarah.

When we think about how God sent angels in the Old Testament, we begin to see how this visit of Gabriel to Mary may not have taken place in Mary’s home at night, but at a spring during the day and how appropriate for the announcement of the Messiah coming into this world to take place at a spring because just like a spring provided life to the larger community, the Messiah was coming to bring life to the world and Jesus himself said that he was the living water and that those who drank it would never thirst again. I don’t know about you, but I find it exciting to see this story in a different light and if the first step of the journey is different than what we thought, then maybe the entire journey will hold new insights and more surprises for us.

That the journey begins in Nazareth is also significant because the word Nazareth comes from word netzer which means a shoot or branch, and for Israel that word brought hope. After the nation of Israel was destroyed and the people carried away into captivity in 722 BC, the prophet Isaiah began to talk about a ruler who would one day come and unite God’s people and lead them into freedom. Isaiah said that this ruler would come from the line of David but his exact words were that he would be a netzer or a shoot or branch rising up from the stump of Jesse. Look at Isaiah 11:1-3. Jesse was the father of David, so a netzer from the stump of Jesse meant that this ruler, or Messiah, was going to be an ancestor of David. For generations the people of Israel found hope in this netzer and the word itself brought them hope so while the village of Nazareth might have been an insignificant town in the shadow of Sepphoris, the name brought people hope.

Knowing that the name Nazareth refers to the hope people placed in the coming of the Messiah and knowing there was a spring of water that would reflect the living water the Messiah would bring both lead us to think that maybe this is why God chose Nazareth to begin this journey, but asking ourselves why God chose Nazareth is the wrong question. The more important question is what does the choice of Nazareth tell us about God? That the journey of Jesus begins in a obscure and insignificant town tells us that God looks for the meek and humble to fulfill his purpose. God could have sent his messenger just a few miles away to the important and powerful city of Sepphoris, but he didn’t. God made a conscious choice to send the angel to Nazareth and this tells us that God is willing to choose the humble to accomplish his work. God doesn’t always look for the rich and powerful (although he will use them as he uses all people) but God delights in choosing the least likely person and the most obscure places to do his work because then we know that the work and the power really belongs to God.

This is good news for us to hear as we begin our Advent journey because while we may feel like we don’t have anything important to offer God, God’s choice of Nazareth shows us that God delights in using the simple and ordinary. God loves taking our simple and ordinary lives and doing something extraordinary with them. Jesus took simple fisherman and used their lives to change our world and God can use our lives for something significant if we will allow him to and Luke 1 shows us that Mary was willing to do this.

Mary was a simple humble girl. Being from Nazareth we believe she was poor, uneducated and probably a servant for one of the wealthy families in Sepphoris. Mary may have only been 13 or 14 years old when the angel visited her because that was the age that young girls got engaged and we hear from Luke 1 that Mary was engaged to a man named Joseph. While we don’t know much about Mary, what we do know is that she found favor with God. Now this doesn’t mean that Mary is God’s favorite or that he likes her more than any of the other young girls on the planet, favor means grace and so a favored one was one whom God fills with his grace and grace is the undeserved power, love and kindness of God.

Now unlike the Roman Catholic Church which views Mary as being born without sin, the protestant church believes that Mary was just an ordinary girl whom God filled with his grace. While she was humble and faithful and willing for God to move in her life, Mary didn’t deserve or earn God’s love and kindness it was an act of grace or God’s favor. So it’s God’s grace that stands at the center of the Christmas story because it was God’s grace that chose Mary and Joseph, and it was God’s grace that filled Mary and brought forth a child. The Christmas story is all about God’s grace and the central force and power of Jesus’ life was God’s grace. It was God’s grace that reached out to tax collectors, prostitutes and sinners. It was God’s grace that took sinful ordinary fisherman and made them disciples and transformational leaders in the world. The work of God in and through Jesus is all about grace and that grace has power for those who are willing to receive it and Mary was willing to receive it.

Look at Luke 1:38. This is Mary’s response to God’s grace, she simply says Yes, but Mary said yes knowing that it would begin a journey in her own heart and life that would not be easy. For Mary to be pregnant before she was married meant that she could be stoned. Even if that didn’t happen, she certainly must have thought Joseph would dismiss her in disgrace. I’m sure Mary wanted to ask Gabriel, what about Joseph? Will you go and make sure he knows everything that is going on here? She may have wanted to ask that, but she doesn’t. There is no mention of Joseph or the problems Mary might encounter during the journey to come. None of that is mentioned and it might be because Mary somehow knew that God’s grace was sufficient for her. What an act of faith and strength and courage we see in this young girl.

Just as God’s choice of Nazareth reveals something about the character of God, so does God’s choice of Mary; by choosing Mary, we see that God’s passion is for those who are humble and simple and those who are willing to walk with Him one step at a time. God desire is to fill us with his grace so that we can do more than we ever thought possible or imagined and I believe this grace is working everyday of our lives to do just that. John Wesley talks about prevenient grace, which is the grace of God at work at all times and in all places and it is a grace that draws us closer to God even before we say yes. God’s grace fills us so that we can hear God’s message for us and begin to understand God’s will for our lives. God’s grace is also what gives us the courage and strength to finally say yes to God and follow His plan - like Mary.

So we begin our advent journey today at the very same place Mary began her journey (and I don’t mean in a small town next to a big spring of fresh water, although when you stop and think about it, the similarities between Nazareth and Bellefonte are quite striking), we begin like Mary, with some uncertainty about where the next step will take us. We begin like Mary – wrestling with how God’s grace will accomplish in our lives all that God wants to accomplish. We begin like Mary - trusting in God’s grace to help us say these simple words, Here I am, the servant of the Lord, let it be with him and in me and through me according to you word.

Next Steps
Begin an Advent Journey of listening daily to the messages of God.
• Read through the new Faith Church Advent Devotion, the Upper Room or the Daily Bread.
• Read Luke 1 with fresh eyes and an open heart.

Reflect on the work wants to do in you and through you. What will it mean for you to say, let it be with me according to your will.

Give thanks for a God who not only chooses Nazareth and chooses Mary but chooses us as well.

Cultivating a Spirit of Thanks-giving

2011-11-22T03:18:00.000-08:00

Would you like to have more energy,
be more optimistic,
have more social connections
just be happier than people around you?

Would you like to be less depressed,
envious,
greedy,
or prone to addictions?

How about having more money,
sleep more soundly,
exercise more regularly,
and have a greater resistance to viral infections?

Would you like your children and teens to be less materialistic,
get better grades,
set higher goals,
complain of fewer headaches and stomach aches,
and feel more satisfied with their family, friends and schools?

I know this all this sounds too good to be true doesn’t it? But a decade long study published last year in the Wall Street Journal said that all of this is reflected in people’s lives when their lives are characterized by one thing - gratitude. A lifestyle of giving thanks leads to better attitudes, better health, better relationships and just a better life which is why God tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5:18 to give thanks in all circumstances. God commands us to give thanks because God knows that a lifestyle of thanks-giving is physically, emotionally, mentally and relationally good for us.

So how do we cultivate a deep spirit of thanksgiving? How do we order our lives so that gratitude flows from us in all circumstances? Well, we don’t develop this spirit of thanksgiving by eating turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce one day a year. That may be how we celebrate Thanksgiving but it is not how we cultivate a life of giving thanks. We cultivate a grateful heart and a thankful spirit by following the principles we see in the actions of the one leper who returned to Jesus. Luke 17 is the only place this story is told and it is a familiar one, Jesus heals 10 lepers but only one of them returns to say thank you. Jesus response to the leper is, your faith has made you well.

As I was reflecting on those words it struck me that all 10 lepers had faith in Jesus. All of them looked to Jesus for healing, all of them followed Jesus’ command to go and show themselves to the priest and all of them are healed, and so they all had faith in Jesus, so what is this faith that Jesus is talking about here. Maybe the faith Jesus sees and mentions here isn’t a belief in him, but a spirit of thanks giving. What set this man apart from the other lepers is that he was grateful for what was happening in his life and so he returned to Jesus to say thank you and it is that gratitude which Jesus sees here, and it is that grateful heart that brings a wholeness to this man’s life that the other 9 didn’t experience. But this wholeness in life doesn’t come from Jesus. Jesus doesn’t offer this man some kind of bonus healing because he returned to say thank you, what Jesus is saying is that because this man has a spirit of gratitude that guides his life – he is going to experience more wholeness and health than the other nine. So Jesus was saying here what a decade long study in 2000 years later has proved – those who are grateful will experience more wholeness and happiness in life. So what can we learn from this man about how to cultivate a spirit of thanksgiving.

The first things we see in this leper is that along with the other nine, he cried out to God in his need. Lepers were a pretty helpless group of people. They did not have the ability to make themselves clean. If a skin disease didn’t clear up quickly, then it was most likely going to be considered leprosy which meant that the person had to be cut off from the larger community so that the disease would not spread. That these 10 lepers were all together tells us that they had probably tried everything to get better and nothing had worked. So here they are cut off from the larger community, unable to get themselves clean or healthy on their own and so in desperation cry out to Jesus who they believe can help them. Not only had these lepers heard about Jesus power to heal but they heard that he was willing to heal the poor and outcast. While no one else would help them, they had faith that Jesus would so they humble themselves and cry out to Jesus.

Having a thankful heart and grateful spirit requires an element of humility. Giving thanks calls us to have a basic understanding that what we have and what we need in life isn’t always going to be found in ourselves so we need to look to God and others for help. I think the Pilgrims in that first thanksgiving had that same spirit. They knew they needed help if they were going to survive in this new land and so they humbled themselves before God but also reached out and took help from the natives who were here. It was the Native Americans who taught the Pilgrims how to use the resources of this land to help them grow crops and find food which enabled them to survive that first year.

So gratitude requires humility. Before we give thanks we have to acknowledge our own needs, but humility and crying out in times of need is not easy. Too often we see humility or acknowledging our need as a sign of weakness but in reality it is the first step toward giving thanks which is the key to a healthier life. So to really give thanks we need to ask ourselves what need we have today that God can meet? What power of God do we need to experience in our lives? If it is a need for healing or forgiveness or peace – God wants to help. If it is a need for physical support or inspiration or encouragement – God’s people want to help. The question is whether or not we will cry out to God and ask for help. Are we willing to stop trusting in ourselves to provide all that we need and start looking to God and others? Are we willing to stop thinking that we can do it all on our own and start asking people around us for help? We need to see this kind of humility not as weakness but as the pathway to giving thanks and experiencing wholeness and power in life.

So the lepers cry out to Jesus because they have exhausted every other option. There is nothing else they can do to help themselves so they turn to Jesus and Jesus tells them to go and show themselves to the priest who is the only one who can declare them clean. Now all 10 lepers have faith in Jesus power to heal so they all begin to make their way to the priest and as they go they are made clean, but it says that the one who returned to Jesus saw that he was healed. Now obviously all 10 saw that they were being healed, they could see their skin turning healthy and as they went they celebrated this healing but while the other 9 just kept going the one who had a grateful spirit stopped. He stopped the direction he was going, he stopped what he was doing and he took the time to really take note of what was going on in his life. He not only noticed that his skin was healing but he thought about why it was happening and who was responsible for it. He stopped and thought about what God was doing in his life and that is the second key to a thankful spirit.

A thankful spirit requires us to stop and recognize what God is doing in our lives and how God’s power and grace is helping us and moving us forward. Again, I think this is what the Pilgrims did that first thanksgiving. They stopped in the midst of a busy season to recognize what God had done during the past year and what God was doing in their lives at that moment. Think about what a busy time it was for the Pilgrims. While the harvest may have been over – they were still preparing for the winter and to take a couple of days out of their preparations to acknowledge all that God was doing is significant. Sometimes we tell ourselves that we are too busy to stop and reflect or too busy to stop and take note of all that God is doing in our lives but gratitude requires us to take this time.

I know that this coming week is usually a busy one for all of us. We have family visiting or maybe we are travelling to visit family. We have meals to plan, Christmas shopping to begin, football to watch and hunting trips to get ready for – it’s a busy time and it’s all good and fun things that we want to be busy with – but in the midst of it all can we take some time to stop and take note of what God is doing in our lives? What has God done in our lives this past year? How have we seen God’s power and how have we experienced God’s provision? What blessings has God provided for us and what blessings do we see as part of our lives today? We will never be able to give thanks if we don’t take the time to notice all the things that God is doing for which we need to give thanks.

And let’s not just look back and give thanks – let’s also look forward. I don’t think this one leper was looking back on his old life when he came to Jesus; he was looking to all the open doors and opportunities that this healing was going to bring him. He knew that this healing would help reunite him with his family. He knew this healing would open the door for him to literally be able to feel the touch and embrace of his loved ones. He would be able to connect to society once again, worship in the temple and eat at the table with his friends. So many open doors were in front of him and he was grateful for them all. Too many times at our Thanksgiving tables we only look back when we think about giving thanks and while that is a good thing to do, I would challenge us to also look forward. What is the open door and new opportunity for which we are thankful for today? How is God leading us into the future? What is God’s plan for us because God does have a plan for us – Jeremiah 29:11-13. God has a plan for our future and God wants to share that plan with us and we will hear about that plan when we stop and begin to take note of all God is doing in our lives.

So we cultivate a lifestyle of giving thanks by crying out to God in humility and stopping long enough to notice how God is meeting those needs and leading us into the future, but there is one more step in a lifestyle of gratitude that we see in this one leper and that is to physically give thanks. The leper stopped in his tracks, turned on his heels, returned to Jesus and fell face down on the ground in front of him to say thank you. These are not casual words of gratitude here, these are physical and intentional acts of giving thanks to God and we need to find intentional and physical acts of giving thanks that we can make part of our lives as well.

What physical way of thanking God can we embrace this week? Maybe it is taking a physical posture in times of worship, praise and prayer. Maybe when we pray we need to simply open our hands to God as a sign of humility or as a way of saying that we know that what we need in life will come from God. Maybe it will mean kneeling in prayer each morning or evening, or lifting our arms to God because we know that we need God to take us by the hand and lead us. Maybe the physical act is to literally count our blessings and write them out so that we can see all God is doing in our lives. I have seen a number of people on fb recently place in their status every day this month a list of things they are thankful for. Each day they are simply taking time to take note of what God has done and is doing in their lives and they are physically giving thanks.

Another intentional act might be to write out a prayer of thanksgiving to use in our family meal. My Grandfather did that and I am blessed to have those prayers, all written before I was born. These prayers were shared at the table with my family and they reflect the intentional sitting down and counting of God’s blessings. What a gift it might be to your Grandchildren if you wrote out a prayer of thanksgiving and began a tradition of passing those prayers on to your family. Another intentional act might be to read some of the psalms of thanksgiving and I have listed 7 of them in the next steps so we can read one everyday this week. Maybe we need to read it out loud as a prayer so we can hear with our own ears some of the things we need to be thankful for. We train and condition our hearts and develop a deep attitude of thanksgiving by intentionally and at times physically giving thanks to God. All of these intentional acts will shape our attitudes and cultivate the lifestyle of gratitude that we want to embrace.

I hope that this week won’t just be a time of visiting with family, eating food, shopping with the crowds or getting ready for camp, I hope this week we will work to cultivate a lifestyle of giving thanks that will carry us through the rest of this year and into the next. Giving thanks every day will change us, it will bring us more of the life we want to live and more of the life God has to offer.

Next Steps:
Cry out to God. Identify a need in your heart, life, or relationships that needs God’s grace and power. Name it to God this week.

Stop and take notice. Take time out of this busy week to stop and look at your life. Make note of all that God is doing. Make a list of the past and current blessings but also open doors and new opportunities God is giving you.

Thank God. Find intentional and physical ways to thank God.
• Write a prayer of thanks (and use on Thanksgiving).
• Prayer walk your house and thank God for something or someone in each room.
• Take a posture of giving thanks during a time of prayer or thanksgiving: kneel, open your hands to God, bow your head, raise your arms.
• Read a Psalm of Thanksgiving (perhaps out loud) every day this week: Psalm 65, 95, 100, 103, 105, 108, 116

Parable of the Talents

2011-11-22T03:13:00.000-08:00

(This sermon was preached the Sunday after the sex abuse scandal broke at Penn State University. The news has effected everyone in our community (10 miles from PSU) and this message is an attempt to speak to a difficult situation. My hope and prayer is that will be quick to listen and pray and slow to speak.)

One word that has come up again and again through the events of this week has been the word response. Whether it is the lack of response of people when they heard allegations of abuse, or the response of the Penn State Board of Trustees to a crisis, the response of students to all the news and events of the week, the response of a team called on to play a football game under difficult circumstances or the response of a community shocked and saddened by what is unfolding around us, response is the word that has been coming back to me again and again and I think it is the word which stands at the heart of Jesus parable of the talents.

In Matthew 25, Jesus tells the story of three servants who have all been given something very valuable by their master. While it is unclear exactly how much money we are talking about here, a talent of money was a huge sum. One talent may have been as much as 20 years worth of wages for a day laborer, so 5 talents could have been the equivalent to 100 years worth of wages, but the point of the story isn’t how much money they were given, it is that each servant was given of something of great value and when the master returned he wanted to know how responsible the servants had been with the resources entrusted to them. For the master, the key wasn’t the results, he wasn’t looking for a specific sum of money on his return, what mattered was if the servants had been responsible. How did they respond to the gift given to them? The focus of Jesus story isn’t the end result; it isn’t that the good servants doubled the money given to them, the question is were they good stewards of what God gave them. The question for us is, are we good stewards of all that God has given to us? What is our response to the treasure God has given us?

Now when I talk treasure here I am not primarily talking about money, I’m talking about all the resources that God has given us. God has given us the gift of life and so one of the greatest treasures we have is time. Do we use our time wisely? Do we make the most of every day and ever hour that God gives us? When opportunities to help those in need around us become available do we take the time to do it? When people are hurting and need someone to listen to them do we take the time to sit and allow them to share their burdens and pain? When someone needs encouragement do we take the time to offer words of hope and inspiration?

One of the amazing things about Jesus is that as focused and driven as he was in his mission of teaching, preaching and revealing to people the power and love of God, he also took the time to reach out to individuals who came to him. Jesus was always willing to allow himself to get interrupted by the needs of people. One day as Jesus was teaching a man was lowered into the house in front of him with the hope that Jesus would heal him. Jesus allowed his agenda and schedule for the day to be interrupted and he didn’t just heal the man, he forgave him as well. When Jesus was travelling the crowds would press in around him and again he would stop and offer healing and forgiveness to the unnamed people who came to him. When the disciples didn’t want Jesus to be distracted by the children, it was Jesus who didn’t see the children as a distraction – they were worthy of his time and attention. Jesus spent his time wisely, he took the time to listen and care for people and we need to ask ourselves if we are being responsible with the time God has given us. There are a lot of people in our community right now that just need to talk and share and maybe the best use of our time is to just listen.

God has also given each of us unique skills, abilities and passions that he calls us to use for his purpose. Each servant in Jesus story received a different amount of money – they each received a unique talent and so do we, we all have been given something valuable and unique, what is our response to these gifts? One of the most challenging times of my life was when I was working as a theater manager but knew that I needed to think more seriously about going into ministry which meant going to seminary. My Dad actually used this very parable to challenge me to not take the gift of faith given to me by God and a passion to serve God and people and not just bury that all because I didn’t want to go back to school. He challenged me to use the talents and passions God had given me wisely. God has given each of us different skills, talents, interests and passions and God will hold us accountable to how we use these gifts and again, God isn’t interested in how successful we are with them, it’s not the results that matter, it’s our response. Are we willing to just step out in faith and begin to use what God has given us for His purpose and glory?

Now being responsible with God’s gifts doesn’t mean we all go into full time ministry – it may mean stepping up to serve in some capacity in the church or in our community. Maybe it means working with children or visiting those who are sick or lonely. If the gift God has given us is music maybe a good response is to agree to sing in the choir or share our music in the schools or in nursing homes. We all have some skill, interest or experience to share and use for God’s glory and we need to make sure we are not burying this gift but taking steps of faith to use it for God and in ways that help God’s people.

In the parable Jesus tells the gift given to the servants is money and so we need to be honest and ask ourselves if we are being responsible with the financial treasure God has given us. The Bible is clear that God calls for a tenth of our income to be returned to Him as an offering (Malachi 3:10-12). If we are looking at our checkbooks and realizing that our response to the money God has given us is not good – if we are in debt, overdrawn and living beyond our financial means or simply not giving God the gifts he calls for, then our first response should be to tithe and begin to get our financial house in order. God has promised that when we step out in faith and give him what he calls for – he will provide for us. He may not provide all we want – but we will have what we need.

Many times we think that time, talents and financial treasures are the only gifts God has given us, but the truth is that none of these are the most valuable – the most valuable gift God has given us is the gift of faith. God has not only revealed to us who He is, he has given us the knowledge of his love and grace and power. God has shown us that there is salvation and eternal life through faith and trust in Jesus Christ. God has blessed us with the gift of the church – the body of Christ – a community that brings hope and peace and encouragement to the world. God has given us this gift of faith and maybe more than any other gift today God is asking us how we will respond to this gift. Are we hording it for ourselves or investing it in others? Have we buried our faith it our own hearts or are we willing to share it with others with the hope that it brings more people into a relationship with God and into a relationship with the body of Christ – the church.

What we have seen this week is that we live in a broken and hurting world where people need the gift of faith. People need the grace and power and truth of God. Our broken and hurting community needs the comfort and peace of God and as God’s people we need to respond to the needs of the people around us and share the healing and hope that our faith provides. Are we sharing with others our belief in a God who brings healing and strength and new life to those who are broken and broken hearted? Are we sharing with people our faith in a God who calls for justice and yet offers mercy? Are we sharing with family, friends and neighbors our faith that the peace and love of God are greater than any force of evil or injustice in this world and that this peace and love can make a difference in our lives and bring healing to a hurting community? One of the most powerful and healing moments of this week was a moment of faith when players from Nebraska and Penn State knelt to pray. They not only drew upon their faith to bring healing, but they shared that faith for a world to see.

As we think about the response God is looking for from us today I want to take us back to our core values as a church. The core values of the church and of our church are to connect, serve and grow. Today, in the midst of all that is going on around us, we can make a difference in our community by helping people connect to God and to one another and we do this by reminding people that even in the midst of pain and suffering – God is right here with us. Maybe we need that reminder right now. Last week we heard from Isaiah 43 that when we go through difficult times, God is with us. Little did we know last Sunday how severe that fire or flood would be, but my hope is that there have been moments this past week when we have experienced the presence and power and peace of God and because we have experienced this for ourselves we can now share God presence, peace and power with others. When the future looks uncertain or we are feeling disappointed and disillusioned we need to remember and proclaim that God is still with us.

A faithful response to sharing our faith is to also serve those in need around us and we can serve people best right now by being willing to pray and listen. We need to pray for the victims of abuse, all victims of abuse because what we have seen and heard about this week brings up painful memories for all those who have been abused during their lives. We need to pray for all those involved and be willing to listen to those who are really struggling to make sense out of what is going on. As I have listened to people this week I have been amazed at how many people in our church and community are connected to different people involved in this situation. Just about everyone is connected to someone somewhere because the Penn State family is a big one and so right now there is a lot of pain. We need to listen to people when they are angry, disappointed and disillusioned and it is important for us to be quick to listen and pray and maybe slow, thoughtful and prayerful when we actually speak. Reading comments this week I fear that we talk too much and too quickly we end up saying things we might not want to say. I’ve read many words this week that do not reflect the depth of our faith and trust in God and so we need to choose our words carefully and spend more time listening and praying than actually speaking.

A faithful response to God will also be for us to grow deeper in our own faith by seeking God ourselves in the midst of the storm. We need to learn more about God’s teaching of grace and mercy as well as truth and justice. We need to allow our own hearts and lives to be shaped by God’s hand so that God can use us to help others. I believe that God wants to be at work in our lives, in our church and in our community right now in some very powerful ways. We have an opportunity to commit ourselves to those things that really matter, get our focus and perspective back on God and evaluate our lives to see how we are responding to the gifts God has given us. We can never forget that in Jesus story the master returned and all of the servants had to stand before him and given an account of what they did with the riches they were given and so will we. We will all have to stand before God someday and tell God how we responded to all that God has given us. I don’t know about you, but that is a sobering thought, I’m just thankful for the opportunity today and in the days ahead to revaluate my response and make changes that will honor God and the gifts God has given me.

For the past week we have been caught up in a whirlwind of how others have responded to various situations and so it is a good time for us to think about our response to God, to the gifts God has entrusted to us and to the faith that God has called us to share with others. It is in times like this that our faith needs to shine. It is in times like this that God is calling us to make the most of all he has given us. As the church – what will be our response? To children who need comfort and a community that needs healing – what will be our response? As servants and followers of Jesus who will one day stand before our master to give an account, what will be our response?

Next Steps

Connect
• Reflect on the following: Psalms 23, Psalm 139, and Isaiah 43:1-4, which remind us that at all times, God is with us. Share this good news to others.
• Pray for healing and hope for all in our community especially the victims of abuse and their families.

Serve
• Listen to the concerns, disappointments, fears and frustrations of others.
• Be quick to listen and pray and thoughtful when we speak.

Grow
• Take an inventory of our life to make sure we are responding faithfully to God’s generous gifts of time, talent and financial treasure.
• Step out in faith and find new ways to use God’s gifts according to God’s will.

What's holidng us back?

2011-11-22T03:08:00.000-08:00

One of the interesting things about the Bible is that it doesn’t tell us a lot about the personal life of Jesus. We get very little information about his childhood and no information about those awkward teenage years. We don’t know anything about what Jesus did before he entered into the public eye at his baptism and even during his three years of ministry, which is what is recorded in the gospels, we really don’t know much about Jesus’ personal life, but we do know that he had some close friends because in John 11 there is a lengthy story about Jesus relationship with two sisters, Mary and Martha, and their brother Lazarus. We get the idea that while these three friends were not official disciples of Jesus, they were close. They may have provided a place for Jesus to stay when he was in Bethany, they may have provided food, shelter and money for Jesus as he travelled and ministered and they may have given Jesus a kind of sanctuary, or retreat when Jesus needed to get away from the crowds.

