Living the Life of Gratitude ~ Learning from History

This month we are using the Psalms of the Ascent to help teach us about living lives of gratitude.  The Psalms of the Ascent are the 15 psalms between Psalm 120-134 that were used by the people of Israel on their yearly trips to Jerusalem for the feasts of Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles.  It was at these 3 religious celebrations that the people gave thanks for God’s deliverance and provision and so the psalms not only encouraged people on their trips but they prepared the hearts and minds of the people to give thanks when they arrived at the Temple.  Today the psalms still have lessons to teach us about giving thanks and one of the lessons they teach is the need we have to learn from our history.

Maybe you have heard this saying, those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it (George Santayana), but just remembering our past or our history isn’t going to help us, we have to learn from it.  Learning goes beyond remembering.  When we remember something we are just calling it to mind, but learning means we take the lessons we have learned and apply them to our lives.  Learning from our past means that we take the truth we uncover and use it to think differently and live differently.  Let me give you an example from my own personal history.

After I graduated from High School I moved around quite a bit.  First I travelled from CT to MI to go to college.  After my sophomore year I went from MI to WY for the summer to work in Yellowstone and the next summer I went to CO to work in the Rockies.  During the first three weeks in any new location I would often call my parents and talk about how miserable I was.  I told them how much I hated being where I was and how I wanted to leave.  This continued through Seminary and even into my first church in Altoona and it was actually during my first few weeks in Altoona when my Mom said to me, Andy, do you realize that your first few weeks in any new location is awful,  but after you get through those weeks, things improve and you have ended up loving everywhere you have been.

When I looked at my own personal history, I had to admit, she was right.  I could remember phone calls from MSU, Yellowstone, Colorado and Duke during my first weeks in those locations and talking about how much I hated each place during those early days, but in the end I loved all those places and all my time there.  

After my Mom pointed out this lesson I began to use it to help me live differently.  When I moved to a new location I would tell myself that transition is hard and I don’t always like new places.  It takes me a while to feel confident and comfortable in what I’m doing, but I always survived and thrived, and I could do it again.  The other thing I learned was what helped me during these times of transition.  I had to give myself time, I had to take care of myself physically and spiritually and I had to build a network of support and friends.  My moves since then have been so much better because I now know those first weeks are always going to feel overwhelming. but they will not destroy me.

To put that experience into the words of the Psalmist, I might have said, If the Lord had not been on my side, the flood would have engulfed me, the torrent would have swept over me and the raging waters would have swept me away.  But God was on my side.  God was my strength and shield and support and with God’s help I was able to make it through.  So I didn’t just remember my past, I learned from it; I took the truth and lessons of those situations and applied them to my life.

This is what we see happening with the Psalms of Ascent.  As the people traveled to Jerusalem, they weren’t just telling stories around a campfire at night to entertain; they were passing on the lessons of history.  Look at Psalm 124:1-5.  Israel had a long history of outside nations attacking them and if the Lord had not been on their side they would have been destroyed.  If we read through the books of Joshua and Judges we hear about many of the battles Israel had to fight as they settled into the Promised Land and in those battles God fought with and for His people.  This is the lesson learned in the battle of Jericho.
After Israel crossed the Jordan River and entered into the Promised Land they came up against the fortified city of Jericho.  God told the people to march around the city for six days and then on the seventh day they were to march around with trumpets and torches and at the sound of the trumpets the people were to shout and blow their horns.  When they did this, the walls of Jericho came down.  God delivered the city into their hands.  God fought the battle for them.  Truly, if the Lord had not been on their side the people would have been swallowed alive.

In another battle, a man named Gideon was told by God to march out against a large enemy but first he had to cut down the size of his own army.  Instead of marching into battle with 32,000 men, God had Gideon go into battle with 300 men and when he did, the Lord fought with them and they won.  This wasn’t just a great story to share with children on a long journey; this was a lesson to learn from Israel’s history.  The lesson: we can’t trust our own strength and power - we need to trust God.  The lesson: when God is on our side, we can have the strength and confidence to move forward against all odds.  The stories Israel shared through these psalms were history lessons that gave the people truth and faith to apply to their lives so they could be victorious.

So these psalms show the importance of learning from history.  Whether it is our own personal history, the history of our family, community, nation, faith or world, we need to learn the lessons of history and apply its truth to our lives, but learning from history also teaches us to give thanks because as we look back we also see the hand of God with us and the power and grace of God helping us.  Again, look at Psalm 124:6-8.

Praise be to God.  Give thanks to God because God was with us and God helped us.  History often teaches us to be grateful because when we look back we see how God has helped us.  In my own personal history, as I looked back at those difficult times of transition it was God’s hand that saw me through.  It was God who gave me strength to endure and the support I needed.  If it had not been for God, I don’t know where I would have been, so learning from my own history has helped me give thanks.  My personal history has not only shaped how I live but it has taught me to be thankful because God has always been with me and God has always given me what I needed.

The Psalms of Ascent taught history and they helped the people give thanks.  Hearing their message over and over again on the journey not only shaped how they lived, but it shaped their hearts so that when they arrived in Jerusalem they were ready to say, Thanks Be To God.  The more we learn from history the more grateful we become because we can see God’s grace working in our lives.

And this is true for all of us.  If you are here today it is because God has seen you through some challenging times.  If you are here it is because God’s grace has been there for you when we were feeling beaten down and beaten up by life.  Look at Psalm 123:3-4.  This is often how we feel.  We have endured much.  We have endured contempt and ridicule and heartache and pain.  We have been mistreated and misunderstood and suffered injustice but we are here because of God’s grace and mercy and for this we can give thanks.

Learning from history is important so the question is: How can we learn from history?  

#1.  What lessons have we learn?  As we look back at history, as we went through a financial crisis, the break up or a relationship, the loss of a loved one or the shattering of a dream, what lessons did we learn?  Write them down.  Identify and clarify the truth of what we learned so that we can then move forward and answer this question:

#2.   How can I apply this truth to my life today?  How do we take the lesson we learned and use it to help us in whatever situation we may be facing today?  Maybe the lesson is that we found out we are stronger than we thought we were or that we have more support than we thought we did.  That lesson of knowing we have strength and support can give us what we need to make it through our current situation.  Maybe the lesson is that we need to be patient or less controlling or more trusting?  Maybe the lesson is simply that God is on our side so we can keep going.  Those are all important lessons we can use to shape our lives and in every situation we face there are lessons from the past that we can use to help us make wise decisions today.

#3. Where do I see the hand of God?  As we look back, where do we see the hand of God?  This is important because it is this that leads to gratitude.  If we can see the hand of God at work in our lives it is a cause for giving thanks.  Seeing that God is on our side leads us to say what Israel said, Praise be to the Lord.

But we aren’t just grateful for God being with us, we are grateful for all the people and resources God has given to help us.  Learning from history leads us to give thanks for family and friends, it leads us to give thanks for the jobs we have and the communities we live in.  Learning from history even leads us to give thanks for the challenges we face because we know we will learn something through them and they will make us stronger and more faithful.  So it’s not just God we give thanks for as we learn from history it is all the ways God has helped us and provided for us.  Learning from history leads to a life of gratitude and it shapes us for faithful thankful living.


Next Steps
Living the Life of Gratitude ~ Learning from History


Read Psalm 123 and Psalm 124.

Learning from history and giving thanks calls for us to answer these three questions:

1. What important lessons have you learned in life?
• Write them down.
• Clarify them.
• Share them.

2. How can you apply the truth of these lessons to your life today?

3. Where do you see the hand of God at work in the past?
• Thank God for His presence, power and grace.


This week we celebrate Veterans Day (November 11).
• What lessons can you identify from the battles fought by the United States?
• What lessons can we learn from our Veterans and Active Duty Military?
• How can these lessons help us tackle the problems we face today?
• Give thanks for our Veterans.  Send a note to a Veteran you know to simply say “Thank You”.


To read through all the Psalms of the Ascent (Psalms 120-134) during this series, read Psalms 128 and 129 this week.
What lessons of faith and gratitude do you learn from these psalms?  