As Jesus is travelling, news comes to him that Lazarus has become sick and Mary and Martha want Jesus to come to Bethany and heal him. Jesus puts off going to visit Lazarus and in time Jesus learns that Lazarus has died. When Jesus finally arrives at their home, Lazarus has been dead for 4 days, which is long enough for the smell of the dead body to reach out of the tomb so that everyone in the community knows for sure that Lazarus is indded dead. As Jesus talks with Mary and Martha he asks them if they believe Lazarus will rise from the dead. They say yes we they know Lazarus will some day rise from the dead and be in heaven, but they don’t believe that resurrection will be here and now. Jesus says to them, but I am the resurrection and the life and again they say, yes we know that and we know Lazarus will rise someday, but it won’t be today. All of this disturbs Jesus. Lazarus death disturbs Jesus, the sisters’ lack of understanding that Jesus holds the power of life disturbs Jesus and so as it says in the shortest verse in the Bible, John 11:35, Jesus wept. And then the story continues in John 11:38-44

This story of Lazarus shows us that Jesus has authority over death and because of that power he calls for Lazarus to come forth out of the tomb, and he does. Lazarus is a dead man now alive and walking – but we see from the story here that Lazarus isn’t walking very well because he is all tied up in the grave clothes. In Jesus day they would wrap a dead body in strips of cloth before they would lay it in the tomb and those strips of cloth were now getting in the way of Lazarus experiencing the fullness of life. The cloth that was wrapped around his face kept Lazarus from seeing where he was going and the strips that bound his hands and feet kept him from being able to really move. The grave clothes were holding Lazarus back from living the life that Jesus had called him forth to live.

So what’s holding us back? What holds us back from living the life that God calls us forth to live? God has called us to rise up in faith and experience the fullness of new life. God has called us to leave the darkness of the world and step into the light of his grace and power. Jesus calls us to leave our lives of sin and experience forgiveness, to leave behind doubt and bondage and experience the freedom and love that he offers. Like calling Lazarus up from the grave Jesus is calling us to experience the power of new life… so what is it holds us back? What keeps us from walking with Jesus? What keeps us from seeing Jesus? What are the grave clothes that keep us from experiencing the power of life?

I wonder if what holds us back is our lack of faith in Jesus or our lack of faith in ourselves?

When Jesus arrived in Bethany, Lazarus had already died, in fact he had been in the grave for a couple of days and the distinctive odor of decaying flesh was coming forth from the tomb so everyone knows he’s dead and in the midst of the grieving and crying Jesus asks Mary and Martha if they believe and trust in him. Look at John 11:25-26. Mary and Martha believe in Jesus, they believe he has power, in fact earlier Martha said, I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him. They believe in Jesus, they believe in his power and love, and I think most of us believe in Jesus.

We believe Jesus has power, we believe he rose from the dead, we believe he raised Lazarus from the dead, we believe that he loves and forgives, our problem isn’t faith in Jesus, it’s faith in ourselves. We don’t question God’s love for others and we believe that Jesus forgives others; I think we struggle to believe that God can love and forgive us. It’s faith in God’s love for us that often holds us back from experiencing this power of resurrection, or new life.

Yet we ask ourselves, how can Jesus possibly love me after all I have done? Why would God wipe away my past, I don’t deserve to experience new life? Can God possibly forgive me for how I feel, what I think, and how I live today? And why would God call me forth to new life when I have nothing to offer him? I don’t think our problem is faith in the power of Jesus; it’s faith in ourselves, or faith that God really does love us enough to move in our hearts and lives to bring us life. I believe that some of the grave clothes that hold us back are our past failures, our present sin, and this thought that we have no presents – or gifts – to offer God.

I don’t know about you, but I know my past failures bind me up at times. We wonder how God could love us after all we have done? If you are asking that question today, you are not alone, I believe it is a question we all struggle with. We know who we really are and we know all the failures and sin of our past and when we sit down and think about those things it is hard to imagine how God could possibly call us to walk with him in new life. King David struggled with this. After David was confronted with the reality of his past failures which not only included adultery but conspiracy to murder, David said this to God. Psalm 51:3-5.

David is thinking back to his past and knows that God is right when he passes judgment on him – he is guilty. We are all guilty. We have all failed, and yet God still loves us and God forgives. In fact David goes on to say this in Psalm 51:7. It is only if God washes us that we can be clean. We can’t erase our past – but God can. We can’t wipe away our failures, but God can and God does if we will hear God’s call and step out in faith to take hold of God’s love.

While we may be able to overcome our past failures, we then begin to wonder how God can forgive us for the sin we commit today. So many times the words of David are our words, my sin is every before me. Or the words of Paul echo in our hearts and minds, the good I want to do I don’t do and those things I don’t want to do – I do, what a wretched man I am. Even if we can overcome our past, we then struggle to believe God could love and forgive us because of the sin we see in our lives today.

One of the things I have come to realize is that Jesus always called people who were caught up in sin. Every single person Jesus called to follow him, every person Jesus reached out to heal, every person Jesus loved and forgave was a sinner – every single one – and that sin, their sin, did not keep Jesus away. This means that our sin does not keep Jesus away. Our sin does not keep God from loving us; it doesn’t keep God from calling out to us in the grave of our sin like Jesus called out to Lazarus in his own grave. Many times we think that God is so holy, pure and powerful that he can not enter into the darkness of our lives, but he does Jesus shows us that he does. God came into the darkness and sin of this world to forgive and God still comes into our darkness and sin of our lives to forgive and bring the light of love and freedom. Look at Psalm 139:11-12. Even the darkness of our sin is not dark to God – it doesn’t keep God away and it doesn’t keep the power of God’s love away. God is right here with us if we would just believe – not believe in God, but believe in God’s desire and ability to love and forgive us, if we would just believe we would begin to walk in freedom and life.

If the grave clothes of our past failures or present sin don’t bind us up, then it might be our struggle to see how we can walk with God when we don’t think we have anything to offer Him. Why would call me to new life? How could God possibly use me when I have no gifts or abilities to offer him? Well, let’s go back to Lazarus for a moment. When Jesus called Lazarus from the grave, what did Lazarus have to offer Jesus? He had nothing – he was dead – literally dead – he had nothing to offer Jesus in that moment but grave clothes: failures, sin, death, and yet… Jesus called him forth, why? Because Jesus loved him and Lazarus only response to Jesus, his only gift to offer in return was love.

We need to understand that God doesn’t call us to new life and Jesus doesn’t forgive and love to get something in return. God isn’t looking for presents and offerings from us; Jesus doesn’t want any gift but one – our hearts. Go back to Psalm 51:16-17, God doesn’t want an offering as much as God wants our hearts and lives. In fact, after Lazarus rises from the grave we never hear about him serving God, becoming a teacher or evangelist or even waiting on Jesus as a servant, the only time we hear about him again is in John 12:2 where once again Jesus is at Lazarus home and while Martha is serving the dinner, Lazarus is at the table with Jesus. Lazarus is simply sitting by Jesus side. God doesn’t raise us up and offer us new life in order to get some kind of present in return – he offers us life because he loves us and it’s time for us to not just believe in Jesus but to believe in his love for us.

One final word here, when Jesus says take off the grave clothes, he isn’t talking to Lazarus, he is speaking to the people who are around Lazarus which means that we need to help one another remove the obstacles that keep us from walking with Jesus. We need to help one another let go of past failures and present sin and we do that by reminding one another that God loves us and forgives us. We need to share with one another the truth of God’s love and grace and we need to be willing to offer that forgiveness and grace ourselves.

Now I believe that as we help take the grave clothes off of others, we experience the power of God for ourselves. Think about what it must have been like for the people who walked up to Lazarus as he comes out the tomb and they began to untie him. They were experiencing themselves the power of Jesus’ miracle and we have that same opportunity every time we look at someone and tell them that their past failures and present sin can not keep God from loving them. We experience the power of God’s love and grace ourselves every time we share that love and grace with others and that not only unties them it helps set us free as well.

So as we close today, I want us to share in God’s promise of love and forgiveness together and allow these words and this message to help us remove our grave clothes so that we can be set free.
Isaiah 43
I have called you by name and you are mind.
When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
When you pass through the rivers,
They will not sweep you away
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned,
the flames will not set you ablaze.
Because you are precious and honored in my sight
And I love you.

Next Steps:
Identify the grave clothes in your life. Is it your:
Past (failures)
Present (sin)
Presents (a sense of having nothing to offer God)

Read and reflect on these words of God’s love and forgiveness:
1. Psalm 103:8-14
2. Isaiah 43:1-7, 49:15-16
3. Jeremiah 29:11, 31:3
4. Zephaniah 3:17
5. John 3:16-17
6. Romans 8:31-39
7. 1 John 4:10-11

Pray.
Lord Jesus, help me to hear your voice calling me to live a new life. Give me the strength to leave my failures and sin behind and to trust your love to bring freedom, healing and life. Thank you that you have the power of life over death and thank you for sharing that power with me today. Help me to walk by faith and in faith today and everyday. AMEN

Living on the Edge ~ Overcoming Evil

2011-11-22T03:03:00.000-08:00

What almost kept me from experiencing the amazing view of Fontana Lake and experiencing a little taste of life on the edge was my fear of climbing an 80 foot open stairway to the top of a fire-tower, but what keeps many of us from really living life on the edge and experiencing the best God has for us isn’t a fear of heights, or a lack of money, or being stuck in the wrong job or without a job all together. The greatest obstacle to our experiencing life on the edge is our unwillingness to forgive. As we have worked our way through Romans 12 I hope that one thing has become clear, living on the edge comes when we are in right relationships. It starts with a right relationship with God where we are fully surrendered to him, it continues with a right relationship with the world around us where we limit the power of the messages we receive from this world that are not from God. Experiencing the fullness of life comes when we are in a right relationship with ourselves which means seeing ourselves the way God does and then working to establish strong relationships with our family and friends within the body of Christ. God has created us to be in healthy relationships. Life is found in healthy relationships so when we are unwilling to forgive those who have hurt us it not only keeps us from experiencing a relationship with that person, it keeps us from experiencing the fullness of any relationship and therefore keeps us from experiencing the life God wants for us.

A number of years ago I had a friend who hurt and disappointed me and our friendship did not end well. For years I held on to the bitterness of that relationship and all that happened was that I began destroying myself. Not only was that anger and resentment eating me alive, it was keeping me from entering into new and life giving relationships with others. As long as that bitterness burned in my heart there was no room for love to develop toward anyone. Many people have talked about how anger is like a cancer on our soul that slowly eats away at everything until it destroys all of our relationships and it true, bitterness and an unforgiving spirit doesn’t hurt anyone else, it only hurts and destroys us and to remove that cancer we have to be willing to forgive and Romans 12 begins to show us what forgiveness looks like.

Before we read this last section, I want us to get practical for a moment and so I am going to ask you to think about the person who has hurt you the most or the person that today you are struggling to forgive. It might be a parent or a child; it might be your spouse, or an ex-spouse. It might be the bully who terrorized you as a child, an employer who destroyed your self-esteem, a coworker who has not been honest about you or a friend who disappointed you. As we think about this person, or persons, let’s hear God’s word - Romans 12:14-21.

Now your first thought in hearing this scripture might be to think that this kind of action toward those who are persecuting us is just not possible, but it is. God would not give us these commands and directions if it were not possible, so we need to take this teaching seriously and this is not just the teaching of Paul – this is the teaching and example of Jesus. In Jesus sermon on the mount, which is another message that God gives in order to help us understand what it looks like to live life on the edge, Jesus says: Matthew 5:43-45.

So Jesus is also clear that we need to be willing to forgive our enemy but even more powerful than his teaching is his example. When Jesus was betrayed and deserted by his friends he didn’t become bitter. When he was falsely accused, beaten, forced to carry a cross and finally crucified, Jesus didn’t lash out in anger or hold a grudge against those who persecuted him, in fact, from the cross Jesus says, Father forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing. Both the teaching and the example of Jesus show us that God’s will for us is to forgive and the reason God wants us to forgive is that forgiveness opens the door to life. It was Jesus willingness to forgive on the cross that led to the resurrection and new life so we see that for all of us forgiveness leads to life.

If we want to experience the power of resurrection, or life on the edge, we need to be willing to forgive and Romans 12:14 begins to show us what forgiveness looks like. Now to bless someone means that we wish them well and desire God’s blessing, God’s riches and God’s mercy to be a part of their lives. To curse someone is to wish and even ask God to bring about their destruction. Our natural instinct is to curse those who persecute us. We want them to get what they deserve, we want them to hurt because they have hurt us, so the thought of blessing those who have hurt us might seem impossible and if we left it up to our feelings it would be, but the first step in blessing those who curse us, or overcoming the evil that is directed toward us by others is to simply make the conscious decision to forgive.

Romans 12:14 is a command not a suggestion. Bless those who persecute you is not just a good idea God wants to offer us – it is a command that God is giving us. It’s the same with Jesus teaching in Matthew 5. Love you enemy is not a suggestion, it is a command and since God commands us to do it – it can’t be something that requires us to feel like doing it because we can’t always command our feelings. We may never feel like forgiving someone, we may never feel like blessing them, but our feelings don’t matter – this is not a matter of the heart it is a matter of the mind and will. We need to make the decision to forgive and allow God to bring the change of heart in his time.

So can you make the decision today to forgive the person you were thinking of a moment ago? Can we step out in faith and say, God I want you to bless this person, or God I am making the decision today to forgive this person. I’d encourage you to go home or even at the close of worship today to pull out the next steps and complete step #2. God, today I am asking you to bless… and then fill in the name. The first step to overcoming the evil that is aimed at us is to begin a process of forgiveness and love directed toward those people. I’m sure Jesus didn’t feel like forgiving those who had just driven nails into his hands and feet, but he said the words, he made the decision to forgive and I wonder if it was the power of saying the words that helped Jesus truly forgive and love his enemies.

Now you may be asking yourself what good is it to make this statement if our heart is not in it – good question. The answer is that forgiveness doesn’t come in one big step – instead it is a long slow process. Making the decision to forgive and asking God to bless is just the first step and Jesus then gives us the second step. Go back to Matthew 5:44 pray for those who persecute you. Prayer is the second step in overcoming evil through forgiveness and it may be the only step we take for weeks and months and years to come, but I will guarantee you this, if we pray on a regular basis for those who have hurt us or those who are persecuting us - something will happen. Those directing evil at us may not stop – those who have hurt us may not suddenly see the error of their ways and come to ask us to forgive them, but something will change because we will change. As we pray, our hearts soften and in time our feelings toward those who have hurt us will also soften so that forgiveness will flow naturally from our lips and our hearts.

While prayer is the second step, Paul shows us that we need to take this further. In Romans 12:15 Paul says, rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn. Now when we read this verse we need to remember that Paul is not talking about mourning and rejoicing with our family and friends - that’s easy. We don’t need to be told to do that because we will naturally do that. What Paul is saying here is that we need to rejoice and mourn with those who are persecuting us, that’s the context here. Paul is talking about our relationship with those who are working against us, our enemies, so when our enemies rejoice we are to rejoice and when they mourn we are to mourn. Now let’s be clear that Paul is not talking here about political relationships, he’s talking about personal ones. The call to mourn and rejoice is a call to reach out in a personal way to those individuals who have hurt us and while again this seems impossible – if we will step out and do it, we will experience the power of God.

Corrie Ten Boom and her sister Betsie were Christians who were sent to the Ravensbruck concentration camp during WWII because they helped hide Jews in their home. Betsie died in that camp and their story is told in the amazing book, The Hiding Place. After the war, Corrie travelled around Germany talking about her experience in the camps and the power of God and at one of those meetings she recognized a man in the audience and realized he had been one of the guards at Ravensbruck. The guard came up to Corrie after her talk and introduced himself as one of the guards from the camp she had been in, "But since that time," he went on, "I have become a Christian. I know that God has forgiven me for the cruel things I did there, but I would like to hear it from your lips as well.” That’s when he extended his hand and said, "Will you forgive me?"

Corrie said she stood there and remembered her sister Betsie who had died in part because of his work and wondered how he could ask her to erase her sister’s slow terrible death simply for the asking? And for what seemed hours Corrie wrestled with the most difficult thing she ever had to do. Corrie said, “The message that God forgives has a prior condition: that we forgive those who have injured us and so I stood there with the coldness clutching my heart. But forgiveness is not an emotion,” she said. “Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart. " So very mechanically she stuck out her hand and took the hand of the guard and in that moment Corrie said an incredible thing took place. “The current started in my shoulder, raced down my arm, sprang into our joined hands. And then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes.

"I forgive you!" I cried. "With all my heart!"

For a long moment we grasped each other's hands, the former guard and the former prisoner. I had never known God's love so intensely as I did then.

God brought healing and power to Corrie because she was willing to mourn with this man as he confessed his sin and rejoice with him in his experience of God forgiveness and new life. This is living on the edge and it is not easy, but as we see, it is where the power of God is and it is what brings us the excitement of life.

So what might it look like for us to rejoice with those who have hurt us? Several years after my friend and I parted ways I got a call from him and he asked if we could get together. When we did, he shared with me that he was thinking about entering graduate school and wanted to know if I would be willing to write him a letter of reference. I have to tell you that I felt like I was being used and I wanted to say no, but to follow Jesus meant to let go of my bitterness and even though I didn’t feel like doing it, I gave him the reference and learn a little bit about what it means to rejoice with those who rejoice.

Maybe rejoicing with those who rejoice means sending a note when we hear about something positive happening in their lives. Maybe it is offering a word of grace when we see them and know something good is going on. And we mourn when they mourn by offering words and notes of encouragement when we know they are going through a difficult time. Now let me say that some pain and some circumstances may require us to keep our distance from those who have hurt us, and in those relationships we need to stand back and simply pray, but those prayers can help us have an attitude of joy if we see real change in the lives of others, and those prayers can cause us to weep when we know they are truly hurting.

Paul gives more direction on how to treat with our enemy in Romans 12:20a. Again, these are not easy things to do and we need to get involved in situations like this only after we have spent some serious time in prayer and maybe after we have asked others for their counsel and support – but if this is where God is leading us, we need to walk this journey because this is where we will find life.

The resurrection of Jesus shows us that we can overcome evil with good. When we make the decision to forgive, when we pray for those who have hurt us and reach out to bless them in words and actions we begin to break the power of evil and begin to experience the life God wants for us. Jesus did all of this and while it was not an easy road, at the end was resurrection and new life. Living on the edge is not easy, it involves surrender, sacrifice, service, forgiveness and love, at times it involves carrying a cross – but in the end we stand victorious – in the end we experience life.

Next Steps
Connect:
• Begin the process of connecting with (forgiving) those who have hurt you (or are persecuting you) by naming them today.
• Identify a friend who will walk with you as you seek to offer forgiveness.

Serve:
• Make the decision today to forgive the person you identified above.
• Write out the following prayer: "God, today I am asking you to bless __________________________________.

Grow:
• What will it mean to rejoice and/or mourn with the person who has harmed you?
• Can you step out in faith and offer this love and grace this week?

Next Steps to Serving in Love

2011-10-24T11:51:00.000-07:00

Next Steps to Living on the Edge – Serving in Love

Connect:
Make the decision today to join one of the new Sunday School Classes starting Nov. 13.
Mark your calendar for the Church lunch on Sunday Nov. 6,
Invite someone from the church out for coffee, lunch, dinner in order to get to know them better.

Serve:
During a time of prayer this week ask God to help focus your thoughts, eyes and hearts of the needs of those you can serve.
Create a plan for serving those God lays on your heart.
Pray every day for those who are away on our mission trip.

Grow:
Read John chapter 13, and chapters 17-21 and reflect on the devotion we see in Jesus final hours.
Memorize Romans 12:9-13 so that it becomes a natural part of our thinking and our living.

Living on the Edge - Serving in Love

2011-10-24T11:49:00.000-07:00

As we have been working our way through Romans 12, I have been doing a lot of reflecting back on my life and I hope that if you have been part of a small group digging into this material that you have also been doing some reflection and sharing. I think it is important for us to reflect back on our lives and identify those times when we have experienced a taste of this life on the edge so we can learn from those moments what it is that makes life so good. This week as I have looked back over my life I have come to realize that the best times of my life have come when I have been part of a community larger than just my family. In fact, one of the most formative times of my life was during High School and what made that time so good for me was being involved in my church youth group. Our youth group had one unspoken rule – everyone was accepted. Everyone was loved – unconditionally. When I didn’t feel like I fit in at school – I fit in at my church and when my friends at church were willing to be my friends at school, that acceptance and friendship lifted me up and made my life better. I didn’t just make it through those difficult years of being a teenager; I thrived during that time because I found a place where I belonged and people who served me in love.

The relationships that formed in my church were powerful and many of them have lasted to this day because we were willing to be real with one another. We laughed together and we cried together. We didn’t have to pretend to be better than we were, or different than we were because we knew that we would be accepted for whom we were, the good and the bad. Our love for one another was sincere and that is what helps strengthen relationships and that’s what forms community and it is that sincere love that helps us experience real life.

Last week we heard from Romans 12:5 that we were created to be part of the body of Christ which means that we belong to one another and the only way we will truly belong to one another is if we are willing to be honest with one another. God places a high value on authenticity, integrity and transparency in the life of the church, in fact, when hypocrisy first tried to enter into the early church, God dealt with it swiftly and harshly. The story is found in Acts 4-5, and it begins with a man named Joseph who sold a field and brought all the proceeds from that sale to the disciples and gave it to the church as an offering. The people were so encouraged by this faithful and generous act that they gave Joseph the name Barnabas, which means son of encouragement.

Now the news of what Barnabas did spread and there was a couple named Ananias and Sapphira who wanted that same recognition and praise, but they didn’t want to pay the price, so they sold some of their property and brought just a part of the proceeds to the leaders of the church as an offering but they each told them it was the full amount. In other words Ananias and Sapphira were not being honest. They wanted to appear loving and generous without have to be loving and generous and when the reality of their hypocrisy was revealed both Ananias and Sapphira were struck dead. The first sin exposed in the life of the early church is hypocrisy and it is dealt with swiftly because God knows that not be honest with one another will not only destroy the church, but it will keep relationship from forming and if strong relationships can’t form, then people are kept from experiencing the fullness of life.

This should be a sobering story for us. Think about what would happen if God judged the church this way today? My guess is that there would be no church because in different ways we are all hypocrites, we all wear masks and struggle to be transparent with one another and the reason is that we are afraid of being rejected and yet if we would be willing to be honest with others the first thing we would find is that we are not alone in our struggles which means that there would be others here to accept us and love us and even help us through the difficult times. One of the hardest things as a pastor is when people come and share with me some of the heartache and struggles of their lives and as they share with me I’ll be thinking, wow, someone else just shared with me that same struggle and I wish that I could get these 2 people together so that they would know that they are not alone and they could maybe even find support and encouragement from one another. There is a freedom that comes with being real with others and there can be healing and strength that comes in being honest and yet these kinds of relationships take time to build because they require of us courage and the building of trust which has its ups and downs.

My hope is that we will be willing to invest time and energy in building relationships in the church. One of the saddest things about the church today is that we have replaced these kinds of authentic relationships with religion. We have replaced people with programs and yet there is not one program in the life of the church that can bring us life – but our connection with people can bring life because we were created to be part of one another’s lives, we were created to be members of one another, and when we are part of that kind of strong community of faith we will experience God’s best and the power of God’s life.

So living on the edge comes when we are part of a real community and for community to be formed our love must be sincere, but it’s not enough to just be honest – we also need to be committed to one another. Romans 12:10. Devotion to one another means being willing to serve in love, it means being there for others when there is a need and while we often give lip service to this kind of devotion, living on the edge means being willing to live it out.

Kathy was a recovering alcoholic who had been sober for a while when her grandmother died. Kathy’s grandmother was an important part of her life and many of us were concerned about how she was going to handle her Grandmother’s death. As I spent time with the family at the funeral home the afternoon of the viewing I saw many people come up to Kathy and offer words of love and grace and make offers of support, but then I noticed Rose. Rose was also a recovering alcoholic and was one of Kathy’s sponsors. Like everyone else, Rose told Kathy, I’ll be here if you need me and Kathy said thanks, but then Rose looked her in the eye and said, no I don’t think you understand. I will be here if you need me. I will be sitting right here all afternoon and I’ll be with you for dinner tonight and then be back here this evening and then I’ll drive you home and pick you up in the morning. I’ll be here for you and she was. Rose helped Kathy through that difficult time by being devoted to her not in words but in actions. That’s what the church needs to look like. We give too much lip service to devotion instead of actual service and sacrifice to those who are in need. I have a feeling that if we were to step out in faith and really commit ourselves to one another it would stretch us in many different ways and that kind of stretching might make us uncomfortable, but it will also be thrilling and life giving.

Think about Jesus, he didn’t just say he would love his disciples to the end; he loved his disciples to the very end. Just hours before his death we find Jesus on his knees washing the disciple’s feet. Then he offers them bread and wine at the Passover table, prays for them in the garden, forgives them as they run away when the soldiers come and then carries the cross from them because they are too weak to carry it on their own. The last 24 hours of Jesus’ life he is living on the edge and he shows us what true devotion looks like - it is radical and sacrificial, but I’m thinking that when we are willing to be that radical in our service and love – like Jesus, we will also experience the power of God in a way that will transform our lives. Living on the edge isn’t always easy, but it is where we will find God and if God is there – life is there.

Living on the edge means being part of an authentic community, it means being devoted to one another and being willing to serve in love and the time for us to do this is now. Romans 12:11 some translations record this as never lacking in zeal, which means that we need to be willing to serve God and others in love today. Too often we allow ourselves to wait and we convince ourselves that we can serve tomorrow or the next day but it is my experience that if we put it off until tomorrow it won’t get done at all. Sometimes it doesn’t get done because we are lazy and will just keep putting it off, but sometimes it won’t get done because the moment is gone and we will not have that opportunity again.

I may have shared this story before, but one of the images that haunts me to this day is of a bag lady in NYC who I saw huddled between two buildings and why I can’t get her image of our of mind or heart is because I didn’t stop and help. Living on the edge would have been for me to stop and give her my coat. I would have been cold for the rest of the day – but I would have been so excited that I made a real difference in someone’s life that being cold for a few hours would not have mattered. I never got that moment back and sometimes I wonder how many needs go unmet and how many people struggle and suffer because God’s people don’t respond to the promptings of the Holy Spirit and serve in love when God says serve.

I know that when I stand before Jesus and have to given an account of my life, all I will be able to do when that moment comes is ask God for his forgiveness. I have a feeling that it won’t be the sins we have committed that will weigh down our hearts as much as our sins of omission, that list of things God laid on our hearts to do and yet we didn’t do. This is why being able to hear the voice of God is so important. We need to hear God clearly when he calls us to serve in love because he wants us to be the ones who will meet the needs we see in others. The beautiful thing is that when we step out to meet those needs – we find life.

The last thing we need to remember as we seek to love and serve one another is that to accomplish this our focus always needs to be upward and outward. Look at Romans 12:12-13, verse 12 shows us that we need to look up and verse 13 shows us we need to look out. To be able to make serving in love a way of life and not just a program or event is to make sure our focus is first on God and Romans 12:12 shows us what a life that is focused on God looks like, we rejoice in hope, we are patient through the difficult times and maybe above all we pray. When this is our focus and way of life we will be able to serve in love not once in a while but all the time.