Living the Life of Gratitude ~ Listening to Others

Today I’m excited because we are beginning a new series that will help prepare us for the forgotten holiday of Thanksgiving.  Thanksgiving is being gobbled up by Christmas (no pun intended) and I don’t mean Christmas as in the celebration of Jesus’ birth, I mean the mad rush to buy all our of our Christmas gifts in a few days of crazy sales.  I heard on the radio this week about stores that were not going to be open on Thursday and I thought, wow, that’s great that they weren’t taking part in this black Friday madness, and then realized, oh wait, they are talking about being closed on Thanksgiving Day.  It used to be the big news was if you were going to be open on Thanksgiving but now it is being closed.  Thanksgiving is being taken over by the shopping madness of Christmas and with it goes our focus of giving thanks.

This month we are going to learn once again how to give thanks and we are going to use a series of Psalms which many believe were written to prepare people to give thanks.  The scriptures are the 15 Psalm between Psalm 120 – 134 and they are known as The Psalms of the Ascent.  We believe these psalms were written to be used by the people of Israel as they made yearly trips to Jerusalem.  Three times each year, faithful Jews were to travel to Jerusalem to worship God – they went to give thanks.  They were to go for the feast of the Passover, where they remembered and gave thanks for God’s deliverance of his people from captivity.  They were to go for the festival of Pentecost which came in the spring at the time of the first fruits so they were thanking God for providing them with food and they were to go for the festival of Tabernacles.  This festival had two meanings, the first was to remember and give thanks for how God had led his people through the wilderness where all they had to live in where temporary shelters or tabernacles, and the second was to give thanks for the harvest because this festival came in the fall.

So three times a year the people of Israel were to leave their homes and travel to Jerusalem to gives thanks to God and no matter where they came from, this journey was a climb because the city of Jerusalem is in the mountains.  Jerusalem sits on what is known as Mount Zion and it is surrounded some slightly higher hills like Mt. Scopus and the Mt of Olives, which is where this classic picture of Jerusalem is taken from.  

It doesn’t matter where you traveled from in all of Israel, the trip to Jerusalem involved a climb or an ascent and because these psalms were used by the people to encourage them on their journey they became known as the Psalms of the Ascent.

As we read the psalms we not only find lessons on gratitude, but we can also see the spiritual journey of God’s people.  That journey begins with Psalm 120:1.  This is where they journey starts and it starts before any physical move is made; it starts when people call on the name of the Lord.  Whether it is good times or bad, any spiritual journey begins when we call on God who hears us and welcomes us.

Psalm 121:1-2.  From calling out to God we now turn and look for God and while it says the people looked to the hills for help, or to Jerusalem, they knew their help wasn’t in the hills or in the city but in the God who the people believed in that city.  By looking to Jerusalem they were looking to God for help.

Psalm 122:1.  Here they prepare for the journey and what we learn is that it is not a solitary trip, it is a trip of families, extended families and even entire communities – Let US go up to the house of the Lord.  And then look at 122:2.  OUR feet are standing in your gates.  And again in Psalm 122:4.  This is where the TRIBES or where all the people gather to praise God.  From this psalm we learn our first lesson in living a life of gratitude, we need to listen to others.  The trip Israel made to Jerusalem was made by families and friends and communities who listened to one another as they made their way and in travelling together and listening to one another on the way, they learned to give thanks.

We are losing the ability to listen to one another today.  Studies show that while we spend 60% of our time listening, we only retain 25% of what we hear.  There are several reasons why we don’t listen well.  One reason is that we have become dependant upon other means of communication like writing and audio and video recording.  If we know we can go back and listen to it again, why do we need to really listen the first time?  It’s also hard to listen in the midst of all the noise that takes place in our world today.  We are bombarded by noise everywhere we go and in the midst of it all it becomes difficult to listen to what is ultimately important.

We also have shorter and shorter attention spans so that instead of listening to complete and complex thoughts and ideas we only listen for the sound bites and only read the pull quotes.  We see this at work in all the political debates we see these days.  We don’t give politicians the time they need to state their plans and positions and when it’s over people just analyze the sound bites.  We are also becoming desensitized to what we hear so that to capture anyone’s attention we need to hear things that are more and more shocking or graphic.  What used to shock us doesn’t anymore which means that we pay less attention to it – we stop listening.