And then something happens as our focus becomes more and more fixed on God, the more we look to God, the more God helps us see the needs of others. Go back to the last 24 hours of Jesus - Jesus focus was during this time was God. At the table he gave thanks to God, in the garden he prayed to God and on the cross he cried out to God. Jesus is focused on God, and yet through that entire time Jesus is also focused not on himself but the needs of others. At the table Jesus gave himself to his friends in love. In the garden Jesus saw his friends sleeping and prayed for them; on the cross Jesus saw the need of his mother to be connected to a new family. From the cross Jesus also saw the needs and heard the cry of a thief and offered him life and salvation. As Jesus looked to God, God helped Jesus see the needs of others and as our hearts look to God our eyes will focus in on the needs of those around us and our minds will uncover the ways God is calling us to meet those needs.

So living on the edge comes when we are willing to invest ourselves in authentic relationship that help build up the church and it comes when we step out in faith to serve one another in love, and as Paul says, the time to live this way is now. Don’t put it off, don’t wait another day, serve in love today.

Next Steps to Seeing our Real Selves

2011-10-24T11:48:00.000-07:00

Connect:

Ask God to help you see the real you, both the good and the bad.
Humble yourself and confess the bad. Acknowledge, celebrate and give thanks for all the good.

Help others see themselves the way God does by offering them positive words of affirmation. Make it a goal to say something positive and affirming to every person in your family (place of business or circle of friends) once a day this week. Seek out those who may struggle with only seeing the negative and offer them positive words of encouragement.

Serve:
Romans 12 identifies 7 gifts given by God: prophecy, serving, teaching, encouraging, giving, leadership and showing mercy. Identify what your believe your top three gifts might be

How are you using these gifts in your family, the church and community? If you aren’t, what are three specific ways you could use them in the next month:

Grow:
Use the following scriptures to help you see the real you:
Psalm 139:13-17
Romans 8:31-32
Isaiah 61:10
Romans 8:38-39
Philippians 2:13-14
Ephesians 2:10

Living on the Edge - Seeing our Real Selves

2011-10-24T11:44:00.000-07:00

After my graduation from college, my first real job was as an assistant manager of a 3 screen movie theater in South Bend, IN. I enjoyed the job and honestly, I did pretty well, well enough that my district manager offered me jobs at larger theaters in the greater Chicago area, but at the time I knew I didn’t want to live in a large metropolitan area and I knew I didn’t want to move away from my family in South Bend, so I stayed put in that little theater, and eventually moved to a 6 screen theater across the street. I was content, but I knew that I wasn’t going to be a movie theater manager all my life. It was a good job and in so many ways that experience helped prepare me for what was to come later in my life because I learned a lot about business and management and working with the public, but during those years I just knew I wasn’t really a movie theater manager. God had created me for something else, but I didn’t know what. I was struggling to figure out who I was and I think that is one of the most fundamental questions we all ask ourselves in life, maybe many times in life. Who am I? We need to come to terms with our real identity if we are going to experience God’s best for us and live a life on the edge.

Now we answer this question in many different ways. We define ourselves by what we do: I’m a pastor, a manger, a teacher, a mechanic, student or a nurse, and at times we define ourselves by what we don’t do: I’m retired, I used to be a teacher, manager or nurse. We also define ourselves by the relationships in our lives: I’m a mother or father; I’m a sister or brother, an aunt or uncle, and we define ourselves by our gifts, interests and abilities; I’m a runner, a musician, an artist, or a gardener. We define ourselves in so many different ways and yet I don’t believe we will ever discover who we really are until we begin to define ourselves and see ourselves the way that God does.

Now you might think this question should have been addressed the first week of our series, but there is a reason we are talking about it today. We will never discover our real identity until we are first willing to surrender to God and then be willing to separate ourselves from the world so that we can hear the voice of God. Paul lays out a journey for us in Romans 12 and surrendering to God and ordering our life in such a way that we are able to hear God’s voice of are the steps that will help us discover our real selves because who God created us to be is not be defined by the world and the people around us, it is not determined by our family and friends, it is not even defined by ourselves. For us to experience God’s best and discover who we really are, we need to be defined by God which is why Paul says to us in Romans 12:3 that we need to think of ourselves with sober judgment. Now sober judgment doesn’t mean we are critical and harsh with ourselves, it means we need a clear heart and mind; we need a mind separated from the messages of the world and a heart fully surrendered to God.

One of the reasons it is so important to have a clear heart and mind is because the world wants us see ourselves in one of two ways – either better than we really are or much, much worse. If we go back to the creation story, we see that the temptation that the serpent used to cloud Adam and Eve’s mind was to get them to think of themselves more highly than they ought. The serpent, who remember is Satan, told Adam and Eve that they could be like God. He appealed to their pride and ego and got them thinking more highly of themselves and that voice is still alive and well today.

There are all kinds of voices telling us that we are OK on our own and that we don’t need anyone or anything in order to have a great life, but the truth is that we all have weaknesses and we all need help and support from others. If we want an accurate view of ourselves we need a dose of humility. We can’t think more highly of ourselves than we ought to, but we also can’t put ourselves down. Humility does not mean thinking less of ourselves; it means thinking honestly about ourselves. We can’t allow our humility to turn into humiliation which means we can’t allow all the negative messages of the world to define who we are and this might actually be a bigger problem for us than pride.

Studies have shown that we are actually wired to receive bad messages more than good ones and my guess is that if we reflect on our own lives we would agree that this is true. We remember and pay attention to all the bad stuff that happens in our lives more than we do the good. We listen to the bad comments more closely, remember them longer and weigh them more heavily in assessing situations including what we think about ourselves and this all works to shape how we define who we are.

I don’t know about you, but I can still hear the name calling of the kids on the bus and the playground who called me fat and still remember what it feels like to be picked me last in gym class every time. Those negative words and actions shape us and define how we see ourselves. We may have been told 1000 times that we are valuable and wonderful and uniquely made, but it is the one critical remark that we remember, hold on to and use to determine our value and self identity. So seeing ourselves with a clear mind doesn’t just mean looking at ourselves with humility, it also means looking at ourselves to see the intrinsic value and worth that God has placed in us all.

Paul gives us a hint of this in Romans 12:3 when he talks about the grace and the faith that has been given to us. Why does God give us grace and faith in the first place? Isn’t it because we are valuable to him and he wants us to see ourselves for who we really? Isn’t it God’s grace and faith which help us see ourselves as deeply loved children born from his heart and mind? God gives us grace and faith so we can begin to identify ourselves as his children. Do you know that there are only 2 times when God speaks clearly in the gospels, and do you know what he says? In each instance God is talking to Jesus and he says to him, “you are my beloved son and with you I am well pleased.” Think about it – even Jesus needed to hear from God who he really was. Even Jesus needed that sense of love, affirmation and assurance that he was a child, the child, of God.

Now what’s really interesting about those two moments of God speaking to Jesus are when they occurred. The first was at Jesus baptism as he is coming up from the waters of the Jordan River, and the second was on the Mt. of Transfiguration when Jesus’ physical presence is transfigured into all the glory and power of God. So the first time God gives definition to who Jesus really is comes after Jesus has surrendered himself fully to God in baptism. Surrender is a necessary first step in order for us to hear God define our lives. The second time is on the top of a mountain when Jesus, Peter, James and John have gone off by themselves – they have separated themselves from all the noise of the world and the chaos of crowds in order to hear the voice of God. So surrender and separating ourselves from the world are the essential steps we need to take if we are going to hear God’s voice revealing to us our real identity. I just love how God’s word only fits together and gives witness to these deep truths of God.

So seeing our real identity requires clear thinking so we can honestly confront our pride, sin and failures but also see who we are as deeply valued and unconditionally loved children of God and if we are children then part of our identity is that we belong to a family. What’s important about this is that we need to understand that experiencing God’s best for us doesn’t take place in isolation because we were created to belong. We were all created with a strong need to belong and that is because we were created to be in relationship – both with God and others – and belonging is really all about relationship.

From the time we are little we want to know that we belong to someone and something. We need to be part of a family, we want to have friends and be part of team. We want to know that our lives matter to someone and that we are noticed. We see the evidence of this strong need to belong so clearly in children and youth in a negative way as they give in to peer pressure and do things they might never do on their own just to fit in. But the need to belong is just as strong in adults as well.

We join clubs and seek out small groups and want to be part of teams because we have this need to belong and around here we see this desire to belong lived out on a very large scale every Saturday there is a home PSU game. 100,000+ people will all get together and wear the same 2 colors because they want to belong to something big and exciting called Penn State Football. We have a need to belong and what God is saying is that we have a place to belong that is not only big and exciting but it is life giving and transforming and when we see that we belong to the body of Christ - the church – we begin to experience real life. Romans 12:4-5.

So we are members of one another which not only means that we are connected to one another, but it means we have a responsibility to one another. We need to start thinking about church not as a place where we come to get our needs met – that is the consumer mind set of the world that we need to separate ourselves from –but as a place where we are willing to give and receive. While there is a lot that we can receive from one another in the church - acceptance, grace, support, help and encouragement, we also have a lot to give and when we start to connect with one another by giving and receiving we begin to see how we belong and that helps us understand who we are as God’s children. We will look at this more next week as we talk about serving in love in the context of an authentic community, but for now it is important for us to see that part of discovering our real identity and experiencing a life on the edge is seeing ourselves as a vital part of God’s family.

So we are children of God who belong to God’s family, but God also has a purpose for us and God gives us the gifts we need to live out that purpose, that what we see in the rest of Romans 12:6-9. The first thing to notice here is that we all have a gift. Paul doesn’t say you might have a gift or God might have a plan for you – it says, we have gifts - period. We each have a gift and living on the edge will come when we identify that gift and begin using it for God’s purpose. The other thing to notice is that there are different gifts. We are not all gifted the same way so we can’t look at others to define what gift God has given to us – we have to look to God, which again is why surrender and separating ourselves from the world in order to hear God’s voice is so important.

So let’s look at these 7 gifts for a moment. There is:

Prophecy – which is speaking God’s truth to a situation.

Serving – which literally means waiting on tables, so it is a practical service that meets people’s needs.

Teaching – which is helping people understand who God is and how God works in our lives and in this world.

Exhorting which is encouraging others and lifting them up. It is inspiring people to be more than they thought they could be and all God created them to be.

Giving – which means giving our time and talents and resources in ways that will better people’s lives and our world.

Leadership - which is moving people from one place to a better place

Compassion – which is reaching out to care for people in times of need.

Now do you notice something about all these gifts? They all focus on others - not us. When we use these gifts we are helping those around us experience more in life and that’s the work which will bring a deeper sense of meaning and purpose in life because that is the work of God. Look at the cross for a moment, the work of Jesus on the cross was never about himself. Jesus himself gained nothing by carrying the cross - in fact he died on the cross, Jesus gained nothing and yet we gained everything. When Jesus says that we will find life when we lay down our lives and take up a cross he is saying that we will experience real meaning and purpose in life and God’s best in our lives when we seek to gain nothing for ourselves but give others everything as we use the gifts God has given us. In many ways experiencing life on the edge comes when we take all that God has given us and use it for the care and well being of others, and what Paul is saying here is that when we live this way, we find our real selves.

I want to invite you to use the next steps in the bulletin this week to help you identify the real you. These steps can help us see ourselves the way God does, they can help us discover and use the gifts God has given us and therefore continue to help us experience living life on the edge.

Next Steps for Seperate from the World

2011-10-09T14:15:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of 2011, I began providing what I call "next steps' which are practical steps we can take to put the sermon into practice. My goal was to provide them each week and other than this summer when we provided a weekly Bible study on the 10 Commandments, we have been able to do that. Since the next steps are not listed on our church website (http://www.bellefontefaith.com/) and people have asked for them, I have decided to start adding them here. What can I say, better late than never. So here are the next steps for this week's sermon Living on the Edge - Seperate from the World.

Connect to God and one another:
• Pick one day this week when you will “unplug” from the world and fast from all forms of media
• Limit the amount of media you consume each day
• Use the unplugged time to connect with God and with others: share dinner as a family or with friends, join a small group.

Grow in depth of faith:
• Continue with the Bible reading plans you began in October. (*see note below)
• Take 30 minutes you don’t spend watching TV and read all of Romans 12.
• Memorize Romans 12:1-2 (or any verses of scripture).

*Part of the Next Steps for the sermon "Grow" talked about Bible reading plans, so here are the next steps from that sermon.

Grow your faith in 5 horus a week
Spend 1 hour in worship
Spend 1 hour in small groups or Sunday School
Spend 1 hour reading the Bible (that's just 10 minutes a day)
Spend 1 hour in prayer (again, just 10 minutes a day)
Spend 1 hour in mission, ministry or service

Take the 90 day experiment and read the entire New Testament by the end of the year
Reading plans can be found online at www.intothyword.org

Read the entire Bible in a year.
Reading plans can be found online at
http://www.intothyword.org/
http://www.biblegateway.com/
http://www.bibleyear.com/
http://www.oneyearbibleonline.com/

Join a new small group or Sunday School Class that start this week.

Tithe. Part of the overflow of blessing God talks about in Malachi 3:10 is a deeper, stronger faith.

Invite a friend to worship.

Living on the Edge - Seperate from the World

2011-10-09T14:02:00.000-07:00

So this month we are talking about living life on the edge which we define as a life filled with all the power and joy and purpose of God. A life on the edge is a life infused by the presence of God in every moment and Romans 12:1 tells us that this kind of life starts with surrender. When we present our bodies as a living sacrifice to God we begin to experience the life God wants us for us and tap into God’s best for us and honestly, this is a great place to live and a great life to experience.

When I finally surrendered to God 19 years ago as a sophomore in college those first few weeks after saying yes to God were amazing. Life just looked different. There was joy in every moment, I could see God working and moving in so many different ways both in me and around me. I began to see people and the world from a different perspective, a more Godly perspective, and it was amazing. I was living life on the edge and it was wonderful and I wish I could tell you that the experience of renewed faith and trust and love for God lasted forever – but it didn’t. Surrendering to God doesn’t mean that we will never wrestle with sin, it doesn’t mean we will be free from doubt and worry and it doesn’t mean we will always make the right decisions and walk in God’s will and way every moment. We know this and my guess is that many of us experienced this reality just this week.

Last Sunday we had the opportunity to surrender to God through worship and prayer and communion and while we were moved to our very core in wanting to give our lives fully to God, when Monday came we faced all the same temptations as last week. We worried about our finances, our hearts and minds wandered to places where we know they shouldn’t go, we struggled with greed and lust and selfish ambition and by mid week were filled with guilt and shame because of poor choices. While we have such great intentions of living on the edge with God, too often we find ourselves far away from the edge living in the midst of compromise. Too many times we find ourselves in this cycle of surrender on Sunday, mediocrity on Monday, watered down faith on Wednesday which leads to failure by Friday and then we end up back here on Sunday filled with remorse and yet with a genuine desire to surrender to God again and experience life on the edge.

While many of us experience this cycle in our lives, I witnessed the real heartache and pain of this while in Lewisburg. Every Sunday there would be college students from Bucknell in worship and many of them had such a great heart for God and I knew that their desire was to live on the edge with Jesus each and every day. We would talk about it on Sunday and through the week and yet weekends on a college campus are not easy when you are trying to live a Christian life. Temptation is all around and every Sunday there would be students in worship filled with guilt and shame and real anguish over poor decisions they had made on Friday and Saturday nights. Sunday would come and they would surrender to God again, but the cycle would continue.

Too many of us live life caught in this cycle and yet the truth is that God wants more for us, but many of us never experience God’s best because we fail to see that we don’t surrender ourselves to God and suddenly become the perfect person who never struggles in faith again, we don’t surrender to perfection, we surrender ourselves to a process. When we surrender to God we enter into a spiritual process that involves growth, discipline, struggle and ultimately victory and the first step in that process is to begin to separate ourselves from the world, that’s what Paul says in Romans 12:2

Paul says here that we are able to know God’s good, pleasing and perfect will which means we can experience real transformation in life if we will no longer conform to this world, or if we will separate ourselves from the world. While surrendering ourselves to God is a necessary first step because it expresses our desire to live for God, the second step to experiencing the life God has for us is to be willing to separate ourselves from the power and influence of the world around us and there is a reason we need to separate ourselves from the world – the world is not run by God but by Satan. Look at Ephesians 6:10-13.

The ruler and authority of this present world is Satan and so we need to separate ourselves from the power of Satan so we can experience the full life of God.

So let’s take a moment and talk about Satan. The name Satan means accuser, or one who obstructs and opposes. So Satan is the one who opposes us and obstructs our ability to live the life God wants for us. In a recent survey, over 40% of Christians said that they didn’t believe in Satan and the problem is that if we don’t believe that our enemy exists, then it’s hard to fight them. Now when I talk about Satan, I am not talking about a little man with a red suit, pitchfork and pointy tail, but I am talking about a real presence of evil and temptation that actively works to pull us away from God and the truth of God. Whether you want to talk about Satan as a real spiritual being, or the full force of evil and temptation in the world doesn’t matter, what does matter is that we understand that Satan is the real ruler and authority of this world and Satan works to pull us away from God. When we surrender to God we are entering in to a real spiritual battle and if we want to experience the life and power of God then we need to fight that battle and work to separate ourselves from the world.

But what does this kind of separation look like? Are we supposed to leave our homes and community and go off to live in a cave or some kind of Christian commune? Many people in the early church did just that, it was called the monastic movement and they literally separated themselves from society and went off to live in the wilderness to be able to live more fully with God, but I don’t think this is what Paul is talking about. If we look at 1 John, we not only hear a call to again separate ourselves from this world but here John defines for us what the world is - 1 John 2:15-16. So the world is the cravings of sinful man, the lust of the eyes, and the boasting of what one has or has done. In other words, the power of this world that seeks to pull us away from God is sex, wealth and possessions, and our desire for status - position – power or pride. Just think about these things for a moment: sex, wealth, riches, possessions, status, position, power… aren’t these the very things that the world tells us we need in order to have a good life? The world of entertainment and advertising that surrounds us tells us that sex and wealth and power will make us happy and bring fulfillment and purpose to life and that grabbing hold of all of that in excess is living life on the edge.

What I find interesting is that as we saw in our study of the 10 Commandments, sex, money and power are the same 3 false gods that the people of Israel were tempted to worship centuries ago (they were called Baal, Mammon and Moloch) – so things haven’t changed. Even the very first temptation that pulled Adam and Eve away from God was the pride of life – the serpent in the garden – who was Satan – told Adam and Eve that they could be like God, they could experience power in life, if they ate the fruit so from the very beginning Satan has appealed to our sense of self interest and ego and pride. So whether it was the serpent in the garden or false gods tempting the people of Israel, or Satan using the power of this world to pull us away from God, there are real spiritual forces at work to obstruct our relationship with God and keep us from experiencing life on the edge. Satan hasn’t changed his message at all – it’s just the media and method that have change. Instead of serpents, Satan tempts and attacks through TV, movies, internet and advertising. The means of communicating changes but Satan’s message stays the same, grab hold of sex, money and power and you will live life on the edge - but what Adam and Eve show us is that when we follow that message we end up filled with shame and grief because we have weakened our relationship with God which is where real life is found.

So we separate ourselves from the world so we can be in a closer relationship with God which is what allows God to shape our hearts and lives. The truth we always need to remember is that there is always something at work shaping our hearts and lives - it is either this world ruled by Satan or it is God. Our lives are shaped by what we feed our heart and mind and what feeds our heart and mind is what enters through our ears and eyes. So if God is going to shape our hearts we need to be intentional about what allow in to our minds, which is why Paul tells us to be transformed by the renewing of our mind, because a mind shaped by God’s truth brings life.

So let’s go back to Romans 12:2. What does it mean for us to not be conformed to this world so our minds can be renewed? It means we limit or stop the flow of messages from the world around us from getting into our hearts and minds which then opens the door for God’s word and spirit to enter in and transform us. One specific way to not be conformed by the world is to limit the amount of media that we consume every day. Studies done last year by the Kaiser Family Foundation show that teenagers spend on average 7 hours and 38 minutes every day consuming entertainment media (TV, movies, internet, gaming) and since we have taught our children how to multi-task, the reality is that they consume an average of 10 hours and 45 minutes worth of media in that 7 ½ hours. But you know, our children are better off than we are because studies show that most adults spend on average 8 hours and 11 minutes a day consuming media and with smart phones becoming the norm, that number will only increase because now we can watch video, listen to music, play games and of course see countless ads with any free moment we have. I know this is going to sound radical – but maybe we need to limit the amount of media we consume in a day or in a week. Maybe we need to fast from all media for a day and see what difference it can make in our minds and hearts.

I believe it can make a difference and here’s why: The summer of 1983 I worked in Yellowstone National Park and in 1983 there was no internet and in Yellowstone there is no cable TV, or any TV and there were no movie theaters and you couldn’t get any radio stations and the only newspaper or magazine that turned up were usually a couple weeks old, so I spent the summer in a kind of self-imposed media fast, which for this boy who grew up on TV wasn’t easy. But I also have to say that it was a formative summer for my faith because I spent time reading God’s word, talking with friends about life and God and experiencing the power of fellowship and community and God used those very things to shape my heart and renew my mind and therefore bring me life.

So what would happen if we picked one day a week and turned off the TV, didn’t tweet or update our status on fb and only went online for work and to answer email. First of all, we would have about 8 free hours to do something else and maybe that time could be sent in a small groups or having dinner with the family or reading God’s word. As we limit the world’s ability to shape our hearts and minds we give God the opportunity to do just that.

You see, it’s not enough to just turn out the noise of the world; we have to replace that noise with the voice of God. We need to replace the message of the world with the life giving message of Jesus. There is no more powerful tool in shaping our minds and hearts than the word of God so I want to invite us to go back to our core values of connect and grow. When we connect to God through worship and his word and when we grow deeper in our faith through the intentional reading and reflection of God’s word – our minds are renewed and our lives are transformed and we begin to experience more of the fullness and power in life that God wants for us, but let’s be clear, it’s not our reading of the word that transforms us, it’s the power of God’s living and active word in us that renews our heart and changes our lives. On our own, no amount of reading the Bible can bring about transformation, but when we open ourselves up and give God the opportunity to speak and shape our hearts and lives – he will. This is why first step in living a life on the edge is surrender. So can the next step in living on the edge really be as simple as turning off the world and opening our hearts to God’s power and grace and love and our minds to God’s word? Here’s a thought – let’s give it a try and see.

Living on the Edge ~ Surrender to God

2011-10-07T16:43:00.000-07:00

A few years ago I was hiking in one of the more remote sections of the Great Smokey Mountains and because of the long drive to get to this section of the park I knew that I would probably never hike in this area again. I was doing a section of the Appalachian Trail that led to the Shuckstack Fire tower and I was excited because the trail book said from the top of the tower you had a great view of Fontana Lake which was created by Fontana dam which is the largest dam at its altitude east of the Mississippi. When I arrived at the fire tower I set down by backpack and started to make the 80 foot climb to the top.

The tower is an open iron stairwell with old wooden boards and the first few sections weren’t too bad, but as I got higher, the stairs got narrower and I could feel the entire thing moving with me and as you can see there is nothing to really protect you so about half way up I decided I’d gone far enough. The problem was that from where I was I couldn’t see much above the trees. So I slowly made my way up another section of stairs so I was about half way and I sat down. As I looked around I was glad I at went a little higher because from that landing I could at least get a glimpse of one section of the lake. After sitting there for a few moments I climbed down and was ready to leave when I though to myself that I was probably never going to be back to that spot again in my life and I hated to think that I didn’t make it to the top of the tower. As I was debating what to do I glanced down and realized I was wearing a t-shirt that said “no fear”. So I put down my backpack again, and started up the stairs.

Now the second time up I knew I could get to the landing I on had been on before without any problem, so I got that high and then as I made my way up the last 4 sections I kept looking straight out – not down – and on every step said, help me God, help me God, help me God, help me God. And God did. I made it to the top of the tower and the view was amazing.

I felt so energized and excited as I stood in the top of the tower and just looked out at the Lake and mountains and the beauty of God’s creation. Everything was great, until I suddenly realized that going up was easy – going down was the hard part because I actually had to look down at the steps and in between those steps there was nothing but the ground 80 feet away. When I finally got to the ground the 2nd time I was so filled with excitement and joy that I just about ran back down the trail because of what God had helped me do. I had overcome fear, I was doing something that I loved and I was able to see this incredible view that I might never see again, and for me this was living life of the edge. I have to tell you, there is a part of me that wishes every moment of every day could be filled with that same sense of power and excitement and joy. The author Mike Yaconelli says that greatest issue facing the church today isn’t the loss of moral absolutes, the breakdown of the family, drug use, world poverty or violence, the greatest problem facing the church today is dullness – we have forgotten how to live life on the edge.

Last week, we heard Jesus call Peter to drop his nets and follow him, and Peter did just that, and I have to think that for Peter there was some fear and trembling in making that decision. For all of the disciples and for everyone who followed that same call, there was a certain excitement and fear that came in following Jesus because they were leaving behind everything they knew and all that was comfortable to begin a journey of living life on the edge. Following Jesus they were going to see miracles and majesty and mayhem. They would see Jesus praised and cursed, they would experience the thrill of huge crowds and the questions of loneliness, rejection and isolation. Life was going to get exciting and dangerous and it would be anything but dull. Following Jesus should be anything but dull and my hope is that in the next month we will turn to follow Jesus in a way that we will help us experience life on the edge.

If you want this kind of experience, if you want this kind of life and faith then I want to invite you on this journey through Romans 12 and it all starts in Romans 12:1. When Paul says that we are to present our bodies as a living sacrifice he is saying that we need to give our entire lives to God – we are talking about a total commitment here or complete surrender. To surrender to God means to give God all that we hold dear, all that we find comfort in, everything in this world that gives us strength and peace and all that we trust in so that we can trust completely in God, and while surrender is not easy, it is the first step to living on the edge because when we surrender to God we will end up doing things we never dreamed possible. We will be living a life that will make our hearts beat faster, our minds and mouths utter “help me God, help me God” at every step and yet in it all we will find power and joy.

So how do we get this surrendered life? What does it look like? Jesus gives us the answer in 2 parables he tells in Matthew 13:44-46. To surrender to God means to be willing to give up everything we have in order to grab hold of all the life God has to offer. I think Matthew understood the power of these stories because this was his life. Matthew was a tax collector and had a good, safe and prosperous life, but when Jesus called out to him it says Matthew got up and left his tax booth. Now for a tax collector to leave his booth meant he was quitting his job completely. Matthew would never be able to return to the tax business or to the safety and security that the money and position brought him, but like the man who found the treasure in the field – Matthew gave it all up because he could see that what Jesus offered was so much better, and that is the key to surrendering to God. We will commit ourselves completely to Jesus when we see the riches and the power that could only be found in following Jesus into God’s kingdom and presence.

Too many times we struggle with surrendering ourselves to God because we don’t see the riches of a life lived with God and we don’t see those riches because if we are honest we question God’s love and care for us. The reason we have a hard time surrendering to God is because we really don’t believe that God wants what is best for us or that God even knows us and knows what we want in life. Think about it, we don’t want to surrender because when we think surrendering to God we think it only means sacrifice and suffering. We think of all those things God is going to ask us to give up but we never think about all the things that we are going to receive. It’s a sad statement about our understanding of God if all we think about is suffering and loss when we think of surrender.

In Jesus’ parables the people are willing to sell all they have because they know that there is something even better waiting for them. They surrender everything to get a treasure and this needs to be our motivation in surrendering to God. We surrender to God not out of duty or obligation but because we know the God who created us loves us so much that he is just waiting to give us all the fullness of life. So when we hear the word surrender we need to think not of loss but love, not pain but power, not giving up but being filled up, and not trials but treasure. These parables tell us that we need to redefine surrender so that we see the riches of life that comes when we give ourselves to God.

Paul is trying to tell us the same thing in Romans 12. If we were to go back and read Romans 1-11, we would see that Paul has taken his readers on a journey to show them just how good and loving God is. In Romans 1-3 Paul outlines the problem we all face which is that we are all sinners (3:10-12).

The solution for this problem was to send Jesus to die for our sin (5:18).

God then gives us the power of his spirit to help us experience freedom and life in this world (8:1-2).

And God remains faithful to all people offering salvation and grace (10:13).

What Paul has done in Romans 1-11 is to show us just how amazing God’s grace and love for us really is. When we were dead in our sin and unable to do anything about it - God stepped in and saved us and everyday God holds out his hand of grace and mercy and offers us His power in every situation so we can experience freedom and fullness in life and it is because of this great love of God that we can surrender ourselves to Him. Romans 12:1 and this call to surrender only comes after Paul has shown us the love and power of God. So we commit ourselves to God completely because God has given us the treasure of forgiveness, grace, strength and life.

So we surrender to a God who loves us and wants so much more for our lives, but again, what does this kind of surrender look like? The truth is that a surrendered life looks different for each and every one of us. For me, a surrendered life started on the campus of MSU one October afternoon when I finally realized that I would rather live my life with God than without him because with God there is life and without him there is only death. So I said yes to God. But here’s the thing, while surrender does call for us to make a clear decision at some point in time, it is not a once and done decision. I surrendered to God in October of 1982, but about 10 years later I had to surrender again and do one of the things I said I would never do and that was go to Seminary. I never wanted to go to seminary and I thought I would be miserable doing it, but when I surrendered to God and realized that it was his plan for me, my heart changed. Seminary was hard work at times, but I loved learning about God and growing in my understanding of the church.

But you see surrender is an ongoing way of life. When I started in seminary I didn’t know what kind of ministry I wanted to pursue, I just knew that I wasn’t going to be a local pastor. I would do anything but that, but when I took a position as an intern in a local church - God changed my heart. I loved being in the local church so surrendering to that journey was a joy, but even as a pastor God has continued to call me to surrender. Leaving a congregation in Lewisburg to come to Faith Church required me to once again surrender what was safe and comfortable and fulfilling and step out in faith trusting that the treasure God had for me was better, and I have to say – it was. The joy and power of coming here and seeing God at work among us has been a blessing and it is a treasure.

Surrendering to God isn’t one big step we take once in our lives, it is a series of steps we take as we allow God to give direction to our lives. It means giving up control and stepping out in faith to connect and serve and grow. It means giving up some of our time and energy and money to support the work of God here and around the world and it means being part of that work in real ways so that we can see the power of God transform hearts and the world around us.

While surrender is a series of steps – it does require a decision. When Paul says to present our bodies as a living sacrifice – it is a command to give all that we are and all that we have and all that we want to be to a God who loves us and wants more for us.

If you are here today, you have already taken at least one step in surrendering your life to God – you are here. You heard a call of God to be in this place at this time and to open yourself up to His presence, so I just want to invite you to take another step and surrender your heart and life to God. Maybe you have been attending church your entire life and been going through all the motions but have never really experienced the thrill of living on the edge with God, maybe you have experienced church but never the power of Christ, if that is where you are then I want to invite you to surrender and begin to live life on the edge with Jesus. Maybe today is your first day in church or your first visit to Faith Church, that’s ok, I want to invite you too to surrender to a God who loves you more in this moment than can possibly imagine and I want to invite you take this first and necessary step in following Jesus and living life on the edge.

Before we surrender to God in a time of prayer, I want us to look at Psalm 84:8-12. As we turn to God we need to remember that God loves us so much that he will not withhold any good thing from us. We can freely and fully surrender to God today because he is our sun and shield and so much more treasure to share with us, so let us give everything to God so that we experience the fullness of life lived with God which really is a life lived on the edge.

As we pray, I want to invite you to just hold your hands out before you palms up as a sign of surrender. Opening our hands to God is just another way to let go of all that we hold on to – or to surrender ourselves completely to God. So let us present our bodies as a living sacrifice to God – this surrender of our hearts and lives is all that God really wants and it will be the beginning of living life on the edge.

Our Core Values - Grow

2011-09-26T14:23:00.000-07:00

One of the fundamental truths of our faith that I believe beyond a shadow of a doubt is that God loves us just the way we are! God doesn’t call us to change our hearts or clean up our lives before he will reach out to us in love, he simply loves us. The Bible shows us that wherever we are – God loves us and whatever we have done – God loves us. It is the foundation on which everything else in our faith is built, God loves us just the way we are… but there is another fundamental truth that I also believe beyond a shadow of a doubt and that is that God doesn’t want to leave us where and how he finds us. God wants us to experience all the fullness and power of life and that means we often need to change our hearts and lives and work to strengthen and deepen our faith. God wants us to grow in our relationship with him and so one of the core values of our faith and therefore a core value of the church is that we need to GROW.

Take a moment and think about the ministry of Jesus, did he ever meet someone and not ask them to change or grow? I thought through many of the encounters Jesus had with people and I have to tell you that I could not think of one meeting where Jesus didn’t call someone to live a new life. Jesus was constantly calling people to change their hearts, live different lives, grow in their faith and learn how to really trust in God. Let’s look a couple of these encounters.

John 8:1-11. Maybe more than any other story about Jesus, this one shows us these two truths at work. While everyone else was ready to stone this woman because of her sin, Jesus loved her just the way she was. He didn’t tell her to go change your ways and then I’ll forgive you. He didn’t make her confess and repent before he offered her grace – he loved her just the way she was and that love was seen by Jesus not passing judgment on her in front of the crowds and treating her with respect and a measure of dignity, but Jesus didn’t leave her where she was – he called her to live a new life. Go and leave your life of sin is a call to change and live a more faithful, God honoring life. Jesus wants more for her and so invites her to grow in her life and faith.

Luke 19:1-10. Again, we see here the unconditional love of Jesus. Zacchaeus is considered a sinner. He is a tax collector and because he is a wealthy tax collector, we can assume that he cheated many of his fellow Jews. He is hated by the people around him and yet when Jesus sees him he doesn’t tell him to give up his job or clean up his heart or confess his crimes before they eat together – he simply says I am going to your house today. Jesus loves him just the way he is, but then notice that after lunch – Zacchaeus is a changed man. Jesus has obviously said something to him to make him change his heart and that call to live a new life is not only heard, it is embraced by Zacchaeus. Jesus loves him just the way he was, but he doesn’t leave him in that state – he calls him to something better – no pun intended here but he calls Zacchaeus (a short man) to grow – not in height but in heart.

And now look at Luke 5:3-11. While we don’t often hear this version of Jesus calling the disciples, it is one of my favorites because I think I would have responded much like Peter who believes that he is just too sinful to be in the presence of Jesus let alone to be a disciple, and yet look at Jesus response. Jesus doesn’t say to Peter, yeah, you’re right – you are too sinful so I’m going to go find someone else. Jesus stays right there and in love continues to call him to be a disciple. Jesus loves Peter for who he is in that moment – but again calls him to a new life.

Over and over again we see that Jesus loves people for who they are in all their sinfulness and brokenness and with all of their pain and problems – but then he calls them to grow - to change their hearts and their lives by growing in their faith and learning to trust God. Now this is not a new work of God started in Jesus, God has been doing this from the very beginning. God has always called people to grow in their faith and go deeper in their relationship with Him. The 10 Commandments and all of the law and the teaching of the prophets were given to help the people learn to trust God more and walk with God more faithfully. Abraham and Moses were called by God just as they were, but then God called them to grow in their relationship with Him and learn to trust him more, so a core value of God’s kingdom has always been to grow and strengthen our faith and we need to keep this call to grow at the core of who we are and who we are as a church.

Now 2 ways that we can grow in our faith are to return to the first 2 core values we have already consider and make sure that we are connected and serving. Our faith will grow when we connect to God and to one another – it will just happen – that’s what Jesus tells us in John 15:5. Jesus is the vine and we are the branches and if we make sure that we are connected to God then we will bear fruit – or we will grow. Think about it, the only way grapes can grow and mature and ripen is if the branches that the fruit grows on stays connected to the vine. The only we will grow is if we stay connected to Jesus and so we need to commit ourselves to that core value of being connected to God through worship, prayer and study.

30 years ago this month I was a freshman at MSU and started attending IVCF. I didn’t get connected to God right away, but I did get connected to the people of God. I joined a Bible study and during the next 6 months as I studied the bible with a group of guys and I grew more in my faith than at any other time in my life before or since and it all happened because I got connected to the people of God and then to God. I got connected to the Body of Christ (a small group Bible study) and then I got connected to God through his Word and because of that connection - I grew. Growth happens when we get connected, but it also happens when we serve.

Fast forward a few months and in the spring semester of my freshman year our little Bible study group had grown to over 20 people and we were losing some of the power that comes when everyone has the chance to share so I suggested that maybe we needed to break into 2 groups. Everyone liked the idea but no one wanted to lead the other group so they asked me. Now you have to understand that at this point in my life I believed in God and I was learning to understood who Jesus was, but I had not surrendered my life to Christ and I had never led a Bible study before, but a friend said he would help me so I stepped out and was willing to serve and during the next few months I continued to grow in my faith and trust in God. In fact, I think it was that time of service which eventually led me to surrender my life to Jesus and then late on hear the call of God to serve him full time in the life of the church.

We will grow when we step out to serve and the reason is because when we step out to serve we are usually stepping outside of our comfort zones and so have to trust God more. As long as we only do those things we know we have the strength, power and ability to do, we will never really learn what it means to become dependent upon God and therefore we will never grow, but when we step out in faith and attempt to do those things that we know will only be accomplished through the power of God, when we become dependent upon God – really dependent upon God – we will grow.

Think about Peter again. Jesus said that he was going to be a fisher of men and women, but let’s face it; Peter didn’t have the strength or ability to do that. He wasn’t a public speaker – he was a fisherman, and Peter usually failed to grasp what Jesus was saying and at one point when he was asked if he knew who Jesus was – he said he no. Trusting in his own ability Peter wasn’t going to get anywhere, but somewhere along the line Peter surrenders himself to God and becomes dependent upon the Holy Spirit and when he steps out in faith to preach, his first sermon catches 3,000 men and women. He was doing the impossible because he wasn’t trusting in himself. Growth happens when we stop trusting in ourselves and step out to serve God. Growth happens when we connect and serve and when we connect and serve - we grow. While they are all interconnected, we have to be willing to commit ourselves to all three and while it seems easy to commit ourselves to connecting to God and the church and serving those around us, are we willing to commit ourselves to growth. Are we hungry for growth? Do we want more of Jesus?

I have recently finished a book called Radical and the author David Platt shares several stories about the persecuted church around the world. In one story the author is asked to speak at a Bible study in an Asian country where it is illegal to study the Bible. They tell him to hide him in the back seat of a car as they drive all over the city and finally out into the country. When they get out of the car they tell him to pull the hood over his head, keep his head down and just follow the feet of the person in front of him. They walk quite a distance to get to a house where a group of believers are eagerly waiting him to come and teach. When he arrives he teaches for an hour – but they want more. So he goes for two hours and then three and then four and they still want more. He teaches them for 8 hours and then they make plans to study the next day because they wanted to know more of God. After 9 days they had finished the Old Testament and David only had one day left so he was going to just teach them about some random subject when one of the men came up to him and said, “we have a problem. You have taught us the entire Old Testament, but you have not taught us the New Testament.” David thought the man was joking, but he was serious, and so for 12 hours that last day David taught this group the entire New Testament.

When I read that I have to say that I was both excited and humbled. Excited that the Holy Spirit still moves like this today and humbled and almost ashamed because I’m not sure it is moving in me this way. Would I be willing to give a whole day to reading God’s word? Would we be willing to give up the comforts of our church to gather in secret and under the threat of danger for 10 days straight to learn more about God and how he wants us to live? Are we that hungry and committed to growing in our faith? Is growth a core value of our lives and of our church?

If we aren’t hungry and if this kind of growth just seems foreign to us, then maybe the place we need to start is to ask God to make us hungry to grow? Can we ask God to ignite a flame within us that will cause us to hunger for God’s word and presence and power? It’s a dangerous prayer, but it might be the prayer that we need to pray today and it might the prayer our church and the church around the world needs right now as well.

Now as we talk about growth as a core value I want us to go back to the story of Peter because there is another side of growth that we need to consider, look at Luke 5:10.

Jesus wasn’t just calling Peter to grow in his faith – he was calling Peter to help grow this movement and spread the news of Jesus. God wants everyone to be saved. 1 Timothy 2:4 says that God desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. God wants everyone to know the life saving message of Jesus which means that God wants the church to grow. The great commission, one of Jesus’ final instructions to us is to go and make disciples of all nations – all people - and to baptize them, which means we bring them into the community of faith, the church. We need to be committed to not only growing our faith but growing the church as well.

Now many times when we hear about this kind of growth we begin to get uncomfortable because we think that it means we have to go out and knock on doors or stand on the street corners and talk about Jesus, but that is not the model for church growth given to us by Jesus. If we want to grow the church then what we need to do is commit ourselves to growing our faith. Let me say it again, the best way to grow the church is to simply grow our own faith because as we grow in our faith and as we live out our faith step by step, day be day, God will grow the church – it will simply happen.

Look at Acts 2:42-47a. What we see here is a picture of the early followers of Jesus growing in their faith. They are connecting themselves to God and to one another through prayer and teaching and worship and they are serving one another as they make sure no one has any needs, and so what we see is that they have committed themselves to growing their faith. Now look at the result of their commitment to these core values, Acts 4:27b. Growth of the church! The church grew. It just happened and this is the best model for growing the church we have. When we get serious about growing our own faith - God will get serious and send the power of his Holy Spirit which will bring people into the life of the church.

Committing ourselves to growing the church and growing our own faith will require change and sacrifice and while growth often involves pain, but it also brings the joy of knowing the power of God and a more abundant life. If you want to take a step forward and commit to this core value of growth, there are several suggested next steps you can take today.

• Connect with others in a Small Group or Sunday School class
• For the next month give God 5 hours a week
• Try the 90 day experiment
• Go big and commit to reading the Bible in the next 365 days.
• Tithe and learn to become dependent financially upon God.

And if we aren’t hungry or passionate for any of this – then I want to invite you to pray. Ask God for a hunger to grow and allow God to ignite that passion within. God wants us to grow, God loves us just the way we are – but he doesn’t want to leave us where and how he finds us; he wants us to grow so that we will experience the fullness of life and the power and love of His kingdom and he wants us to grow so that others will be saved.

Our Core Values - Serve

2011-09-21T14:17:00.000-07:00

As we saw last week, a time of crisis always takes us back our core values. On Sept. 11th and the days that followed we all had a strong need to be connected, which is why we contacted our families and gathered in prayer services and candle-light vigils across the nation, so we know that connection to God and one another is a core value, but there was another value that emerged 10 years ago and that was the call to serve. Serving and helping one another was highlighted and celebrated in the days after 9/11. We celebrated the service of all the first responders, we came together to serve families and businesses not only in NYC but around the country and even today, many people recognize September 11th not only as a day of remembrance but a day of service. What we need to remember is that service is nothing new; in fact from the very beginning we have been called by God to serve – and the call was first and foremost to serve God. The first general call for us to serve God comes in Deuteronomy 6:13 where we are called to serve the Lord but then a few chapters later we have a kind of summation of the entire law given by God at Mt. Sinai where God says that at the very center of his will, what God wants from us to serve. Deuteronomy 10:12.

So the first call is to serve God, but what exactly does that mean? If we look through the Old Testament, many of the calls to serve God come in the context of serving God in the Temple, or in and through the worship life of Israel. Priests were to serve God by offering the sacrifice. Stone cutters, weavers, goldsmiths and other workers were to serve God by building the Temple and making the items needed for worship. Singers were to serve God by singing and leading the people. So throughout the Old Testament serving God meant being involved in the worship of God and I think it still means the same thing today.

When we talk about serving God the first thing we are talking about is worshipping God, in fact Jesus said we are to worship the Lord our God and serve him only. So serving God begins with worship which is why one of the foundations of the church is corporate worship and we need to commit ourselves to this kind worship. Worship not only connects us to one another it is the beginning of serving God and so it is a priority of what we do as God’s people and just like in the Old Testament where people served God by giving their gifts and talents to worship, the same is true today. Worship needs everyone sharing their gifts and talents. We need people willing to lead in music, we need people willing to pray and work with our children and support the audio and video and we need everyone’s gifts to help support the Temple – of the physical building and grounds where we are able to gather together each week. So we serve God by being committed to the corporate worship life of the church, but we also serve God when we worship in private each and every day. Worship, and therefore serving God, also takes place when we spend time in prayer giving thanks to God and acknowledging his goodness in our lives. It happens when we set aside time to read and reflect on God’s word. Worship and service to God takes place when we stop trusting in ourselves and start trusting in God not just in what we believe but in how we live and how we are willing to give of ourselves.

So service to God is a core value of the church which is expressed in the worship life of the church, but from the very beginning service has not just been directed toward God, we have also been called to serve one another. Let’s go back and look at Deuteronomy 10:12-19. From the very beginning God has called us to love and serve Him by loving and serving those around us by helping them in times of need. It says here that God helps the widows, orphans and strangers by providing food, clothing and justice to those who are in need and God calls us to do the same thing. We are to love those in need the same way God does which means we are to physically and practically serve and help all those who are in need.

Jesus, however, takes this call of God to serve and makes it not just a core value, but a non-negotiable priority for his followers. Look at Matthew 20:26-28. The first thing we see here is that Jesus didn’t come to be served, but to serve and so if we are going to follow Jesus - service has to be at the core of our hearts and lives. We simply can not say we are followers of Jesus and not have service be at the center or our hearts and lives. We are to serve like Jesus, so let’s think for just a moment about how Jesus served. Jesus fed people, he healed people, he forgave people. Jesus offered hospitality to people not by welcoming them into his home because he didn’t have a home, but by welcoming people into his presence and including people as part of his team and family. Jesus served people by offering them hope in the midst of despair many times by calling for justice in the midst of unjust situations. Jesus also served people by saving them, literally rescuing us from sin and death and opening the door to eternal life. As he said, Jesus didn’t come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many and his life has ransomed us.

If we are to follow Jesus then we need to think about serving in all the ways that Jesus served. Jesus set an example of service that needs to be at the very core of our lives and our life together as a church, and Jesus outlines for us some of what that service is to look like. In Matthew 25 Jesus tells the parable of the sheep and the goats and in this parable it he says that we will be judged by how well serve others. Look at Matt. 25:34-41. So we are to feed the hungry, give water to thirsty, welcome and care for strangers, and those who are sick and oppressed, but this is not an exhaustive list – this is just the beginning. I think what Jesus is saying here is that practical and intentional service to others needs to be a core value of his people.

What is interesting is that in the last 20 years or so, serving people has become one of the core values and priorities of our culture. For example, many high schools and colleges now require some kind of community service for graduation. The world is catching up to what the church has known for centuries – service needs to be not just a part of our lives but a guiding principle or a core value of our lives. Serving people needs flow from who we are as people created in the image of God because we worship a God who serves, loves and cares for his people and we follow a savior who came not be served but to serve. So to say it simply – we need to serve God and we need to serve others.

You’ll find in the bulletin some next steps about serving and I hope we will use these ideas to either enter into the world of service or expand the ways in which we already serve. I have to say that one of the blessings of this church is that many of you have worked hard to make service a core value of who we are. We actively serve our community through work at the FaithCentre and food bank. We provide leadership for events like the CropWalk and offer our support for community projects like the day of caring. We also respond in service when we hear God calling –like today, we are providing a picnic for our new neighbors at Beaver Heights and Beaver Farms because we simply heard God calling us to reach out to our neighbors. Like the call of God to his people in the Old Testament, we are reaching out to welcome those who are strangers. We support disaster relief and mission work around the world and when we saw tornados in Alabama or flooding right here in PA, people immediately started talking about ways to help. This is all great - now we just have to keep going and follow through. The Mission trip to Alabama is coming up in October and we need to hear this call of God to serve and set aside some time to do this – or support those who are going to serve

More than all the big events we support like mission trips and the crop walk, I know that many of you serve in quiet ways all the time. We have people serve at the food bank each and every week. And you probably don’t know this because we never really talk about it, but once a month we serve a lunch at the soup kitchen in Bellefonte – teams of people just quietly make it happen. Every week there are teams of people who go to the FaithCentre to sort the mountain of clothes that never seems to go away. We have people who serve in the community through the Red Cross and PAWS and many other community service agencies and we have people who visit those in the nursing home, provide meals for people in need and serve our youth through the 5th Quarter.

What I’d like to ask us all to do is seriously pray about where God may be calling us to serve and then I want to invite you step up and commit yourself to this core value. If God is calling you today to serve in some way that is listed on this sheet, either serving God or serving others, then I want to invite you to check that off, sign your name at the bottom and during the last hymn or after worship come forward and offer that service to God by placing your sheet in the basket. If you check off one of the service opportunities through the church, then we will contact you later this week and help work out the details of getting you involved.

If you hear God calling you to serve in the community in some way and need help getting connected, we have people here who serve at many of these agencies and I know they would love to help you get connected and start serving, so all you need to do is write a note at the bottom saying you want more information about PAWS or the Red Cross or CentreCrest or CVIM and someone will call you.

It’s not enough for us to say that service is important if we don’t go out and serve both God and others, we need to make it a core value of our lives and keep it at the center of our life together as Faith Church. So now, Faith Church, what does the Lord require of us? Only to fear the Lord our God, walk in all his ways, love him and serve the Lord with all our heart and soul and to love and serve others.

Our Core Values ~ Connect

2011-09-17T17:00:00.000-07:00

This past week I spent some time reading about different people’s reflections on 9/11 and the lessons learned on that day and I came across this from the Christian author Erwin McManus. On September 12, Erwin sat down with is children who were 9 and 11 at the time and they talked about what had happened the day before and while he wanted to reassure his children that things like this would never happen to them, he knew that just wasn’t the truth, so what he told his children that day was this: what we learned yesterday is that we have no control over when we die, or even how we die, but what we do have control over is how we live.

One of the few things we do have control over in our lives is how we choose to live. We can control the priorities we set and the decision we make. We can control the values we embrace and the character we develop. So let me ask, how have we been living these past 10 years? Do our lives today embrace the values that were so clear to us ten years ago today? One of the things we honored and celebrated in the days after 9/11 were the men and women who were willing to run into burning buildings when everyone else was running out. We honored police officers, firefighters and all kinds of Emergency Medical people for their selflessness as they ran into the WTC and the Pentagon in an effort to rescue as many people as possible. Have our lives reflected that same selflessness during these past 10 years? Is that a value we have embraced and made a priority? Has it become a part of who we are?

What about the courageous example of Todd Beamer and the passengers of flight 93? Here was a group of people who were willing to take their plane down in a quiet PA field instead of seeing it destroy the lives of others. Over these past 10 years have our lives reflected that kind of sacrificial courage? Is this how we choose to live?

How have we been living our lives these past ten years? What priorities and values have been seen in all the big and little decisions we have made? In simple ways have we been willing to place the needs of others before our own like Ron Fazio did on September 11th? If you have never heard about Ron Fazio, he was a corporate Vice President with an office on the 99th floor of Tower Two. When the first plane slammed into Tower One, Ron Fazio made one of the best decisions of his life. He ordered all of his employees to evacuate the building. Even though the south tower where their offices were had not yet been hit, he insisted that all of his employees get away from the windows, leave their desks, and get out of the building. After making that decision, Ron didn’t lead the people down the stairs; he stood and held the door open for others to leave first. Ron yelled for everyone to hurry up and get out and he held the door open until everyone from his company started down stairs.

All of Ron’s employees made it out of the building that day and so did Ron, but instead of running to safety, Ron remained outside Tower Two, doing what he could. He wasn’t a firefighter or an EMT, but Ron did what he could - he held the door for others and the last anyone saw of Ron Fazio, he was holding the door open and handing his cell phone to someone for them to use. The last any one knew, Ron was holding the door open when Tower Two came crashing down. Have we been holding the door for people during these past 10 years? Are we committed to a life of sacrifice, courage and service? Are we committed to living out the values that we know are the most important ones for us to embrace?

One of the things that happened in the days after September 11th is that as individuals, families, churches and communities we returned to our core values and we spent a lot of time thinking and talking about how to live out those values in our every day lives. As I look back today, the value that seemed the most important to me on that day, and a value that I think lies at the very heart of who we are as both children of God and as a church is our need to be connected. On September 11th, first lady Laura Bush, said that the first thing she did that day was to call her daughters to reassure them and then she called her mother to be comforted by her. Her first thought was to reach out to her family and get connected and I have to confess that once the events of that day started to become clear to me that was the first thing I wanted to do as well. I spent a large part of the afternoon trying to call my parents - not because they were in any danger - I just wanted to be connected to my family.

We all wanted or needed to be connected. As the stories of September 11th began to be shared in the weeks and months that followed, the most powerful and painful things we heard were all the phone calls that people made from the WTC, Pentagon and flight 93. When danger and even certain death were so close people didn’t call their stock brokers or doctors, they reached out to their wives and husbands and children. People called to either reassure their family that they were ok, or they called in what they knew would be their final moments to simply say, I love you. In the midst of a crisis we learn what is ultimately important and what we learned on September 11th is that at our core we have a strong need to be connected and there is a reason for that – we were created to be connected.

In Genesis 1 it says that God created man in his own image, in the image of God create him, male and female he created them. So we reflect not just the image but the character of God and just as God is relational – so are we. We know God wants to be connected to his people because it says in John 3:16 that God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son so that whoever believe in him might not perish but have everlasting life. The first thing we see here is that God loves us. God created us in love and so has a desire to be connected to us. But the depth of God’s desire for connection with us isn’t just seen in his love for us, it is seen in God giving Jesus for us. God sent Jesus to die for us so that we might live with God forever. That is how much God wants to be connected to us, not just for a moment but for eternity.

So we see that God is relational and wants to be connected to his children and because we are created in the image of God we are also relational beings who have within us not only a need to be connected to God but a need to be connected to one another. Let’s go back to the creation story. After God created the world and placed Adam in the middle of garden surrounded by all the animals, God realized that Adam was still alone and God said, it is not good for man to be alone, God knew that we needed to be connected, so he created Eve, a helper and a partner. God created someone for Adam to be connected to and what this tells us is that at the core of every single one of us is a need to be connected not only to God and to one another, and while we are all different in how we will seek to be connected and the level of connection that will satisfy and fulfill us, none of us can ignore the deep need we all have to be connected. For us to experience the fullness and the joy and the deep satisfaction that can be ours in life and in faith – we need to be connected to God and to one another.

We see evidence of our need for connection all through the Bible. God didn’t just call Noah to be saved through the flood, God called Noah and his wife and his sons and their wives (Genesis 6:18). God called a family because he knew that when the world was going to start over again people were going to need to be connected. When God called Abram to follow him, Abram didn’t go alone; he took his wife and his nephew Lot. And God didn’t make a covenant with just Abraham; it was a promise to his offspring, his family which would become a nation. God led the people of Israel out of Egypt not just Moses, and when Jesus entered into public ministry the very first thing he did was call people to work with him. Even Jesus had this need to be connected to others and so he calls Peter, Andrew, James and John to walk with him and work with him. All through the Bible we see the value God places on community and being connected and yet where it really becomes clear is during a time of crisis. Just like all of us on September 11th when our need to be connected became clear, so it did with Jesus during his time of crisis.

On the night that Jesus was arrested, within hours of when he knew that the cross and his own death were coming, Jesus goes off to pray, but he doesn’t go alone, he takes all of his disciples with him. When they get to the garden of Gethsemane it says Jesus withdrew deeper into the garden but again he doesn’t go alone, he takes with him his closest friends. In his own moment of crisis and trial, Jesus didn’t want to be alone, in a time of need he wanted and needed to be connected. Jesus wanted to be connected to God, which is why he goes off to pray, but he also wanted to be connected to others which is why he took his friends with him.

The next day as Jesus is on the cross literally just moments away from death, we continue to see the value he placed on connection. Jesus looks out from the cross and sees his mother and he knows that she is going to need some help and so he asks his friend John to care for his mother, but Jesus also looks into the eyes of his friend John and knows he is going to need help so he calls his mother, Mary, to love and help care for him. What an amazing moment, from the cross and just moment away from death Jesus is still focused on one of the core values of his ministry and one of the core value of God’s kingdom which is to be connected to one another.

This core value of being connected is later outlined for the church by Paul in 1 Corinthians 12:12-20. By using the image of the body, Paul is calling us to be connected to one another. Just as all the parts of our body are connected and dependant upon each others, so are we connected and dependant upon one another. We were made to be connected to one another and our faith will not be strong and the church will not be strong until we work to be connected as the body of Christ.

We are not complete on our own. One of the underlying truths in life is that we need each other and the events of September 11th reminded us of that. One of the reason so many people did survive on that day was because people came together to help each others. Rescue workers ran into building to help people get out. Strangers lifted each other up out of the rubble and the dust and helped move them to safety. Ron Fazio held the door and people encouraged each other, cried with each other and helped each other all along the way. Even in communities far away from NYC, Washington DC and Shanksville, PA., people wanted and needed to come together. Prayer services and candlelight vigils were held all over the country because people just needed to feel connected and the reason was because being connected is at the core of who we are.

Being connected to one another needs to be a core value of our church. One of the reasons we encourage people to worship together each week is because coming together in worship is not just a way to connect to God, it is a way for us to be connected with one another as well. There is something powerful about connecting with one another in worship that we can’t get by just experiencing God alone in the woods or at the beach in our backyards. That is why Paul tells us to not stop meeting together, look at Hebrews 10:24-25. But it’s not just worship. We need to pray together, study together, learn together, serve together, eat together, play together and honestly learn how to live life together. David mentioned a few weeks ago how powerful it is when the youth group go away to Impact and how the students share and learn and grow together while they are away and while this often happens when any of us go away for retreats and mission trips, we need to build these relationships right here and now.

We can get connected with one another in Sunday School classes and small groups. We can get connected by serving together at a football dinner or the 5th quarter. We can get connected by walking together in the crop walk, making music together in a choir or just making some friends in the church. As the church year in many ways begins a new this fall, this is a great time to recommit ourselves to this core value in the church. As we learned from September 11th, we have control over how we live our lives so we can make the decision today to get connected with one another and not only grow in our relationships with one another, but through the body of Christ grow in our relationship with God.

What I have found through my life, and I’m sure many of you would agree with this, is that when we connect with one another in the church, when we come together in different ways as the body of Christ we grow in our connection with God. The more we work to build relationships with one another – the more we grow in our relationship with God, so if you want to reconnect with God – connect with the people of God.

September 11th every year needs to remind us that we do have control over how we live and the priorities we make in life. So today let’s return to our core values and find the joy and the life that comes when we are connected to God and one another.

Love One Another

2011-09-17T16:54:00.000-07:00

As I drove to CT to visit my parents last week I took along with me copies of the sermon series we just finished on the 10 Commandments and as I listened to several of the messages back to back I found something kind of interesting, more than once I said something like this, we need to get this commandment right because it is the foundation on which all the rest are built. In fact, that is exactly what I said for the 10th commandment about not coveting, I said, if we can get this last commandment right and desire the things of God – maybe all the rest of them will begin to fall into place. In other words, the last commandment is maybe the most important one of the all.

But here’s the problem, I said this on the first week of the series when we were talking about the first commandment which says we are to have only one God. If God is at the center of our lives we can move on to the other commandments and other relationships, but if God is not at the center, then none of the rest of these commandments really matter. In other words, the first commandment is the most important because we need to have God at the center of our lives or nothing else will work, but I said this about the 2nd commandment, we become what we worship and so if we want to experience real life we need smash all idols and worship God alone. So the most important thing is to have no idol in our lives and worship God alone. But about the 5th commandment I said this, God created us to live in community with one another and we will only experience the blessing of those relationships if we start with honoring our father and mother, so may be the most important commandment is to honor our parents because we learn how to honor all others, even God, by getting right our primary relationship with our parents.

Are you beginning to see the problem here? You could make a case for any one of the 10 Commandments being the most important and that is exactly what the people of Israel did for centuries. From the time the 10 Commandments were brought down from Sinai, the teachers of the law argued about which commandment was the most important and on any given day – or in my case any given week – you could argue that any one of the ten is the most important one to follow, and argue the people did, for hundreds of years they argued, not about which of these 10 were the greatest, but which one of the 616 laws was the greatest and the argument made it all the way to Jesus. Look at Matthew 22:34-36. Jesus had been discussing the finer points of the law with the religious leaders of his day and when they realized that he was a teacher who had good insight they asked him the question that the people had been arguing about since the days of Moses, which commandment was the greatest. And here is Jesus’ answer – Matthew 22:37-40.

So the greatest commandment isn’t one of the 10 – and it’s not one of the 616 other laws that were given, the command that holds them all together and it is the foundation on which they are all built can be summed up in just one command, just one word - Love. Love God and love one another. It is love that makes following the 10 Commandments possible – let’s look at it.

• you shall have no other gods before me
     o why? Because we love God

• you shall not make… bow down to... or serve any idol
     o why? Because we love God

• you shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God
     o why? Because we love God

• remember the Sabbath and keep it holy
     o why? Because we love God and we love ourselves

• honor your father and mother
     o why? Because we love others

• you shall not murder
     o why? Because we love others

• you shall not commit adultery
     o why? Because we love others

• you shall not steal
     o why? Because we love others

• you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor
     o why? Because we love others

• you shall not covet
     o why? Because we love others

So love is the foundation on which these commandments are built and if we can get that right – if we can love God and love one another then we not only follow the 10 commandments but we will fulfill all of the law, which is why Paul says in Romans 13:8, owe no one anything except to love one another, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.

Now the reason Paul uses the language of owing people love is because he has just been talking about the importance of making sure we give people what we owe them. If we owe taxes – we need to pay them, if we owe honor we need to give it, if it is respect we are to show it; we are to give to everyone what is due them and work to make sure that we have no outstanding debts - except for one – we are to love. This means we are to love day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year. We never stop showing love, we never stop giving love, love has to be the foundation and the cornerstone and the capstone of our lives, but let’s be clear about 2 things love is not easy and the kind of love we are talking about is not an emotion or a feeling.

When Paul talks about love here in Romans, he isn’t talking about having warm feelings for people, he is talking about living our lives in such a way that everyone around us is respected, honored, valued and cared for. Love is an action and throughout the Bible God makes clear to us what love is to look like and it all started with the 10 Commandments.

Love for God looks like worship and devotion, it means honoring and valuing God’s name and resting on the Sabbath. Loving one another means we honor our parents, and don’t commit adultery, murder, steal, lie or covet, but that’s not all. In the New Testament the command to love one another is given about 20 times and in what some people call the “one another” commandments we are told to that our love for one another is to look like this:
• Be at peace with one another
• Be of the same mind as one another
• Do not judge one another
• Build up one another
• Accept one another
• Greet one another
• Serve one another
• Admonish one another
• Bear with one another
• Be kind to one another
• Forgive one another
• Be subject to one another
• Confess to one another
• Encourage one another

This is what love looks like – in every situation, in every relationship, in every decision we make and action we take and word we speak – this is what love is to look like. Now if you are like me, you are probably thinking right now that while this is great and we want to live this way, we just can’t. This kind of love is not easy, the truth is, this kind of love is impossible if we are trying to do it on our own, so we need to stop trying to do it on our own and allow God to begin to love others through us. Look at Romans 5:5

This is the key to loving one another, it is to ask God for his spirit to be poured into us because one of the fruits of God’s Spirit is love so if God’s spirit is alive and flowing in us then we will be able to love others. We will never be able to love one another unless we abide in Christ and allow Christ to dwell in us which is why Paul says later in Romans 13:14 that we need to clothe ourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ and do not think about how to gratify the desires of our sinful nature. We need to clothe ourselves with Christ and allow the power of God’s spirit to work in us. If we want to be people who show love to one another we need to first ask God to pour himself into us.

Sharing in Communion gives us a opportunity to do just that. In communion we see the love of God put into action – Jesus came and lived with us, he showed us how to love throughout his life and then showed us what love for others really looks like when he gave his life for us. While we see the example of love here that we are supposed to follow, we also realize that we will fail to follow the example of Jesus we are trying to do all of this on our own, which is why we are called to come with open hands and hearts to receive the fullness and power of Christ. Communion is the time to once again ask God to pour the power of his spirit into our hearts so that we can love like Jesus. Sharing together in the body and blood of Christ is our opportunity to clothe ourselves in Christ so that we can fulfill all the law and all the teaching of the prophets and Jesus by loving one another.

The Ten Commandments ~ You shall not covet

2011-09-14T13:57:00.000-07:00

As we come to the end of our study on the 10 commandments, let’s remember what they are all about. These 10 Commandments are boundaries that God has given to protect the bonds of relationship. The first three commandments:

• you shall have no other gods before me,
• you shall not make… bow down to... or serve any idol
• you shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God

all establish clear boundaries that protect our relationship with God. The 4th commandment:

• remember the Sabbath and keep it holy

is a boundary to protect our own physical health and spiritual well-being by calling us to take time to rest, and commandments 5-9:

• honor your father and mother
• you shall not murder
• you shall not commit adultery
• you shall not steal
• you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor

are all boundaries to our behavior that help protect the bonds of relationship with our family, friends and neighbors. These five are the particular commandments we need to follow if there is going to be the basic foundation of trust which a society needs to be healthy.

And now we come to the 10th commandment and while this is the last in the list, it is certainly not the least and while some may say that because it comes at the end it is often overlooked and maybe not as important as the other 9, there are others who say that this commandment is actually the most important one of all.

I have to say that I was probably one of those people who thought this commandment was the least important of the 10, but I am now rethinking that idea. I am wondering if this might actually be the most important one because when we break this commandment we are in danger of breaking all the rest. For example, why do people steal? We steal because we want something that someone else has, and if we can’t buy it – we will take it. And why do people commit adultery? It’s because they see someone and desire to have them even though that person may be in a relationship with someone else. And why did Israel worship idols? It was because they saw people all around them worshipping idols and gods and they wanted to have what those people had and they believed those maybe those idols would help them get more of what they wanted in this world. And what was the first murder all about? Cain killed Able because he saw that God accepted his brothers offering and not his own. In some sense, Cain coveted Able’s relationship with God and he coveted the offering is brother gave to God and it was that attitude and desire which led to anger and then to murder. So in many ways, coveting what other people have can lead us to breaking many of God’s commandments, so maybe this last commandment is the most important one of them all. Whether or not it is the most important, it might be the most difficult to keep because while the other nine all talk about our actions, this one speaks directly to our attitude.

Did you notice that? The first 9 commandments all talk about what we are supposed to do and how we are to live, they all focus on actions. We are not to worship other gods, make idols, misuse God’s name, work on the Sabbath and disrespect our parents. We are not to murder, commit adultery, steal or lie. The first 9 commandments all outline behavior but the 10th commandment is unique because it doesn’t talk about action – it talks about feelings and desire and emotions and while we can work to disciple our behavior, disciplining our feelings is much more difficult.

Just an aside here, as we have been looking at the 10 commandments all summer we have also heard from Jesus sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 because in that sermon Jesus takes these 10 commandments and expands on them to include our attitudes and feelings. For example, Jesus says that while the commandment says do not murder we are also not to be angry with people. And while the commandment says do not commit adultery Jesus says we are not to look at people with lust and while we are often amazed at how Jesus expanded these commandments to include our feelings and not just our actions, Jesus was only doing what God had done from the very beginning. This 10th commandment shows us that God has always been concerned about our feelings and attitudes and not just our actions. So in many ways the teaching of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount was nothing new, he was just pointing out in very clear and specific ways how to apply the truth of God.

So this commandment is unique because it deals with our feelings and let’s be clear that it deals with feelings that every single person struggles with at some point in time. It’s not just the poor who covet the riches of their neighbors, we are all susceptible to coveting those things we don’t have but see in others. For example, while the poor might covet the large house, new car and full bank accounts of their neighbors, the rich might covet the health, simplicity or strong family ties they see in their neighbors. The young might covet the stability of those who are older, but those who are older might covet the health, vitality and free spirit of the young. Coveting is not just a desire for more stuff or the money of someone else; it is a strong desire for anything that person has that we may want We can covet the healthy marriages and strong relationships that we see in others, we can covet other people’s jobs that seem more fulfilling and exciting, we can covet health care plans that provide more benefits, neighborhoods that are served by better schools, the good looks of movie stars or the hard bodies of athletes and believe it or not, we can even covet the strong faith we see in others when our own faith seems so filled with doubt.

We are all prone to coveting and God cares deeply about it because God knows that if this is left unchecked it will lead to all kinds of poor decisions and eventually broken relationships with everyone, but how are we to control a feeling? After all, we may not want to feel this way, we may not want to covet the things we see in others, but can we really control how we feel? The easy answer would be to say no we can’t control how we feel, and then just ask God for his forgiveness and mercy and move on, but I don’t think we can take the easy way out, after all, why would God tells us that we should not covet the things of our neighbors if there was not a way to overcome those desires. So how do we train our hearts and lives so that these feelings don’t surface in the first place?

The first thing we can do is not feed our desire to acquire. There will be those moments when we will see something that someone else has and our first thought might be how much we want it, but we don’t have to give in to that first thought. While a desire might enter our mind and heart, we don’t have to dwell on it. We don’t have to take that desire and turn it over and over in our minds and figure out how we can act on it or daydream about how great life would be if we could just get that one thing. We don’t have to imagine ourselves living in that new house or daydream about driving that new car and we don’t need to think about how great life would be if we were in someone else’s shoes. While a thought may enter our head, we don’t have to feed it and keep it growing; we can stop comparing our lives to the lives of others and not give fuel to our wrong desires.

The second thing we can do when a desire to possess something that someone else has enters our hearts and minds is to immediately stop and thank God for all that we have. It is easy to compare ourselves with others and find ourselves lacking and as the old saying goes, the grass always looks greener in someone else’s yard, so when the desire to possess something that someone else has enters our hearts we need to stop and ask God to show us just how blessed we are. God has blessed each and every one of us and we need to identify the unique way that God has created us and gifted us and then thank God for those blessings. But then we need to take a step further and figure out how to use these gifts and our lives for God’s glory. When we start using our lives to bless others, we will experience an abundance in life that will keep us from comparing our lives to others. The more we look at what others have and desire those things, the less satisfied and fulfilled we will be with what God has given us, but the more thankful we are for what God has given us and the more we use those gifts, the more beauty and power and fullness we will see in our own lives and the more content we will be.

The third thing we can do to stop covetousness in its tracks is to ask God to help us desire the right things. Here’s what is important to remember, there is nothing wrong with desire, in fact, God has placed the capacity to desire within us for good. We have strong God given desires that are good. We hunger for food and thirst for water each and every day. We desire relationship and we long to see the world a better place and these are God given desires because they are the desires that God has, God also longs for relationship and desires to the see the world a better place – that’s why he sent Jesus, to open the door so we could be in a relationship with God and to show us how good this world can be. So we were created with desire because we are created in the image of God and God has strong passions and desires, so desire in and of itself is not bad.

Look at Psalm 42:1-2. So we see that desire is not a bad thing, se just need to make sure that we desire the things of God. Do we desire more of God’s presence and power and grace and love. In Proverbs 13:12 it says desire fulfilled is a tree of life, and Psalm 37:4 says delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. So desire in and of itself is not bad, it is making sure we desire the right things. Again from the Sermon on the Mount Jesus says we will be blessed, or happy, if we will hunger and thirst for righteousness. So desire is not a bad thing, we just need to ask God to help us desire the right things. The more we desire God, the more we delight ourselves in the Lord, the more blessed and full we will be and if we are full of God and God’s blessings, there will be no room in our hearts and lives to covet the things of others of the things of this world. So the key isn’t to ask God to help us desire nothing, it is to ask God to help us desire the right things.

So can we command our hearts and minds to not covet? Maybe not completely – but there is a lot we can do to train our hearts to desire the right things and if we can get our hearts right – if we can get this last commandment right and desire the things of God - maybe all the rest of them will begin to fall into place.

The Ten Commandments ~ You shall not bear false witness

2011-08-15T05:52:00.000-07:00

As we have been studying the 10 Commandments we have seen that in many of them there really is no grey area in how we define them. When God says don’t steal, he means – don’t steal, but this particular commandment about bearing false witness raises many questions about what God is specifically talking about here and what God wants from us in general. In a very strict sense, this commandment is about giving truthful and accurate testimony in a court of law. When this commandment was given, the legal system was based completely upon the eyewitness testimony of others. Moses and the people of Israel didn’t live in the CSI world we do today where we use DNA evidence, fingerprints and all kinds of forensic data to determine someone’s guilt or innocence. Coming up with a verdict and dispensing justice depended solely upon the testimony of the people involved and so the only way true justice could be served is if people told the truth. So again, just as we saw last week with stealing, the social fabric of Israel required trust and trust is based in speaking the truth, so in courts of law – people needed to tell the truth.

So giving accurate testimony in a court of law is what the commandment specifically talks about, but since Jesus always looked at the spirit of the law not the letter of the law, we have to ask ourselves what God is really looking for in this commandment. Is God only interested in the truth being told in a courtroom or does he want truth to be told in the living room and the bedroom and the boardroom and the classroom? Clearly I think God is interested in truth being spoken everywhere, so we need to confront the tendency we have to not always tell the truth.

The truth is, no pun intended here, but the truth is that we live in a society where lying abound and because they are all around us and because they often easily flow from within us, we have become desensitized to them. From politics to business to advertising to parenting we are surrounded by lies and we have gotten so accustomed to hearing them and telling them that we don’t even expect people to tell us the truth. In an article called The Great American Lies, Doug Mushro shares his top 10 list:

10. I’ll start my diet tomorrow
9. Money cheerfully refunded
8. Give me your number and the doctor will call you right back
7. One size fits all.
6. This will hurt me more than it will hurt you.
5. It’s not the money, it’s the principle
4. I just need a minute of your time
3. This offer is limited to the first 100 people.
2. We service what we sell.
1. The check is in the mail.

Now we could all add to this list our own personal favorites, but what this list begins to show us is that we hear lies all the time and don’t even think about it – which leads us to fall into the temptation of lying ourselves. When it pervades our culture, it begins to penetrate our hearts. There are so many different ways that we lie, we lie when we exaggerate the truth, omit facts, spin events to make us look good or others look bad, tell half truths, or deny to ourselves what is really going on. Even though this commandment specifically talks about a court of law, it also works to open our eyes to how pervasive and destructive lying is and how we need to ask God to help us become people who speak and embody the truth.

While we may not take lying seriously, we need to understand that God does. Look with me at Proverbs 6:16-19. This is a powerful passage because it outlines 7 things that God simply can not tolerate and 2 of those 7 things are lying: a lying tongue and a lying witness. A lying witness tells us that God is concerned about truth in a court of law, but when he says a lying tongue – God is taking it farther. While God does hate a witness who testifies falsely because it breaks down the legal system which weakens society, God also hates a lying tongue wherever it is. God takes lying seriously and the reason is because God is truth. 1 John 1:5 says God is light and in him there is no darkness at all, so in God there is no deceit and there are no lies so when we lie we separate ourselves from God.

We need to take this commandment seriously and to do that we first need to admit all the ways that we do lie. If there are big lies that we have told that need to be corrected – we need to set the record straight and trust that when we tell the truth - the truth will set us free. Look at John 8:31-33

While this talking about the freedom that comes when we know Jesus, I think we can also take from this that telling the truth will also set us free. If you have ever told a lie you know the bondage that comes with that lie. As soon as the lie is spoken, we literally become slaves to the lie and many times have to continue to lie to protect the first lie that we told. I shared last week about stealing candy, so this week let me tell you about the lie. My sister and I were in Jr. High and since both my parents worked we each had a key to get into the house after-school, but one day we both forgot our keys and ended up locked out. There was a window on the second floor was open and we could easily reach the window from the roof of the garages, so we got out the ladder, climbed on the roof, crawled in the second story window, unlocked the door, put away the ladder and pretended like nothing was wrong.

When my Dad got home from work he noticed that the ladder was not put away exactly the way he always did it and so he wondered who moved it. Now just a note to teenagers here – your parents notice these things. You may think that you have put something back exactly as it was after you used it, but trust me, parents notice everything so you might as well tell them the truth from the beginning. I wish someone had given my sister and I that advice, but they didn’t so when my Dad asked my Mom about the ladder and she didn’t knowing anything she asked us about it and we lied. Nope, we didn’t get out the ladder, don’t know what happened to it. But once we told that lie we had to keep the lie going as more questions were asked. We became slaves to the lie.

After a while, my Mom decided to go ask our neighbors if they saw anyone using our ladder and I knew that if we didn’t come clean at this point we would be in deeper trouble, so I caught my Mom before she got to the neighbors and told her what we had done. Now here’s the thing, we didn’t get in trouble for using the ladder; we got in trouble for lying and while the punishment wasn’t fun – I have to say that there was freedom in coming clean.

Once a lie is told you have to keep it going, often making up more stories, adding more false details and eventually we become slaves to the lie – when we tell the truth we are set free. There may be consequences to coming clean, but there is also freedom. If there are lies that we need to admit to and confess – we need to do it and trust that in time the truth will set us free. If nothing else, the truth will set us free to go deeper in our relationship with God.

So clearly we need to stop telling flat out lies, that’s easy to see, but there are many more subtle ways we don’t tell the complete truth and we need to guard against these as well. For example, many times we lie by simply only telling part of the truth and I believe that we are particularly prone to this type of lying because it has been part of our world from the very beginning. Once again, let’s go back to the story of creation, the serpent was questioning Eve about their ability to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil and the serpent said, you will not die if you eat from the tree, which technically was true. When Adam and Eve ate from that tree they didn’t immediately drop over dead? No, so in some sense that serpent was right, but while they didn’t physically die in that moment – they did die spiritually. Their disobedience and sin severed their relationship with God which in time led to their death. So the serpent was lying by telling a half truth, but as we see from Adam and Eve, half truths are just as deadly.

What we see here is that from the very beginning of creation, half truths have been told and the result has been broken relationships with God and with those around us which means that we need to take seriously our tendency to think it is ok to only tell half of the truth. Whether that half truth is omitting some of the facts or spinning the truth to make us look good or others look bad, we need to be careful about half truths. It’s better to be silent or speak the full truth in love than to try and deceive someone by only telling half of the truth.

Denial is another destructive way we lie because it is lying to ourselves. We see the destructive nature of denial when it comes to addictions or problems in our live that we just don’t want to face. As long as we deny that we have problems with alcohol or gambling, we will never get the help that we need to overcome these addictions. As long as we deny that our marriage is in trouble or that our temper gets the best of us, or our family is in crisis – we will never get the help we need to experience the joy and life of healthy relationships. Again, we see that our denial, or lying to ourselves, only leads to bondage – but telling the truth to ourselves while painful, is the only way we can be set free.

Exaggerating is another subtle lie that can become habit forming. We might exaggerate how bad things are to get pity or how good things are out of pride, but both are subtle ways of lying that at the very least we need to guard against. In Matthew 5:37 Jesus says… and in James 5:12 God says… Both these passages show us that exaggeration can lead us away from God.

So we see how bad lying is and maybe we are at a place where we really want to stop, but how do we? The first step in living our lives within the boundary of this commandment is to admit the ways in which we have lied or are prone to lie. We have to identify the problem before we can overcome it, but once we admit it, how do we overcome our tendency to stretch the truth or to outright lie? The answer to telling the truth is to stay close to the one who is the truth. Any landscaper will tell you that the best way to get the weeds out of your yard is to grow healthy grass. The best way to stop lying is to live lives of truth and we do that by staying close to the one who told us that he is the truth – and that is Jesus Christ. The Bible is clear that not only is Jesus the truth but that Satan is the father of lies. In John 8:44 Jesus says this of the devil, when he lies he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. If our words or our life is defined by lies then we need to think about who it is that is giving direction to our words and more importantly who it is that is giving direction to our hearts, and if we want to turn this around we need Jesus who is Truth himself, dwelling within us.

I don’t about you, but these 10 Commandments are causing me to come face to face with the reality of my failure and sin, and this commandment causes us to look at how easy it is to compromise the truth, and while part of the answer isn’t to just stop telling lies, another part is to open our ears and our hearts to hear God’s truth. Can we hear this truth today:

The truth – Jesus Christ – shall set you free.
As far as the east is from the west, so far has God removed our sin from us.
God says, I have loved you with an everlasting love.
If God is for us, who can be against us.

It’s hearing and accepting this kind of truth that sets us free, and once we are free and living in the light – the darkness has no choice but to flee. So let us take hold of the truth of God’s forgiveness and grace, and take hold of The Truth – Jesus Christ - and allow God to first and foremost set us free and then direct our heart and our tongues into truth.

The Ten Commandments ~ You shall not steal

2011-08-08T05:44:00.000-07:00

I remember clearly the night I came home from church after working at our afterschool program in Altoona. It was close to 9:00 and after I pulled into the garage, which was underneath the house, I noticed that the door to the basement was open. Now this wasn’t a big deal since the wind often blew the door open, but when I got to the bottom of the stairs that led to the kitchen I was surprised to see the kitchen door open, that was almost never the case so I felt the anxiety build as I climbed the stair. When I stepped into the kitchen, everything was fine. When I stepped into the dining room – everything was fine and when I walked into the living room – everything was fine. Nothing was out of place and I began to laugh at my own paranoia. Then I walked into the study to check my phone messages and that room was completely torn apart. Paper was everywhere because the printer was gone, the computer was gone, a video camera was gone and books had been pulled off the shelves. When I went into my bedroom every drawer was taken out and clothes were all over the floor and every other bedroom looked the same. I had been robbed.

When the police officer showed up and took my statement, she was very kind. The first thing she told me that I hadn’t been robbed, I had been burglarized – this didn’t comfort me too much. Then she asked me how I thought they entered into the house. At this point I remember feeling somewhat embarrassed because I had to tell her that it was really all my fault because I never closed my garage door and the door from the garage to the basement didn’t have a lock on it and the door from the basement to the kitchen didn’t have a lock so it was really my fault that I was burglarized. I will never forget what the officer said, it’s not your fault, people aren’t supposed to steal. This officer understood the eigth commandment – you shall not steal, or burglarize, or shoplift, or rob.

Most of the time when we hear this commandment we think about a burglar prowling through a home at night, or a bank robber sticking up a bank, or we think about those surveillance camera images of masked thieves holding up convenience stores or this week there videos of men purse snatching. Or we might think about someone like Bernie Madoff caught in an investment scheme or involved in an insider trading scandal. When we hear this commandment we often just think about some hardened criminal and don’t think of it as something we would never do, but I have to say that I have been amazed by some people I have known who have broken this commandment.

A good friend of mine worked at a bank for a while and she waited on two women. One woman was very wealthy and one woman had nothing. One day my friend decided to deposit some of the wealthy woman’s money into the account of the poor woman. We aren’t talking about a lot of money and she didn’t think anyone would notice – the rich woman wouldn’t miss a few dollars and the bank would never know and then the poor woman would have a few more dollars. Even though she wasn’t keeping the money for herself, she was acting as a modern day Robin Hood, she was none the less guilty of stealing and the bank did notice and my friend ended up in court and on probation and in all kinds of trouble. We all know people who have written bad checks, shoplifted something as a child or teen, taken an item from work or cheated on our taxes and all of this can be defined as stealing – so this is a command we all need to take seriously.

As with all of God’s commandments – there really is no grey area here. When God says don’t steal – he means don’t steal in any way shape or form. We are not to take things that do not belong to us and use them for our own purpose or our own pleasure and the reason we are not to do this is because it breaks down the trust that is needed for people to live in relationship with one another. For communities to be healthy we need to be able to trust our neighbors and family and friends and stealing breaks down that trust. Again, think about when God gave this commandment to his people. The people of Israel were travelling as a group through the wilderness so they didn’t have homes and storage units and safe deposit boxes and so if they were going to make it as a people into the promised land, they had depend on each other which meant they needed to be able to trust each other and stealing in any form breaks down trust.

One of the reasons we can’t gloss over this commandment and think that it will never apply to us is that for some reason we are all prone to taking things that do not belong to us. Children aren’t taught to steal and yet they do it well. I remember being in 2nd or 3rd grade and was grocery shopping with my Mom. We walked down the candy aisle and there was a bag of Starbust candy that was opened and pieces of the wrapped candy were all around. I lingered near that candy while my mom shopped and when she wasn’t looking I took a few pieces of the candy and put them in my pocket. I remember walking out of the store and being incredibly relieved that sirens didn’t go off, but I was sick about what I had done.

We went into a drug store after that and I was so overcome with guilt that again I lingered in one of the aisles by myself and when no one was looking I took the candy out of my pocket and put it on a shelf. I know it made no sense, but at least I didn’t have the evidence on me so I wasn’t going to get into trouble. Now here’s the thing, I didn’t even like Starbust candy then and today I really don’t like them – maybe because of that moment - but no one taught me how to steal and yet I did it and we can all do it because there is an urge in all of us to want more. We might want more for our own personal pleasure, or we might feel like we need more for security, or status, or to feed our addictions – people steal for all kinds of reasons - but there is an urge in all of us to want more and if we don’t have the means to buy it or if the opportunity is just too tempting – we are all prone to simply take.

We are all prone to take and the reason I say this is because if you think about it, stealing is the manifestation of the original sin. God said to Adam and Eve, you can eat from any tree in the garden except the tree of knowledge of good and evil, but when the serpent told Eve how good that fruit was and how if they ate it their eyes would be opened and they would be like God, she wanted to take it and convinced Adam to go along with her and while the sin may have been pride and a desire to be like God the sin manifested itself in stealing. So maybe there is something in all of us that still wants to take things that don’t belong to us and if that is the case, none of us can say – I have this commandment covered, we need to be on our guard at all times and in all places.

But it is not just stealing things from others that we need to guard against – Adam and Eve stole from God and maybe that is the bigger problem for us when it comes to this commandment. In Malachi 3 God accuses his people of stealing from him, look at Malachi 3:8-9. Here’s how the people were stealing from God. God made the heavens and the earth and everything in it. Psalm 24:1 says the earth is the Lord’s and everything in it. In Haggai 2:8 it says, the silver is mine, and the gold is mine, declares the Lord. So everything in this world belongs to God. Everything that we have in our possession and all that we work for doesn’t belong to us – it all belongs to God and as the owner God calls us to use his creation according to his purpose and plan and when it comes to our possessions there is one basic guideline that God calls us to follow and it is called the tithe. 10% of what we earn and what we have is to be given back to God – I say given back to God because it all belongs to him in the first place. The tithe was to be used to support the work of God in the world, to help spread the truth of God and call people to trust God, and the tithe was to be used to care for the poor and God’s people who were in need.

When the people did not bring their full tithe to the temple and give it as an offering to God – they were robbing God. When we are not willing to tithe today the same is true. When we aren’t willing to give God 10% of what he has given us we are stealing from God and the result of stealing from God isn’t just a weakened body of Christ and a limited and ineffective ministry of God in the world – the result of stealing from God is a broken relationship with God.

Remember, stealing breaks down trust, so when we steal from God it shows that we don’t trust God to provide for us and to meet our needs and in turn God can not trust us. Why would God continue to pour out his blessing and his abundance on us if he can’t trust us to use his resources according to his will and purpose?

But if God can trust us to use his creation the way he has called us to use it doesn’t it make sense that God will give us more and more of it? This is exactly what God says in Malachi 3:10-12. When we show God that he can trust us with his creation – he will give us more of that creation.

I have to tell you that I dream of the day that we take this call to tithe seriously because if we all did this, if all of God’s people did this we would be able to do so much for the mission of the church and we would be able to meet so many more needs of people both here and around the world. The tithe really adds up. 10% from all of God’s people is a huge amount of resources and it would make a radical difference in our world, but we aren’t there yet because we still struggle with this commandment, we are stealing from God and we steal because we don’t fully trust God.

But it is not too late to turn all of this around. We have seen in the past few weeks that although many of God’s people failed to keep these 10 Commandments – God forgave them and God redeemed them. God forgave murders and adulterers and then used them to build his kingdom and he did the same thing with thieves. In Luke 19 there is the story of Jesus turning around the life of a thief named Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus was a tax collector which meant that he not only collected taxes but he collected more than what was owed and he kept the excess for himself. He was stealing from the people and got rich doing it and then he met Jesus. After Zacchaeus heard the truth of God, after he received God’s forgiveness and grace he decided to live according to God’s principles and so he returned all the money he had stolen, but the story doesn’t end there. Zacchaeus doesn’t just return what he took, he gives back 4 times as much, he has been transformed from someone who only knew how to take into to someone who freely and generously gives and ultimately this is what God wants for our lives.

As children created in the image of God – God wants us to give because God gives. God gives freely, graciously and generously and that is how God wants us to live our lives. Adam and Eve got into trouble when they decided to take instead of give – Zacchaeus finds life and freedom when he decides to give instead of take and that is where life can be found for us. If we have stolen from God, from others, from our employer, from the government or from anyone we need to stop taking and start giving. It might start by giving back what we have taken and returning what we have stolen, but then we need to start living a life of giving – giving to God and to others. It’s time for us to trust God and give back to him what he asks for – the full tithe – and then thank him for all that he gives us each and every day.

The Ten Commandments ~ You shall not commit adultery

2011-08-01T05:38:00.000-07:00

As we consider this seventh commandment, let’s remember that one of the reasons God gave the 10 commandments was to protect the bonds of relationship. The first three commandments were all given to protect our relationship with God, the command to keep the Sabbath was to protect our own health and well-being by making sure that our bodies, minds and souls get the rest they need, and the last 6 commandments were given to help protect the bonds of relationship with our family and the community around us. This particular commandment, you shall not commit adultery, is not just given to protect the bonds of marriage, but to help preserve the community as well because the family is the foundation of the community and adultery doesn’t effect just one marriage and family, but many times two or more.

So God gives this command not to keep us from having fun or to set some arbitrary moral line in the sand, God gives this command to protect the bonds of marriage and to help preserve the family. The family structure is important to God because it is the foundation on which the rest of society is built. We heard a few weeks ago that the family is the first school, the first hospital and the first church that we will all experience. We learn how to interact with the rest of society through our family so the integrity and the strength of the family is important which means that the integrity and the strength of a marriage is important and for marriages to be strong there needs to be no adultery.

To understand why adultery is so destructive we need to go back and look at what marriage is really all about. If we look at the story of creation we see that God made Adam but then said it was not good for him to be alone so he made a helper suitable for him. In Genesis 2:24 it says that a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. I’m not sure we fully understand what this one flesh means to God, but through the covenant of marriage and through the physical act of consummating the marriage through sex – two become one. Physically, emotionally but even more importantly spiritually – two people become one in the eyes and in the heart of God so when one of the partners in marriage physically unites with another person - when they commit adultery – the integrity of that bond is compromised and it creates brokenness and pain, not just physically but emotionally and spiritually as well. So the reason God says no adultery is because it weakens the bonds of marriage, which in turn weakens the strength of the family, which in turn weakens and destroys the community and society in which we live.

Now this command is pretty clear, in fact in Hebrew the command is just two words – no adultery, and adultery is defined as having sex with a person who is not your spouse and before we start trying to define what sex is so we can see just how far we can go without breaking this command, let’s add to this command the teaching of Jesus. Just like we saw last week with murder, Jesus expands our understanding of this commandment and tells us that God isn’t just concerned about our actions but about the attitudes of our heart and the thoughts of our minds because it is those two things that lead to our actions. So in Matthew 5:12 Jesus says…

This teaching of Jesus changes this commandment drastically. While before we might have felt pretty confident because we have never had an affair and cheated on our spouse, how many of us can say we have never looked with lust at another person? Suddenly we all stand guilty and condemned before God, but remember there is forgiveness for the sinner; in fact, when Jesus was confronted with a woman caught in adultery he offers forgiveness. Look at John 8:3-11. So whether we are guilty of adultery or guilty of lust – God offers forgiveness and grace and we need to hear Jesus say to us, neither do I condemn you, but we also need to hear the words, Go and sin no more.

While it is important for us to accept the forgiveness and grace God offers so we can work to restore and rebuild our relationship with God and our spouses, we also need to work on the sin no more part. There is no easy way to say this, but if you are currently having an affair – you need to end it today and seek some help. I know a man who had been having an affair for years and his wife knew all about it but he refused to stop. He convinced himself that to leave his wife would cause her pain, and he didn’t want to do that, but somehow he failed to see that his affair itself was causing her pain. That’s one of the things that happens when we begin to justify our sin – we become blind to the reality of our lives. And if we can lie to ourselves that an affair is ok, we can lie to ourselves about anything and believe it. If you are currently having an affair – stop and get some help. Get some spiritual help, get emotionally help, get help and support from trusted friends, but stop today and get some help.

If you are considering having an affair – don’t do it. If you think that entering into any kind of intimate physical or even emotional relationship with someone other than your spouse will solve your problems or help you feel more fulfilled you are wrong, it will only create more problems. The better thing to do is get some help for your marriage and the underlying problems that are leading you to even think about adultery. Marriage is not easy – it is hard work and it can be painful and messy, but the rewards of staying together through the good times and the difficult times can be tremendous.

There really is no grey area in this command, when God says no adultery – God means no adultery and we need to take this command seriously and do what is necessary to honor God and the covenant we make in marriage. We need to end adulterous relationships if we are in them, but we also need to guard our hearts and lives so we don’t fall into the temptation to enter these relationships in the first place. In his book on the Ten Commandments, Win Green has what I think is one of the most profound statements on adultery I have heard, he says this, make no mistake, we break the 7th commandment because we have already done something much more serious – we’ve broken the 1st commandment. We’ve allowed something (or someone) to come between us and God.

The single best thing we can do if we want to preserve our marriage and protect our hearts from the temptation of lust is to make sure we are always working on our relationship with God. That is why the first three commandments all have to do with protecting that relationship. If our relationship with God isn’t right – nothing else will be and no other relationship will be healthy and strong, but if we are right with God, if we are living in God’s will and drawing upon God’s grace and power we will find the strength to live within the boundaries that God has set for us. So the daily discipline of prayer and scripture reading and worship and service and giving of ourselves to God will do more to help us than anything, and if you really want to preserve and protect your marriage then pray, read scripture, worship and serve God with your spouse. If you constantly place yourselves before God together – God can do more to keep you focused on each other and not on others.

One of the great joys of being a pastor is officiating at weddings, and I was able to do that again this weekend, but it can also be a bittersweet. The very first wedding I did lasted about 6 months. They weren’t members of the church and when things got difficult there was no one to help. The second wedding I did has lasted 18 years and it is still going strong. I have seen them go through highs and lows and incredible challenges during that time, but they are still together and one reason is because they have been active in the church and they still are. Studies show that couples who are involved in some kind of small support group are more likely to stay together than couples who aren’t and I share this information with every couple I marry. I encourage them to be part of the church, but even if it is not part of the church, be part of some group where together you can find support and encouragement for those times when things will get hard, because things will get hard.

So working on our relationship with God is the foundation on which everything is built, but we also need to work on keeping our hearts and minds and eyes fixed on the right things. Let’s go back and consider Jesus teaching. He says, when you look lustfully at someone you have already committed adultery. Now the word lust here means a strong desire or longing combined with an evil intent. We aren’t talking about looking at someone and thinking that they are attractive, we are talking about looking at someone with thoughts that are impure in their intent and God is concerned about these thoughts because many times it is these impure thoughts that lead to sinful actions. The best biblical example of this is the story of David and Bathsheba. David was kind of Israel and was married but committed adultery with Bathsheba, but it’s not like the act of adultery just suddenly happened, it never just suddenly happens, it all begins with lust. 2 Samuel 11:2-4a.

This affair started because David saw Bathsheba bathing and she was beautiful, but you know what, it really started even before that. Go back to 2 Samuel 11:1. You see, David should never have been in Jerusalem in the first place, he should have been out with the troops. He shouldn’t have been in Jerusalem and he shouldn’t have been out on the roof in the middle of the night, but he was. David put himself in places where he was going to see things he shouldn’t see and those poor choices are what led to the lust and the adultery.

What we learn from David is that when Jesus says Go and sin no more and warns us about how we look at those around us he is telling us that we need to be careful about where we put ourselves and what we allow ourselves to see. We live in a world where we are bombarded with sexual images at every turn. TV, internet, billboards, magazines – we are bombarded with images that encourage us to think about sex and all of these images begin to condition us to look at everyone around us the same way and while we may not be able to go through life with blinders on, at the very least we can work to keep ourselves out of tempting situations.

Like David who knew he shouldn’t have been in Jerusalem and knew he shouldn’t have been out on the roof at night – we know those places where we shouldn’t go. We know the TV shows we shouldn’t be watching, internet sites we shouldn’t visit, and magazines we shouldn’t buy and if we aren’t able to keep ourselves from these things, we need to ask someone to hold us accountable.

The problem for David was that he sent all of his officers out to battle – he sent his support staff away and had no one to help hold him accountable and keep him from those places where he shouldn’t go. We will never be able to go and sin no more on our own, we need God, which is why we need to work on our relationship with God, and we need the help and support of trusted friends. If, like David, you are already caught up in situations or habits that you know are not healthy then again I encourage you to seek some help. Don’t continue to walk the roof at night alone thinking you can handle it, ask God for forgiveness and ask those around you for help.

While the world around us might see nothing wrong with lust and even celebrate inappropriate sexual interactions, God does. God is serious when he says no adultery and Jesus is serious when he says that it is what we see with our eyes and what lies in our heart that will get us into trouble, so we need to work at keeping our eyes and hearts pure and we need to work and even sacrifice for faithfulness and integrity in our marriages. It is not always easy to do this, but if we will, we will experience the blessing of life and the fullness of love, the love of a spouse and the love of God.

The Ten Commandments ~ You shall not murder

2011-07-27T13:22:00.000-07:00

Of all the commandments God gives, my guess is that when we get to this one, we breathe a little easier because we feel like this one we can follow. The other 9 commandments are hard, we struggle to love God before everything else and to only use his name in honorable ways. We struggle to take time to rest and keep the Sabbath holy and maybe I shouldn’t tell you this, but over the next few weeks we are going to be feeling the spiritual heat when we hear God’s commands to not lie or covet our neighbors’ possessions, but murder – this is an easy one. Most of us are never going to murder someone – most of us won’t even meet a murderer during our lifetime, so this one seems easy – but maybe we need to look at it a little deeper before we think we have it all covered.

Let’s start by making sure we understanding what this commandment really says because it is often misquoted. In many early translations of the Bible this verse was translated as Thou shall not kill – which led to questions about whether or not killing animals was ok, and then what about capital punishment and war? How could God forbid all killing but then call people to kill animals as part of the sacrificial system of Israel? Or how could God forbid all killing and then call the nation of Israel to head off into war – or give instructions about how to put to death those who have disobeyed the law. All these questions came about because of how early Bibles translated that word. There are eight different words in Hebrew that all refer to killing in and so God gave careful attention to the word he chose and the word was ratsach – which means the intentional taking of an innocent life. More than that, it means to plot and scheme in the taking of someone’s life.

So the word is not just to kill, we are not talking about the accidental taking of a life, we aren’t talking about punishment or the taking of life in the context of war, this is what we would call pre-meditated first degree murder and we know this is what God had in mind because in Exodus 21, as God expands on what these commandments are all about we hear him say (Exodus 21:14). So we first need to be clear that what God is talking about here is the willful taking of another life, we are talking about murder.

Again, most of us are probably still feeling pretty good when it comes to being obedient to this commandment and if we only had the Old Testament teaching, we might be ok, but we have to look at this commandment in light of Jesus teaching as well because Jesus talks about this particular commandment in his sermon on the mount. Look at Matthew 5:21-22. After hearing this, I don’t know about you, but I’m not feeling so confident. When we expand out what God is saying here and look not just at our actions but to our attitudes and the thoughts that lie in our heart – my guess is that we all stand guilty before God because who among us has never been angry with someone or insulted someone? Suddenly I’m not so sure we have this commandment all covered and so like the rest of the 10 Commandments, we have to read it with humble hearts ready to confess our failures and ask God not only for forgiveness but for the strength to live a more faithful life.

So this commandment is not just about the act of murder, it includes the attitudes of our hearts and the thoughts of our mind, but I think it goes deeper than that. This commandment is not just a call to not murder others or to not be angry with others, this is a call to lift up and honor the sanctity of life which makes it radical and revolutionary for its time. Remember when the 10 Commandments were given: Israel had just spent generations as slaves in Egypt and when you live as slaves – life is cheap. Many times slaves aren’t even seen as being fully human so taking their life or treating them in inhuman ways was not seen as a big deal. This wasn’t just true for the Israelites living as slaves in Egypt; we see this wherever there is slavery. It wasn’t that long ago that we saw some of this in our own nation’s struggle with slavery. While some slave owners may have treated their slaves well, they were still considered property and many slave owners didn’t even see slaves as being human beings.

Unfortunately this attitude still remains in many parts of the world today. At last year’s Global Leadership Summit we heard from Christine Caine who helps care for those who have been victims of human trafficking, which is just another name for slavery. Christine told the story of young girls who had been taken from their homes and country and sold to be sex slaves in Europe. When their boat was being tracked by the authorities, their captors simply tossed the girls into the ocean, as if they were simply unwanted cargo. It’s hard for us to imagine that this sort of thing still takes place today, but it does and as long as it does we have to ask ourselves if we are doing all we can to honor and lift up the sanctity of life?

In many ways, this was the context in which Israel lived for generations. As slaves, life was hard and many times life didn’t hold a lot of value. If you remember the story of Moses, the reason his mother put him in a basket and floated him down the river when he was an infant was because the king of Egypt had said that all the Hebrew baby boys were to be killed. God’s people lived in an environment where there was not much value given to their lives, but as God leads his people out of slavery and into a new land he wants them to not only experience a free life, he wants them to learn that there is value in all of life and so this command to not murder is also a command to elevate life and honor all human beings and we need to hear it the same way today. Instead of ignoring this command because we have never plotted or planned to kill someone, we need to stop and ask ourselves if we are doing all we can to honor life. Maybe this means we get involved in issues like human trafficking, or maybe is just means that we begin to see the value and worth and dignity in the people around us with whom we disagree. Can we see value and worth in the people who are different than we are, and are we willing to respect and even love and work with those who might at times make us angry?

As we begin to expand our understanding of what God is calling for here, we not only see that this is challenging but we also begin see our failure in living it out, and while we have failed at times, all hope is not lost because the Bible is a testament to the power of God to forgive and change the hearts and lives of murders. I have to say that I have never really considered this before I read Win Green’s book on the 10 Commandments, but he makes the observation that most of the Bible is written by murders. It’s true! Most of the Bible has been written either by or about murders. Moses, who is believed to have written or at least helped compile the first 5 books of the Bible, was a murder. In his anger and frustration, Moses murdered an Israelite slave. David, who is the subject of 1st & 2nd Samuel and 1st Chronicles and the author of most of the Psalms was also a murderer. While he didn’t actually kill Uriah, he was the one who plotted to have him killed and David was one God held responsible for Uriah’s death. And then there is Paul whose letters to the church fill the New Testament, and Paul authorized the murder of Christians, and it is even recorded in the book of Acts that Paul was the one who held all the coats of the men who stoned Stephen to death.

So a good percentage of the Bible was written by murders. Three of the strongest leaders God has used in all of human history were murders and what this says is that if God can forgive and transform them – he can forgive and transform us as well. So no matter whom we are today, and no matter what our past may hold, God calls us to honor life not just by refraining from anger and envy which can lead to murder, but to honor life by seeing people in a fundamentally different way. Let us look at all those around us as brothers and sisters, children of God who hold within in them the life and breath of God, and let us work for their care and well being.

The Ten Commandments ~ Honor your Father and Mother

2011-07-20T13:03:00.000-07:00

As we have been looking at the 10 Commandments we have seen how they act as boundaries that God gives us in order to protect the bonds of relationship. The first 3 commandments were given to protect our relationship with God and as we follow those commandments we find that our relationship with God, our faith and trust in God, grows. The fourth commandment, which calls us to remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, was given to help protect our own health and well being and in many ways this is the only commandment given solely for our benefit and if we will take time to rest we find that our lives will be improved in all kinds of ways. Now the last 6 commandments are all boundaries that God gives to help protect and strengthen our relationship with others. Whether it is our family, friends or neighbors – God created us to live in community with one another and each of these commandments teaches us how to do this and as we follow them we will experience the blessing of stronger families, stronger marriages and a stronger community and world, and it all starts with Exodus 20:12 - Honor your father and your mother.

It is not by chance that God begins teaching us about strong relationship by having us look at the relationship with our parents because it is that relationship which is the foundation of all others. In many ways we learn how to interact with others from our parents and through our families. If you think about it, families are the first school, the first hospital, the first government, and the first church we all experience and so the family is the foundation of all other social organizations and all of our other relationships so if we are going to have strong relationships outside our family we need to work on healthy relationships at home and it all starts by honoring our father and mother.

Now take notice of the word that God chooses here. God doesn’t say love your father and mother, which is what we might have assumed God would have said since God is all about love, and God doesn’t say obey your parents, at least he doesn’t say it here, he says it elsewhere in the Bible, but here, at the very beginning, God says honor your father and mother and the word honor literally means to give weight to, or to take seriously. Honor means to value and respect, it means that we need to take seriously who are parents are and what they say. While we live in a culture where parents are often made the object of blame or ridicule, we need to take the principle of honoring them seriously because God takes this principle seriously, look at Dtr. 21:18-21.

What we see here is that there are serious consequences when we don’t honor our parents. Now let’s be clear that this passage in Deuteronomy is not calling for us to put a child to death for being rebellious. When it says here that the child is a drunkard and glutton, we are assuming that the child is an adult who has made choices to not listen to the wisdom of his parents or follow their example, so we aren’t talking about a child here but we aren’t talking about this kind of consequence for rebellious children of any age. What we need to take from this passage is the understanding that God takes seriously the command to honor our parents and so should we. It shows us that there are consequences in our lives and in all of our relationships when we don’t pay attention to this primary relationship with our parents.

Another interesting passage that shows us how important healthy relationships are with our parents and how foundation they are to all of life is found in 2 Timothy 3:1-2. Here God says that rebelling against parents is a sign of the end times, it’s a sign that the order God wants for the world is gone and when that is gone – the rest of the order God wants for the world will also begin to crumble and the reason is because it is our relationship with our parents that is the foundation of all other relationships and when that is gone – the rest of society is not far behind. What bothers me is that the entertainment culture of today often makes out parents to look like fools which opens the door for children and teens to disrespect their parents instead of honoring them, and while the world may tell us it is ok to turn away from our parents and not take them seriously, God says something completely different, and for life to be healthy and families and communities to be strong, we need to listen to God.

So we need to honor our parents and this means different things in different situations and at different stages of life. When we are young children, honoring our parents means listening to them and doing what they say. We learn how to honor all authority by learning how to submit to the authority of our parents when we are young. As we become teenagers giving weight to our parents means giving them respect even when we think they do absolutely everything wrong. Let’s be honest, when we are teenagers we often think that our parents don’t know anything and so adolescence can be a difficult time to live out this commandment. It’s true that as teenagers it is important to learn how to become our own person and learn to make our own decisions and deal with our own consequences in life, but we can’t do this at the expense of our parents. As a teenager, honoring our parents means respecting them and appreciating them for who they are and how God provides for us through them and it means taking seriously what we still have to learn from them.

As an adult, honoring our parents might mean continuing to take the time to maintain a relationship with them. As we begin to live our own lives and have our own family, it can become easy to pull away from our parents and maybe even ignore them, but there is no honor in that. Honor here can mean making sure lines of communication remain open and relationships remain strong. It’s making sure we take time to spend with our parents and allowing healthy relationships to develop between children and their grandparents. I was talking with a grandmother this week who felt so blessed to have a granddaughter in her life that was more like a daughter to her and through their relationship I could see the blessing that comes when we honor our parents and one of the most influential persons in my life was my Grandmother and one of the reasons my relationship with her was so strong was because she and my mother had a strong relationship and even more importantly she and my father – her son-in-law, had a good relationship.

Honoring our parents needs to continue throughout life and when this commandment really becomes important is when our parents become older and have greater needs. We need to remember that these 10 Commandments were given in a day and age when there was no social security or Medicare; there were no IRA or pensions to provide for people in their golden years. As people got older they were completely dependant upon their children for physical care and support and so this commandment has as much to say to grown children who need to honor and care for their aging parents as it does to young children who need to listen and follow what their parent’s direction.

While our society is clearly different today than ancient Israel, the truth is that as we age – we still need our children and our families - maybe more than ever. Too many people today are growing old alone. Too many people are facing tremendous needs without anyone there to help them through the difficult times. It’s not that there aren’t children, they just aren’t physically close by. As families spread out all over the state, country and world, we have to be more intentional in making sure we are honoring our parents and care for their needs.

While Jesus never said much about how young children were supposed to treat their parents, he did say something about how adults are supposed to care for their parents as they got older. Look at Mark 7:9-13. There were people who neglected to care for their parents and the excuse they gave was that the money they would have used to take of them they would give to the church as an offering and Jesus is clear that this practice is wrong. Giving to the church isn’t wrong, it’s neglecting our parents which is wrong. Honoring our parents doesn’t end when we become thirteen, or get married or have children of our own – honoring our parents needs to continue for a lifetime.

So this commandment might say different things to us at different stages of life, but it all comes down to giving weight to our parents. It comes down to respecting them and valuing them for who they are because if nothing else - they are the ones who gave us life. But how do we honor parents who have not been worthy of our respect? We have recently seen in the Casey Anthony story how not all parents are worthy of honor and so we have to ask ourselves what this commandment means in similar situations. The first thing to remember is that this is not anything new. There have been bad parents from the very beginning, in fact the Bible is full of stories about parents who did not always treat their children well, or set a good example, and yet it was right into all of that dysfunction that God gave this command and it wasn’t given with stipulations like honor parents that are worthy of honor – it says honor your father and mother – period. So we have take this call seriously and prayerfully think about what it means to honor parents that might not be worthy of honor and respect.

If you have come from a family where abuse or neglect from a parent was all you experienced, the first step in honoring them might simply be to accept that this was the situation and allow God to begin to heal and redeem. In Romans 8:28 it says God works for the good in all things and so we know that God works in bad situations and I believe how God works in these bad situations to bring about redemption and healing. Nothing can change history, nothing can change the past, but God can bring healing today and into the future, so if you struggle to honor a father or mother because of their actions and behavior –acknowledge that to God and ask God to work in you to find his grace and freedom.

The second step might be to come to a place where forgiveness can be offered. When we are able to forgive our parents we begin to find freedom to live in God’s grace and power and become more fully the people God wants us to be. In some cases forgiveness can lead to restored relationship which can bring more fullness of life, but unfortunately redeemed relationships are not always possible and in some cases the best thing might be to simply part ways and in those situations honoring our parents might simply mean praying for them from a distance and thanking God for the life that they gave you. Since God never abandons his children, neither should we abandon totally our parents and we don’t abandon them when we place them in the hands of God and ask God to bless them.
When parents are good and kind and faithful and loving – this command is easy – when they are not, it’s hard, but just because things are hard doesn’t mean we can ignore God’s word. The same is true with all of God’s teaching. It’s easy to love those we like and hard to love our enemy, but the call of God is to love our enemy. It’s easy to be generous when we have a lot to give, but the call is to give faithfully and even sacrificially at all times, even when we think we have nothing to give at all. We can’t ignore this command to honor our parents just because our parents frustrate us or infuriate us – we simply have to work harder in asking God to teach us and show us what it means to honor them.

While this command is really a call to honor our parents, let’s not forget that God has also given pretty clear instructions to parents as well. Look at Ephesians 6:1-4. It’s here where God says that children are to obey their parents, but it goes on to say that parents are not to exasperate their children but bring them in the training and instruction of the Lord. Parents are called to love and care for their children, they are called to teach them about God and I say we do that best by showing them the grace and love of God in our own lives. Parents need to live lives worthy of honor so that children can find it easy to honor them.

When I look around today and listen to people talk about families, I am concerned that we really do struggle with having strong and healthy relationships within our families. I hope that you will pray with me for families and for stronger and healthier relationships between children of all ages and their parents – it is this relationship we need to get right so that we can live long and faithfully in the world God has given us.

The Ten Commandments ~ Remember the Sabbath

2011-07-08T06:28:00.000-07:00

One of the ways we have been looking at the 10 Commandments is as a series of boundaries that help protect the bonds of relationship. The first 3 commandments were all given to help protect and strengthen our relationship with God, and the last 6 commandments will all help protect the bonds of relationship we have with our family and others in our community, but this 4th commandment is unique because it doesn’t really protect or strengthen a bond of relationship with someone else, it is given by God to protect and strength us. God commands us to remember the Sabbath by keeping it holy because it is only when we take time to rest that we will experience true health and happiness in life. So this is the only commandment that is given to us just for us and for our own well being and yet sometimes I fear it is the one command we take the least seriously.

Before we can remember the Sabbath and keep it holy, we need to first understand what Sabbath means. The word Sabbath means to cease or to stop. Specifically it means to stop working and the whole idea of taking time off from work goes back to the story of creation. For six days, God worked. God created the light and the dark, the heavens and the earth. God created the stars and the sky, the sea and the land, the vegetation and the animals and then finally God created man and woman. For six days God worked, God created, and then on the seventh day God stopped working, God rested and God made that day special and holy and an important part of the created order. Think about it, God created a day just for rest. When we look at the story of creation we see that God created the world to have a certain rhythm. There is time for work and rest, labor and leisure, effort and ease. God created the world to have this kind of balance and since we are created as part of this world order, our lives need this same balance and rhythm. We need times of labor and leisure, effort and ease, work and rest and the only way we will achieve this balance is if we take the time to stop working –or remember and keep the Sabbath.

So the call of God to commit ourselves to a day of rest didn’t start with the 10 Commandments, but God reinforces the idea in the 10 Commandments for a very specific reason. Remember where Israel is at this moment, they have just left Egypt where for generations they had been slaves and slaves don’t get days off, slaves don’t get vacation time. So there was no Sabbath rest in slavery – the people worked all the time, every day – but now they are free and on their way to becoming the people God wants them to be and what God wants for them is health and strength so he gives back to them this day of rest, and what’s interesting is that God didn’t wait for the 10 Commandments to give this gift to his people, it came as soon as they left Egypt.

Turn to Exodus 16, the people of Israel have just left Egypt and escaped through the Red Sea. They are beginning to make their journey through the wilderness into the Promised Land, but things are difficult. They are hungry and thirsty and struggling to find food and water, so they cry out to God for help. First God provides them with water to drink, and then in Exodus 16 God provides them with food or manna which was bread from heaven. The manna would cover the ground every morning and the people would go out and gather up what they needed for each day, but then look at Exodus 16:4-5. There’s a reason God provides his people with twice as much manna on the 6th day, it was because God was not going to work on the 7th day, and God didn’t want his people working on that day either. After being slaves in Egypt for generations, God wanted his people to have time to rest and experience the balance and rhythm that were part of the world that God created.

Think about what this must have been like for the Israelites. All they had ever known and experienced was work, what a gift it would have been to have a day of rest. Here was a day when the people didn’t even have to go out and gather food – it was a true day of rest for everyone, servants and children and even the animals, no one had to work on the 7th day, so God gave this gift of the Sabbath to his people before he gives the 10 Commandments.

So the life God wants for us is a balanced life where there is work and rest and we need to not only remember this, we need to live it out, but the truth is that many of us don’t live this way, and we suffer because of it. When I first started out as a pastor I struggled with taking a day off – after all, how do you take a day off when you work for God? But what I forgot was that God was the one who was saying, take a day off – remember the Sabbath. For a couple of years I didn’t take a consistent day off and it wasn’t long before I was completely burned out. It took some strong words from friends of mine and the leaders in my congregation to help me see that I wasn’t following the plan God has given us and I was suffering because of it. If we don’t take time for rest we become stressed out and studies show that the stress which comes from overwork causes all kinds of physical and emotional problems. Heart disease, digestive disorders, joint pain, skin disease and high blood pressure can all be caused by not taking the time we need to rest. Depression and anxiety can also be caused by working too much and resting too little. In fact, many of the problems we experience or see around us have developed because we have allowed our lives and our schedules to get out of balance.

In his book on the 10 Commandments, Win Green says that God created the world so that we would
work at work, play at play and worship at worship.
When our lives reflect this balance – things are good, but too often what we see today is that people
worship work, work at play and play at worship.
Does your life look like this?

When we worship work we are dedicating everything we have and all that we are to our jobs or career. We worship work when we not only focus on work for 8+ hours a day, but then keep working at home in the evenings and even on weekends, holidays and vacations. Now let’s be clear, we do need to work and work hard. God gave us six days to work and only one to rest, so work, whether it is at a paying job or volunteering in the church and community, or working with and for our family, work is to be a pretty big part of our lives, but it can not be the center of it all. Work can not consume us. We cannot devote ourselves completely to what we do and forget about who God calls us to be.

We also can’t work at play. Have you ever taken a vacation where when you got home you were exhausted? Or taken a long weekend to spend time with the family and friends but worked in and around the house so much that you returned to work without feeling rested? If that sounds at all familiar, then you are working too hard at play. Play should be just that – play. It should be fun and restful. Play shouldn’t cause stress and anxiety. We shouldn’t need a vacation after our vacation. So let me give you some homework for the next two days. It is a holiday weekend, take some time to play. Don’t fill every moment of the weekend with yard work, house work or travel and activities that will drain you by the time you return to work, do something simple and fun that just brings you joy.

Life also get’s out of balance when we play at worship. We play at worship when we simply go through the motions of singing, praying and listening without allowing the spirit of God to speak to and shape our hearts and lives. Worship is the one place where God calls us to give ourselves fully and completely and when we do – what we find is that it doesn’t drain us like it does when we give ourselves completely to work. When we devote ourselves fully to God – God fills us to overflowing. When we give our lives fully to God – God fills us fully with life.

So as long as we worship work, work at play and play at worship, we will never experience the fullness God has for us because this is not the way God ordered life. In fact, as long as we reflect these out of balanced priorities, we will experience ongoing fatigue, stress, depression and even physical sickness. Life was meant to be lived a certain way and we need to get things back into a proper balance if we want to experience the fullness of life God has for us.

So how can we remember the Sabbath by keeping it holy? It can’t mean we simply do nothing, because that just isn’t possible, so what should we be doing to honor and remember this holy day? The first thing we need to make sure is that we actually do take time to stop working, or stop doing the work we do for 6 other days. We need that physical and mental break from our routine so part of honoring the Sabbath means that we resting from our normal work, but it means so much more and we can see that by looking at what Jesus did on the Sabbath, look at Luke 4:16. It was Jesus’ custom to attend worship on the Sabbath. Wherever Jesus was – he took the time to worship on the Sabbath, so worship needs to be an ongoing part of our lives. We need this time to reconnect with God and hear God’s word and feel the power of God’s spirit working in us just like Jesus.

Jesus also spent his Sabbath eating with family and friends, look at Luke 14:1. Eating together and sharing a meal with family and friends is an important part of living a balanced and healthy in life. There is something spiritual and life giving about eating together and it would be good for us to take this seriously. Is a family meal a daily or weekly part of your life? A time magazine article says that, “Studies show that the more often families eat together, the less likely children are to smoke, drink, do drugs, get depressed, develop eating disorders and consider suicide, and the more likely they are to do well in school, delay having sex, eat their vegetables, learn big words and know which fork to use.” Maybe eating together can be a picnic today or tomorrow, but then can we keep that experience going and sit down to a family meal later in the week and then each week from here on out. Jesus shows us that there is something life giving when we eat together, so we need to take this seriously and make it part of our Sabbath.
While time in worship and with family and friends was the custom for Jesus on the Sabbath, let’s also be clear that Jesus broke the rules of his day and worked on the Sabbath as well, in fact let’s just keep reading in Luke 14:2-6.

Jesus got into all kinds of trouble because he did what many people considered to be work on the Sabbath, but Jesus was clear that the work he did was to bring life to people and a rich and full life was what the Sabbath was all about. Since the Sabbath was a gift given to bring people life, healing and helping and teaching those around him was an ongoing part of Jesus Sabbath day routine and it needs to be part of ours as well. While the Sabbath is a day we need to focus on taking care of ourselves, we can’t allow our self-care to become selfish. If we have the opportunity to help those around us – we need to reach out and do it.

So remembering the Sabbath and keeping it holy means we stop working and allow our bodies and minds the time they need to rest. It means we take the time to worship and allow God to shape our hearts and souls which bring us life, and it means we spend time with others in ways that feed us physically and spiritually. All of these things can be part of a Sabbath rest, but there are so many more things that can help us experience the rest God wants for us.

If you work at a desk all day then to cease that kind of work might mean going out and doing something physical. Yard work can be part of a Sabbath rest if you love getting your hands dirty. For some people a Sabbath rest might include a hike or bike ride, for others it will be reading a book or doing the crossword puzzle. And the day you do things doesn’t really matter either. For some people the Sabbath might come on a Monday because we work on Sunday, or it might come on a Friday or Tuesday – the day doesn’t matter, what matters is that we take regular time to stop working and give our bodies, minds, souls and spirits time to rest and reconnect with God.

It’s amazing to think that God loves us so much that he gives us a commandment that really is just for ourselves, the key is for us to follow it. We need to rest because it is only through the Sabbath that we will experience all the fullness and joy there is life. God took a day to just rest and enjoyed the world he created and we need to do the same.

The Ten Commandments ~ Do not misuse God's name

2011-07-01T06:28:00.000-07:00

Names are significant. Names are full of meaning and power, for example when we hear the name Mother Teresa - one image comes to mind, but when we hear the name Adolf Hitler a very different image comes to mind and we know these names have power because you don’t hear many people calling their children Adolf anymore. People will even change their names because of the power and the image that comes with them, for example, do you know who Marian Morrison is? I’ll give you a hint, Marian here is a man’s name and his full name is Marian Michael Morrison and he believed that you just couldn’t be a good cowboy with the name Marian so he changed his name to John Wayne.

Names have power and in the Old Testament, names represented the very essence of a person which is why God changed the name of Abram to Abraham. Abram means exalted father, but still just a father and Abraham means father of many nations. God changed Abrams name because his life was going to change, he wasn’t just going to be a father, the promise God made was that he was going to be the father of many nations, so God changed his name as a sign that it was going to happen. In the world of the OT, names had great significance and power which is one of the reasons why God includes in the top 3 of his 10 Commandment to not take his name in vain.

So what is God’s name? There are hundred’s of names given to God in the Bible and here is a list of more than 150 of them from Abba, to Jehovah Jireh, to Lamb of God, Messiah, Teacher and Word of God. While there are many names given to God, there is only one name that God gave himself and that is the name I AM. God gave that name to Moses at the burning bush when God called Moses to return to Egypt and lead his people out of slavery. Moses was reluctant to go because he was afraid that no one would listen to him or follow him so he asks God (Exodus 3:13-15).

So God gives himself the name – I AM, but since there is no past or future tense in Hebrew, what this name really means is I WAS, I AM and I WILL ALWAYS BE. In other words, the name God gave himself was I AM THE ONE WHO EXISTS FOREVER. God is the only eternal one and this means he is the only one with all the life and with all the power. Because names express the very essence and power of a person, God wants his name honored and used wisely so that his true character can be seen by all the people and one of the things we see throughout the OT is that God is serious about this command. Lev. 24:10-16.

While this seems harsh to us, it does reflect just how serious God is about his name. God wants his name to mean something positive and life giving, he wants his name to accurately reflect is life and truth and power and love to the world and so we need take seriously our use of God’s name. When we use the name of God we need to make sure we use it ways that honor God are not in vain. Now while we tend to think that this commandment means we shouldn’t turn God’s name into profanity and damn people or situations in the name of God (and we shouldn’t and we will look at that in a moment), the word vanity actually means useless or worthless, so not taking God’s name in vain means not using God’s name in useless, careless or worthless ways.

Now for Israel, this meant not using God’s name as part of a covenant or promise that the people were not going to fulfill. If the people made an oath in the name of God and didn’t fulfill that promise – they were taking God’s name in vain. They made God’s name meaningless and useless, so taking God’s name in vain has less to do with profanity and more to do with using God’s name in meaningless expressions, like saying “oh my God” when we are surprised by something. In his book on the 10 Commandments, Win Green says, Of course most people would say,… when I say that I really don’t mean anything by it and that is just he point! We reduce God’s holy name to nothing. A name which the ancient saints trembled to speak we now employ carelessly. When we make God’s name an everyday empty expression – what does that say about our understanding of God? What does that say about our relationship with God? You see, again this command, like all of them, is to help protect the bonds of relationship and when we turn God’s name into an empty expression of surprise – it diminishes our relationship with the God who was and is and always will be.

So we can’t be careless with God’s name, butwe can’t be disrespectful either. Using God’s name in conjunction with profanity is not only disrespectful – it misrepresents God. For example, God does not damn people, situations or the world, in fact in John 3:17 it says that Jesus didn’t come into the world to condemn the world – to damn the world – but to save the world. We also hear this in 2 Peter 3:9. God doesn’t damn people; God’s job is not to curse people – his passion and desire is to see them return to Him and while there are examples of God’s justice and punishment at work throughout the Bible, the real story of the Bible is the story of God working to rescue, save and love his children. The real story of the Bible is the story of God wanting a relationship with us and making that possible through the power of his name – look at Romans 10:13. Sp the power of God’s name is to save and bring life, not condemn so when we use God’s name as profanity we misrepresent God to the world, and again we might say we don’t really mean that – but then we go back to the first point – if we don’t really mean what we say then we have reduced God’s name and character and our relationship with him to nothing.

Now what all of this means is that we need to take seriously what we say and if it is our habit to misuse God’s name, in either meaningless expressions of surprise or with profanity, we need to clean our language. Maybe James says this best when he says… James 3:9-12. If this is an area you struggle with, ask someone close to you for help. Many times we don’t even know we are using God’s name in vain, but if we ask for help and people start pointing it out to us kindly and with grace – my guess is that we will begin to become more aware of it and find new expressions of surprise and frustration.

It is also important to clean up our language because what we say is not only what our children will say but it will shape their understanding of God and in time their relationship with God. If God’s name is used in meaningless ways then in time God simply becomes meaningless. So we need to watch what we say and remember that our words have all kinds of consequences.

But this commandment isn’t just about what we shouldn’t say, it’s also about what we can say because the commandment doesn’t say we can’t use God’s name at all, which means that God’s name can be used by his children in ways that are appropriate and Jesus tells us that we need to keep God’s name holy, which means set apart as something powerful and special. What this means is that we can call upon God’s name for assurance, forgiveness, help, strength, power, healing and life. God’s name can be used in prayer and praise and worship. It can be preached and shared and celebrated and Jesus even said that in his name we can move mountains. It is because God’s name is so powerful and good that we need to make sure that we don’t misuse God’s name or misrepresent God to the world around us.

Since we can use God’s name, I believe that one of the ways to help us overcome our misuse of God’s name is by using it more and more in right ways. The more we use God’s name in praise and prayer, the less likely we will be to use it in vain. The more we call on God’s name in faith and trust, the less we will use in disrespectful or inappropriate ways. So here’s an exercise for us all this week. Find 10 ways to use God’s name in faithful and powerful ways every day. Ask God to bless people – not in the meaningless way many politicians ask God to bless the USA, but in genuine and specific words of blessing and praise. It doesn’t have to be said out loud to the person, but in our hearts and minds we can specifically ask Go to bless those around us. We can thank God for what we have and what we see. Verbally we ask a blessing for each meal so we actually hear our mouths praise and thank God for the food we have. If we will pray more and call on God’s name more and claim God’s promises more, in time our misuse of God’s name will disappear.

Now I do want to end on a note of encouragement, if you have never really thought seriously about how you have used God’s name in the past and you realize that using God’s name in vain has been a habit in your life, don’t feel like all is lost. While you may have struggled to honor God’s name, God has never failed to honor your name and offer you forgiveness and grace. We need to remember that some of the names given to God have been:

Jehovah – Shalom : which means God is our peace
Comforter
Deliverer
Friend of sinners
Lamb of God
Merciful God
Redeemer
Savior

So if our past doesn’t look very good in light of this command, we don’t need to give up hope, we need to call upon the name of Lord for forgiveness, and for the strength to live a new life which includes honest and faithful speech.

The 10 Commandments ~ You shall not make... bow down to or serve any idol

2011-06-23T12:56:00.000-07:00

As we continue our study of the 10 Commandments, we want to remember that these commandments are not arbitrary laws God gave us to follow, they are guidelines or boundaries that help preserve and protect the bonds of relationship. God says worship only me because He wants our relationship with Him to be the very center of our being and that command helps establish and preserve that relationship. This second commandment also helps to protect our relationship with God by telling us not to bow down to… worship or serve any idol. Now there are two ways we can read this commandment. The first is to say that we are not to make any image or idol of God and the second is to say that we are not to turn anything in this world into an idol that we would worship, and the truth is that they are both true, so let’s start by looking at the first.

We are not to worship any physical representation of God. We need to remember that this commandment was given to the people of Israel after they had spent generations in the land of Egypt and the Egyptians worshiped many different gods, most of whom were represented in the form of animals. For example, the god Horus had the head of a falcon; the god Anubis had the form of a jackal. While the Egyptians worshipped these images of their gods, the God of Israel wanted to separate his people from the Egyptians and all the other people around them who worshipped images and idols so gives this command to not create any image of him that could be worshipped.

One of the reasons God gives this commandment is to help his people realize that they are different than the people around them. They don’t worship carvings of stone or wood, they don’t worship images of animals or people – they worship the God who created it all. God wants to set his people apart and this is one clear way of doing it. While everyone else was creating and worshipping images of their gods – God says I want you to worship me in spirit and truth – don’t be like the people around you, God says, don’t make and bow down to or worship any physical representation of me.

Now there is a good reason why we should not make any image of God, any physical representation of God is limiting. Any and every physical representation of God limits God in some way and that not only insults God because the image falls dreadfully short of the real glory and power of God, but it also misrepresents God to the world. We see this all at work in the story of God’s people disobeying this commandment and making an idol of God in the golden calf. Exodus 32:1-6.

So after the 10 Commandments were given, God called Moses back up Mt. Sinai to receive more laws which would help the people live as God’s unique people in this world. While Moses was away, the people became afraid and unsure if Moses is ever going to come back and they want to be able to see God, so Aaron takes all their gold and melts it down and forms it into the image of a calf. They weren’t worshipping a foreign god here, they were still worshipping God, but in the form of a calf which was to be for the people a symbol of strength and power. But that calf insulted God, not just because they made an idol after God said not to, but because there is no way a calf – even a golden calf – could fully represent the power and glory and strength and majesty of God. While they might be a symbol of strength, but calves die, calves get sick, calves can be overtaken and destroyed by something bigger and stronger so turning God into a golden calf is not only limiting – it is insulting. Any image of God is limiting and that limitation insults God and weakens our relationship with God.

So we need to take this commandment seriously, because we know that God does. In fact here is how serious God is, once Moses comes down from Mt. Sinai and sees what the people have done, he doesn’t just destroy the golden calf, look at what he does… Exodus 32:19-20. God is serious – he says do not make any image of him, he doesn’t want us to create any idol that we might worship.

Now a question that immediately comes up is what about religious art that depicts God? What about things like the Sistine Chapel?

Is God against all religious artwork? We need to remember that God himself is an incredible artist who has displayed his power and glory and revealed his nature to us in the works of he has created. All we have to do is look around and see the artistic nature and creation of God. Romans 1:19-20. God is the master artist who has revealed himself in the beauty of creation and God has given us artistic skills that he calls us to use in worship. In Exodus 37-39 we see that God gives detailed instructions for how to build the ark of the covenant which was to contain images of cherubim or angels, and they were to make lampstands and altar tables, and bowls and robes for the priests and all of this art was to help reflect God’s nature and be used in the worship life of the church. So God calls for the people to use their artistic talents in making things for worship that would help point people to God. So the use of art in worship must be different than creating and bowing down to an idol and the difference doesn’t lie in the piece of art – it lies in our heart. We can’t worship what we create and we can’t worship our artistic and creative expression, we have to always make sure we are worshipping the creator alone.

So we don’t create any image of God because it insults God by failing to take into account God’s full nature and it doesn’t reflect to the world God’s full power and glory. Now let’s look at the other side of this commandment, we are not to bow down to, worship or serve any other idol. Now, you may be saying to yourself that we don’t do that today. We don’t have statues of calves or birds at home that we bow down to or worship, but there are idols that can consume us and become the center of our lives if we are not careful. These idols are things like wealth and power, status and success, fame and love and we see images of these idols everywhere. Every time we turn on the TV and see pictures of people happy and fulfilled because they have a new car or new clothes or phone or house, we begin to think that we need those things to make us happy. When we see those images again and again and again we begin to believe that we really can’t live without them and so we give ourselves to acquiring whatever it is that we think will make us happy. It’s not just wealth and material possessions that can become an idol in our lives; it can also be fame and success. Think about the millions of people who each year try to get on TV shows like American Idol, Big Brother and Survivor. Think about the people who do absolutely absurd and even dangerous things on the internet with the hopes of being noticed and having their videos go viral so they can become famous. Wealth, fame and material possessions can become idols we will worship if we do not guard our hearts and lives, so how do we protect our hearts from these idols and make sure we are worshipping God alone? The answer is found by going back to the story of Moses and the golden calf.

When Moses came down the mountain and saw the golden calf he destroyed it. He smashed that idol to pieces and then ground those pieces into dust and we need to have the same zeal when it comes to tearing down idols in our own lives. If always needing to buy new or bigger and better things has become an idol then we need to cut up our credit cards and stay away from stores. If social media as become an addiction we need to cancel our facebook accounts. We need to take seriously and think creatively about how to smash the idols that tempt us today.

In 1994 I realized that I spent too much time watching TV so when I heard about a ministry that needed a TV, I gave them mine and for 5 months had no TV in my house at all. For 5 months I removed the idol from my life and while I do have a TV today, I don’t watch it anywhere near as much as I did then. We need to identify those things that are working their way into the center of our lives and those things that are becoming an idol and then we need to do whatever it takes to tear them down. Moses tore down the golden calf and worked to help people get their focus back on God. Generations later, the people of Israel again were worshipping idols and so when Josiah became king he tore down the sacred poles and stones and altars that the people set up and worshipped in an effort to get their hearts and lives back on God. If we can identify an idol in our lives, we need to tear it down and then we need to ask others to help us keep our eyes and minds and hearts on God.

Let me end this morning by sharing one of the reasons we need to take this command seriously, the Bible says that over time we become what we worship, look at Psalm 115:8. Whatever we worship is what our lives will reflect and if you think about this, it makes sense. If we spend all of our time thinking about accumulating more and more things, eventually that is all we will talk about, all we will care about, and all people will see in us and hear from us. If all we work for is fame, then when we reach a place of success – it won’t be enough and we will have to find more ways to get noticed. Whatever we focus on, whatever is at the center of our lives is what our lives will reflect and the only thing that will bring life and joy and peace and love is God. It is only when God is at the center of our lives that we will experience what is known as the fruit of God’s spirit which is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. When wealth or fame or success is at the center of our lives then what we experience and reflect is greed, pride, restlessness and self-centeredness. We become what we worship and so if we want life and if we want to reflect life and love to the world around us we need to smash any idol that has found its way into our lives and worship God alone.

The 10 Commandments ~ You shall have no other gods before me.

2011-06-14T11:47:00.000-07:00

Today we begin our study of the 10 Commandments and I think it’s important for us to remember the context in which these laws were given. In Exodus 19:1 it says, in the third month after the Israelites left Egypt – they came to the Desert of Sinai, and it was while they were in this region that Moses went up to the top of the mountain and received the law. So it has only been three months since Moses led the people out of Egypt where they had been held as slaves for generations. While the Jewish people prospered greatly in Egypt growing both in number and wealth, because they were living under foreign rule and among the gods of Egypt they weren’t free to fully worship and live for God. So for generations their understanding of who God was and what it meant to follow him had been limited. One of the reasons God led his people out of slavery and into the Promised Land was to make them his own exclusive people. God wanted a people, a nation, which would live for him and reflect his values and his truth to the world, he wanted them to be alight to the nations, but before they could be that light and before they could reflect God’s values to the world, they needed to learn what those values were. The 10 Commandments are the foundation and the beginning of God teaching his people what it means to follow him and live for him and what kind of life they need to live to be able to reflect his life and truth and love.

So these do the same thing today, they begin to show us what is important to God and one of the things we see here is that the most important thing to God is our integrity and fidelity in relationships. These 10 Commandments aren’t just arbitrary rules or laws to follow; they are the key to establishing and maintaining healthy and strong relationships with God, and with our family, our community and even with ourselves. What will be important for us to remember as we study these commandments is that what God is most concerned about is not the letter of the law but the strength of our relationships, it is relationships that these laws seek to establish, protect and strengthen.

Clearly the first and most important relationship we need to focus on is our relationship with God, so God says; you shall have no other god before me. God is making an exclusive4 claim on his people. He wants them to worship and serve Him alone and no one else. Notice that God does not say there are no other gods. Remember that for generations they lived in Egypt where all they saw and heard about were the gods of Egypt, in fact the Pharaoh himself was considered to be a god, and after the people leave the desert of Sinai they are going to travel throughout the region of Palestine and encounter many different tribes who worshipped a variety of gods and so God makes clear that they were not to consider any of them as their god, they were to have only one God. So in this first commandment God is establishing a unique relationship with the people he first chosen through Abraham. God is the one who chose them and God is the one who now leads them and God is the one who wants to be their God.

Today this first commandment still makes clear that God wants to be our God and that he doesn’t want to share that place in our hearts and lives with anyone or anything else and he tells us that the only way this will happen is if we place God at the very center of lives. A lot of time when we talk about worshipping only God we talk about making God number one, but Mark Mitchell, pastor of Central Peninsula Church in CA says that God doesn’t want to be number one on our list, God wants to be the One and only thing in the center of it all. God wants to be the hub of the wheel that holds every spoke of our life together. If we simply place God at the top of the list then whatever is number 2 or 3 or 4 becomes a rival - ready to take on God, but God wants no rivals – God wants to be the center of every other priority and focus and ambition and goal in our lives. I like this distinction. Instead of saying God needs to come before family, country or job we need to ask how God can be the center of our family, our love and commitment to our country or our job. God wants to be the center of it all – that’s what it means to have no other god and that is what it means to worship god alone and the truth is that once we make God the primary relationship in our lives - the rest of life and the rest of our relationships and priorities can become healthy and strong.

It’s vital for us to place God at the center of our lives because we have been created to have God at the center of our lives so until we get this right, nothing else in live will be balanced or blessed. If we look at the creation story we see that human beings are unique because God breathed his life into us. Deep within us is God’s life and I don’t believe we are fully satisfied in this life until we are in fellowship with God. If we look at the world today, I think what we see bears this out. Even though we may see the world as an increasing secular place where people are not interested in a relationship with God, the truth is that most people in the world today do connect with a god in some way. In 2009, 73% of the world identified themselves as being part of one of the worlds 4 largest religions, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism. In fact, only 12% of the world identified themselves as being non-religious, which shows us that most people feel this need or desire to have the presence a god in their lives. The French philosopher Blaise Paschal calls this a god-shaped hole that we all have and we simply aren’t satisfied in life until we fill that hole or connect with God in some way. So we were created to be in a relationship with God. We were created to worship God and part of what this means is that we need to give God our adoration, our trust and our thanksgiving.

God wants our adoration. God wants to be the One we can’t stop talking about, the One who captures are attention and imagination and the one who captivates our heart. God also wants our trust, which means God wants to be the One we depend on for everything and the One in whom we find security and peace and the One we turn to in times of need. And God desires our thanksgiving, he wants to be the One we thank when we have a little or when we have a lot because we know that no matter what we have it all comes from him. When all this begins to happens, when we begin to truly adore and trust and give thanks to God in all circumstances, the God we know God is making his way to the center of it all. And it’s important for God to be at the center because if God isn’t there, then something else will be.

If God doesn’t fill the hole in our lives, then something else will. Deuteronomy 11:16 says, take care, or you will be seduced into turning away and serving other gods and worshipping them. I have to say that Dtr. 11:16 has not been a passage that I have often thought about, but I now find it very profound and maybe one of the most important passages in the Bible. If we aren’t worshipping God we will worship something else and no matter what it is, no matter how good it is, if it is not God, in time it will destroy us.

Let’s look at Israel, the other gods they were tempted to worship were the gods of other nations. There was the god Ba’al that we read about a lot in the Old Testament, but there is also the god Molech and the god Mammon. These were three of the most common gods that Israel encountered as they traveled through the wilderness and what is interesting is that each of these gods represented forces or powers that are still strong today. Ba’al was also known as the god of fertility, or sex. Moloch was the god of strength or power, and Mammon the god of money. Sex, power, money – three forces that are still with us and three forces that can destroy us if they become the center of our lives – if you don’t believe this, ask New York congressman Anthony Wiener? He is an example of what can happen when sex or power becomes the center of our lives. We end up doing things we would never do otherwise because at the center of our lives isn’t God but a force or a drive or a false god that will destroy us.

So we need to place God at the center of our lives and God has promised that when we do this, all other relationships will grow stronger. It is not a coincidence that this is the first commandment, it all flows from this – if God is at the center then we can move on to other commands and other relationships, but if God is not at the center then none of the rest of these commandments really matter because the strength for life and faith and obedience comes from God and God alone.

So we need to place God at the center because we were created for this primary relationship and it is the foundation on which everything else is built, but if we go back to Exodus 20, we see two other reasons why we need to worship God alone. Exodus 20:2 Now remember, Egypt was the dominant world power at this time and Pharaoh was considered to be a god, but then the God of Israel comes along and shows the Israelites and the people of Egypt and Pharaoh himself who is really in charge and who is really all powerful. God sent 10 plagues on Egypt and humbled the nation; God led his people out of Egypt and then parted the Red Sea to really set them free and overcame his enemy in the process and through it all God reminded Israel, and us, that he is the one true power in this world – there is no greater power than God and that alone should be a good reason to worship him above all other gods, but there is another reason here. When God says, your God, the word your is singular. God is talking to individual people here, God doesn’t just want to be a power of a people – he wants to be the savior and shepherd of our souls. God is not an impersonal king standing far away, He is a personal loving God who wants to know us and wants us to be known by us. So the most powerful force in all of creation and only true God wants to know us and love us and simply wants us to love him in return.

Jesus talks about the personal nature of God when he says that every hair of our head is known and numbered by God and that every aspect of our lives is known and cared about by God. There is nothing we go through that God doesn’t know about and God loves us more than we can possibly imagine, so why would we worship anything else when God is all powerful? Why would we worship anyone else when God is the most loving? And why would we worship anything else when life won’t be complete until God is at the center? So we know we should have no other god at the center of our lives, but is God there?

To answer that question and reflect on the place God has in our lives, Win Green encourages us to take the three book test. What does our date-book, checkbook and the good-book say about God’s place in our lives? What does our date-book or calendar say about how and where we spend our time? If we spend no time with God then how can God truly be at the center? Do we set apart time for God each day? Do we set apart time for God each week? (now obviously all of you do this because you are here today – so that is a good first step, but can we go deeper?). And it’s not about giving God our left over time; can we give God our best time and some of our undivided attention?

To see if God is at the center of our lives we also need to look at our checkbook. Remember, one of the gods of the Old Testament was Mammon, or wealth and money. If someone where to look at our spending habits for a month would they be able to see that God is at the center of our lives? Do we tithe, or give 10% to God? Do we support the work of God in the church and around the world? Do we spend money wisely and not accumulate huge amounts of debt? Do our purchases reflect the values of God’s kingdom? What does our checkbook, or our spending habits, say about the place God has in our lives?

And then there is the good-book test, how often do we read our Bibles? If the Bible is God’s main way of communication with us then we have to ask ourselves if we are spending time listening to him. Can we really have any healthy relationship with God if we don’t take the time to listen? Can we have healthy marriages without listening? Can we be good parents without listening? Can we be good neighbors without listening? Can we be good children of God without listening? Can we really say God is at the center of our lives without taking the time to listen to his word?

This three book test can help us begin to see what is really at the center of our lives, and if it isn’t God then we need to make the decision today to place God at the center. If you are thinking that God is not the center of all you do and all that you are, then you can do something about that today, right now, you can simply ask God to be the center of your life. If you have been reflecting on your life and realize that God has kind of slipped out of the center and you want him back there, you can do that today with a simple prayer. The good news is that we don’t have to put God at the center once everything else is worked out, in fact, the only way other issues in our life will get worked out is by asking God to be the center. I want to invite you to do that today. Let us take this moment, at the beginning of this series and this summer to make God the center of all that we are and all that we do. If you want to experience this new abundant life, if you want to experience the power of God and the wonder of God and the blessing of God, then I invite you to pray with me…

God, I confess that you have not always been at the center of my life. I have chased after and loved other gods who have enticed me away from you. I have allowed my time, attention and treasure to focus on inferior practices, but today I come to re-commit myself to you. You alone are God. You alone are the one who breathed into me your life and spirit and today I know that I will not be satisfied until I place you at the center. So I ask you, almighty God, to be the center of my life. Be the center of every priority, every goal, every dream and desire. I place you at the centre because you alone are worthy because you alone are God. AMEN.

Honor, Care, Restore ~ GOD WILL!

2011-06-07T11:39:00.000-07:00

There are a lot of storms raging today, and I’m not talking about the deadly tornados that devastated communities like Joplin MO and Tuscaloosa AL, I’m talking about storms like the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the ongoing unrest in Egypt and Libya, high unemployment, low housing values, a growing national debt and shrinking state budgets. We live with a lot of turmoil, a lot of suffering and uncertainty and while it is important for us to learn how to stand faithful and strong during these difficult times, it is maybe even more important to remember three promises God makes with us during these times: God will exalt us, God will care for us and God will restore us. That is what we heard from 1 Peter.

Look at 1 Peter 5:6. The word’s lift you up are also translated – exalt, God will exalt us and raise us up above the storms that rage around us. Now what’s interesting about this passage is that we tend to spend more time talking about what it means to humble ourselves than what it means for God to exalt us. It’s always easier to talk about what we need to do then to fully understand and accept God’s promise, but let’s focus on this promises for a moment. What does it mean for God to exalt us? The word, exalt, means to be elevated in position, status or power. It means to be honored. So when we are being beaten down, unappreciated, suffering for doing good and not recognized for our achievements and hard work we need to remember that not only does God see who we are and what we are all about, but God will recognize us and celebrate us. God wants to lift us up to places of honor and glory because we are special to him.

The promise to exalt us is not just a promise given to us today, this has been God’s desire from the very beginning. Turn back to the creation story for a moment and look at Genesis 1:26-27. God created human beings to be exalted above all of creation. This doesn’t mean we are better than everything else in creation, because we aren’t, think about it, we need water and air and trees and plants and fish and animals if we are going to survive – so we aren’t better than the rest of creation – God calls it all good, but God has put us into a special place in his creation. We have been exalted, or lifted up and given dominion over the rest of creation. So from the very beginning God’s desire has been to exalt us, or lift us up to places of honor and God does this not because we did anything to deserve this – look back to creation, we were given this place from the very beginning, before human being did anything, so we don’t earn this place we simply receive it because of God’s grace and love. God delights in exalting us because we are his children, created in his image called to walk with him and work with him in this world.

So it’s always been God’s desire to lift us up and honor us which means that we don’t have to do this ourselves. If God promises to exalt us then we don’t have to spend time and energy trying to exalt ourselves – we simply need to trust God to keep his promise. I know I have talked about him before, but there was a little boy I met at a church camp many years ago when I was a counselor and this boy was in trouble for fighting from the moment he arrived. It wasn’t until one afternoon when he was grounded in our cabin that we talked and he began to share how his father never put his report card on the fridge because he didn’t get straight A’s like the rest of his family. The reason he kept fighting everyone was because he was constantly trying to exalt himself, trying to make himself feel important and special because no one else did.

I wonder sometimes how much we are all like that little boy. We fight to be heard, we fight to be noticed, we fight to show people that we do have value and worth because so many times we feel beaten down and left out; we fight to exalt ourselves and yet what we forget is that God has already exalted us. Our Father in heaven has our report card on his fridge, he has our picture in his wallet and he has our lives in his hands and in his heart so we are already exalted – but God goes one step further and promises to exalt us even here and now so we don’t need to exalt ourselves – we just need to wait and allow God to lift us up in due time – or better yet – in His time.

It’s those last three words that is the hardest part – in his time. The hard part is waiting. Like the little boy at camp, we try to exalt ourselves because we are impatient and yet it is when we take matters into our own hand that the trouble starts. Think back to the story of Abraham, God told him that he was going to lift him up. God was going to make Abraham into a great nation whose descendants would outnumber the stars in the sky and the sand on the beach, but Abraham and his wife didn’t have any children and they were already advanced in age and so as each year passed and children didn’t come they questioned God’s promise. Their questions and doubts grew so strong that finally Abraham and Sarah took matters into their own hands and decided that Abraham could at least have a child with Sarah’s maidservant Hagar so there would be a child. Instead of waiting for God, they tried to exalt themselves and what they created was a mess. Instead of one strong family, when the promised child finally did arrive they now had sibling rivalry, strong jealousies and divisions that not only divided the family but divided nations and continues to plague the middle east with conflict today. It is hard to wait for God to lift us up when we feel neglected or taken advantage of, it’s hard to wait on God when we feel like nothing is ever going to change, but that’s what it means to be humble and when we are humble God says that his mighty hand will lift us up.

God not only promises to exalt us, he promises to care for us, 1 Peter 5:7. Again, many times we focus on what it means for us to cast our cares on Jesus and we will look at that in a moment, but first let’s stop and consider this promise, God cares for you. The God who created the universe cares for us. Now when we say God cares for us, we aren’t saying God feels favorably toward us, the word care implies action like a parent caring for a child. Just as a good parent knows what their child needs and works to provide that, so God knows what we need and provides it for us. But let’s be clear that God is a good parent and being a good parent doesn’t mean that God will give us everything we want, he gives us what he knows we need. God always has our best interest at heart and God’s ultimate intent isn’t to give us all that we want but to make us into strong faithful children who reflect God’s life and love.

This means God may not simply give us more money when we are in need but teach us to live on less, or be thankful for what we do have. He may not give us that special someone we think we need in life but teach us to live in a deeper relationship with him. God may not bring us the healing we want but instead teach us compassion, empathy and mercy through our suffering. God really does have our best interest at heart – which doesn’t always mean we get what we want or think we need, but it does mean God will provide what He knows we need. When things don’t seem to go our way, when the storms of life come (and they will come), maybe what we need to do is stop and ask ourselves how God is caring for us in this moment.

God has promised to care for us if we will cast our cares on him and so we do need to learn what it means to cast them away to God. Peter uses this image of casting because he was a fisherman and what casting means is that we have to be willing to toss our cares out and really let them go. You have to let the net out of your hands when you cast it into the sea and the same is true with our anxieties and concerns. We have to be willing to let go of our anxieties. We can’t ask God to take things away and care for us if we hold on to the problems and try to take care of it ourselves. I’m not sure God is interested in playing tug of war with us, he wants us to learn how to cast – to toss to him and let go of our burdens so that he can take them up and bring us the blessing of his care – his provision.

The third promise is that God will restore us. 1 Peter 5:10. Peter says that after we have suffered for a little while, God will restore us. Now my guess is that we have all experienced some kind of suffering or set-back in life, it may have been financial, or in a job, or in a relationship. No matter what the set-back’s are, they are painful and difficult, but here is what we need to remember, we don’t go through these times alone. God is with. God has not only made the promise to be with us but he says here that he will be the one to restore us, and give us the strength to stand firm, but let’s be clear about what this restoration is. God is not saying that he will give back to us all that we lost, the word restore means to make solid. God wants to give us a firm foundation during difficult times from which we can move forward.

That is why I love this picture. It was taken just last week in Joplin, MO. Just a week after the tornado we see that God is already at work restoring the people. They won’t get the lives back that were taken from them, they won’t get there homes and all their possessions back, but look at what we see here – God is with them and God’s presence and the presence of the church gives the people a firm foundation from which they can move forward. God is already working to restore the people of Joplin and Tuscaloosa and Springfield MA. God is faithful to his promise!

We find this idea of restoration all through the book of psalms
Psalm 27:5. Psalm 18:16-19.
What I love about Psalm 18 is that it clearly tells us why God restores us and it’s not because we are good, or have been faithful and obedient, it is because God loves us. Psalm 18:19. In fact, the reason God makes and keeps all of these promises isn’t because we are humble or faithful or disciplined or even good at letting go of our worries – it is simply because God delights in us. It is God’s grace and love that moves him to make and keep these promise. Look at 1 Peter 5:10. Do you see anything in here about our faithfulness or that God helps us because of how good we are? No, it’s all because of God’s grace and God’s call – it’s all because God loves us.

So if you are going through a difficult time today, if you feel beaten down, anxious or suffering through some set back in life, remember that God makes these promises to you – God will exalt you, God will care for you and God will restore you in his love. And as we look around at the world and see all kinds of storms raging, instead of giving in or giving up, let’s stand firm in this truth – God will exalt us, God will care for us, God will restore us – GOD WILL.

Willing... Ready... Able... Are You?

2011-06-01T14:10:00.000-07:00

Memorial Day weekend needs to be the time that we as a nation stop and remember all those heroes who have been willing to serve our country, and especially those heroes who have given their very lives in our struggle for freedom and the freedom of others around the world. As I was thinking about the different branches of the military this week, I wondered what the motto of each branch was – do you know? The easiest one to come up with is the Marines because we hear it and see it a lot – Sempre Fi or actually Semper Fidelis which means…always faithful. What about the Army? Does anyone know what the official motto of the Army is? It’s - This we’ll defend. And there is only one other branch of the military that has an official motto and that is the Coast Guard, whose motto is Semper Paratus which means Always Ready. Now the Navy and Air Force have slogans and core values but no official motto. The Navy has the core values of Honor, Courage, Commitment and the Air Force has Fly, Fight, Win.

As I thought about thee three official mottos I thought of one word that could correspond to each motto:
Always Faithful. -- Willing
Always Ready. -- Ready
This we’ll defend. -- Able

Willing, Ready, Able, this could also be the motto for the church according to Peter. If we look at the passage from 1 Peter 3, I think we hear these three ideas articulated pretty well. 1 Peter 3:13 says who will harm you if you are eager to do good? Are we eager to do good for God? Are we willing to live for God and serve God?

1 Peter 3:15 says, always be ready to make your defense… Are we ready, equipped and trained to always give a defense for why we have hope and why we place our faith and trust in Jesus Christ?

And then 1 Peter 3:15 says, do it – with gentleness and reverence. It’s not enough to be ready, we have to be willing to act – able to serve God when he calls us to. So willing, ready and able could be our motto, but are we living this out. Are we willing, read & able? Are we willing to live for God and serve God and bet he people God is calling us to be? Are we ready to give a defense for why we have hope and faith and trust? Are we ready to tell people how God has led us out of darkness and into the light of his life? And are we able to act today, tomorrow and in all the days to come? Can we leave here today and just do it? If you aren’t feeling willing or ready or able, it’s ok because Peter doesn’t just give us mottos or commands and then send us on our way. Peter gives us guidance on how to become willing, ready and able.

Let’s start with willing, are we willing to live for God? Are we willing to share with others what God has done in our lives and give a defense for our faith? Are we willing to suffer for doing the good work God has for us? It’s ok to answer this question honestly and say, no I’m not real willing to suffer or sacrifice. It’s ok to be honest and tell God where we are, but then the question becomes do we want to be willing? Do we want to have a fire and passion for God? There is a way to develop this passion and become more willing and eager if we want it, look at 1 Peter 3:15. In your hearts revere Christ as Lord. What makes us not only willing to serve God but eager to is when we begin to realize just who Jesus is, not as Savior and Lord but as OUR Savior and Lord. When we begin to understand the fullness of who Jesus is and what God has done for us, our passion and love for God will grow and our willingness and desire to live for God will also grow. So let’s take a moment and just remember who Jesus is and what he has done for us.

Look with me at Colossians 1:15-20 because this tells us so clearly who Jesus is and what he has done.

So Jesus is the fullness of God, he is the power of God, he is the love of God, he is all the goodness of God and the full force of God’s creative power and grace. So Jesus is God, and because he is, he is the only one who is able to reconciled the world to God. It is through Jesus and Jesus alone that the world has been brought back into a relationship with God. While sin severs our relationship with God – Jesus works to restore it.

The death of Jesus paid the price for our sin and the resurrection of Jesus shows us that the power of sin and death have been overcome and so now all of creation can step back into that relationship with God. Now the reason God sent Jesus to reconcile the world to himself is simply this - God loves us. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son so that whoever believes in him shall not perish – shall not be separated from God forever, but have eternal life – live with God forever. So in love and grace and with great power God forgives us and restores our broken relationship with him and really with all of creation. But that’s not the end, look at Colossians 1:21-22.

God doesn’t just reconcile the world, God reconciles us. God forgives me, God forgives you and God restores us into a lasting eternal relationship with Him. It is this reality of a personal forgiveness and grace that I believe helps develop a willingness and eagerness on our part to live for God. If God has done all this for us when we didn’t deserve it and when we can’t repay it, if God loves us so much that he is willing to lay down his own life for us –how can that not touch our hearts and make us eager to live for him.

I know in my own life, it was when I finally began to understand the reality of God’s forgiveness, grace and love that my heart became more willing to live for Him. I was in college when this happened and I have to say that my whole perspective on life and dreams and goals changed and it suddenly became more important to me to share this good news than to simply get an education, find a job or make a lot of money. I felt like my life had a greater purpose which was to help others understand the fullness of God’s love for them. If you want to be more willing to live for God and if you want to experience that eager excitement about living fully - then revere Christ as Lord, honor Jesus in your heart and life. Maybe that step starts today by simply accepting Jesus as savior and lord and asking God to forgive you and open you eyes and the eyes of your heart to exactly who Jesus is and how his death and resurrection really does bring forgiveness and life.

Once we are willing we can them move on to ready - 1 Peter 3:15. Are we ready to tell people why our lives are different? Are we ready to share with them why we have hope and why we trust in Jesus and how God’s grace and love has changed our lives? We talked about this last week, and I hope you have spent some time thinking or writing down how God has brought you out of darkness and into light. How does Jesus give us hope day after day? Are we ready to answer that question? If we can’t aren’t then we need to prepare ourselves and last week we saw that we prepare ourselves by coming to Christ and craving the pure spiritual milk which is the word of God.

It does take some energy, time and effort to prepare ourselves. Think back to our armed forces again, when men and women join the army, navy, air force, marines or coast guard they are willing to serve and sacrifice but they aren’t ready to at that moment. They have to go through some kind of basic training or boot camp, and if you have ever gone through that experience then you know that the process of training is rigorous. It takes energy, effort, commitment and courage to get ready for military service and the same is true for training ourselves in the faith. Growing in our faith doesn’t just happen, we have to commit ourselves to it, we have to be courageous and take that first step or the next step to growing stronger and we have to give it some energy and effort. Sometimes I’m afraid that we simply settle for an ordinary faith and trust in God instead of going all the way to extraordinary. We are satisfied with just a little bit of God instead of going for all the fullness of life and joy that God has to offer. When we step out in faith and begin to learn how to really trust God and live for God – God will more than meet us in return. When we step out in faith, God will surprise us, God will overwhelm us, and God will fill us to overflowing.

Sometimes I think of God as having this huge storehouse of life and power that he just wants to give us, but we never ask – or we never open our hands or hearts to receive. God has so much he wants to give us, he has some much he wants us to experience if we would just be willing to stop trusting in ourselves and trust in him. The more we open ourselves up to God, the more we ready we become to live for God and make a difference in this world.

Willing, ready and able. All the preparation means nothing unless we act when the time comes, but let’s be clear that putting our faith into action will not be easy. Both at the beginning and the end of this passage, Peter tells us that suffering will come when we step out to do God’s work which is why he specifically says, do not fear the suffering that will come and do not be intimidated by the forces that will work against God. Many times obstacles and even persecution comes when we start to live for God. We can’t let these hard times keep us from moving on. People may not understand our new outlook, they may question our hope and joy, they may just think we are crazy – that’s ok, Jesus family thought he was crazy so we would be in good company. We can’t let our fear of what people might say about us keep us from doing what God is calling us to do. With boldness and courage we need to step out in faith and act.

We are able to live for God. The spirit of God is in us and so we are able to live for God and make a difference in our world, so with gentleness and humility let us live for God and allow the world to see the light of Jesus burning within us.

This weekend I hope we will take time to remember the heroes who have fought for our freedom and those heroes who continue to serve and protect people around the world, but I also hope that we will wrestle with this idea that God is calling us to live as heroes of faith as well. May we be willing and ready and able to serve God and even sacrifice and suffer for him.