So why is listening to others so important?  It’s important because listening creates understanding.  Listening helps create healthier communities.  Listening helps us solve our problems and grow together and this unity and community pleases God and God’s pleasure brings forth God’s blessing.  Look at Psalm 133.

It pleases God when his people live together in unity.  It is good and pleasing to God when we listen to one another, understand one another and help one another.  When we are willing to live in this kind of community it’s like dew falling in Jerusalem (which remember is a very dry region) which is a blessing and God bestows even more blessings than unity and community, he brings life forevermore.

So it honors God when we listen to one another because the respect we show others in listening unites us and listening to others leads us to a life of gratitude.  One of the great privileges of being a pastor is getting to listen to others and hear the life stories of so many diverse people.  While I was in seminary, I was the chaplain for some low income senior housing and I often went to read the Bible to woman who was blind.  After I would read, she would share stories with me about her life.  She was a descendant of slaves and she told me stories about the night her grandparents or great-grandparents were told that they were finally free.  She talked about the joy and fear they experienced as they left plantations and moved to new communities to live as free men and women.  I was in awe in listening to her family’s story and was so appreciative for the opportunity to know her and share with her.  I was also so thankful for the life I had and that I didn’t have to go through the same struggles and I was grateful that while we still have our problems, slavery was overcome in our nation.  

I have listened to many veterans talk about their time of service and just last year was able to hear from John Leiter Sr. talk about storming the beaches of Normandy.  Again, it was in listening to others that I learned to give thanks for what I had and the time in which I grew up.  I have talked to countless people who survived the depression and listened to my own grandparents talk about all they had to do to get through those difficult days.  Listening to others teaches us to appreciate what we have and it moves us to appreciate those around us even more.  When we hear stories of faith and how God helped others through the past it not only strengthens our faith but it moves us to praise and thank God for who God is and what God has done.

This is what I picture taking place on the journey of God’s people to Jerusalem year after year.  They told stories about how God helped them in the past and those stores where shared with each new generation, and think about the stories they could tell.  Abraham was one of the first to make a journey up Mt. Zion to the area that we call Jerusalem and he went because God told him to go and make a sacrifice of his son Isaac.  Abraham went in faith trusting God to provide and at the very last moment God did provide and spared Isaac by provided a lamb.  Can’t you picture that story being told to young children year after year?

Or the story of Jacob who wrestled with God and we believe that was in the area of Mt. Zion, or all the stories of David who made Jerusalem the city of God and moved the ark of the covenant into the city, and then the stories of Solomon who built the Temple.  So many great stories which all pointed to God and all called for the people to give thanks and praise to God.

Listening to others, really listening to the life stories and faith of others leads us to places of deep gratitude not only for God but for those God has placed in our lives and as we make our journey to thanksgiving we need to take time to listen – to really listen.  As we visit with family and friends we need to listen to stories and gain wisdom.  We need to learn from others and share with others and give thanks together.

While it is getting more difficult to listen these days, we are not teaching people how to listen and there are some things we can do to improve our listening skills and I want to share a few with you.  These come from Julian Treasure in a TED Talk from July 2011 that I encourage you to listen to.  The first thing he says we need is silence.  Each day create 3 minutes of silence.  Maybe it’s in the morning when the children are gone, or sitting at your desk before lunch, or a walk around the block in the afternoon.  Simply find 3 minutes of silence because silence helps us listen better.

Second, learn to identify all the sounds in the midst when you are in a noisy place.  Julian Treasure calls this mixing.  If you are taking a walk, listen for the cars, or the airplanes, or the sound of the wind.  If you are at the mall, identify the music on the PA system, listen to the voices of the people around you and the sounds of people moving.  At work, listen and identify all the different sounds you hear as people come and go.  Being able to identify and name one voice or track in a busy place helps you listen more carefully when you are talking to someone in a crowd.

Third, savor the mundane sounds you hear every day.  Maybe it’s the chimes on the clock in the hall, or the laughter of children in the neighborhood or the wind through the trees or the roar of an engine. For me, I’m going to tune into the coffee pot making coffee each morning while I lie in bed waking up because it is an awesome sound.  

And there is what Treasure calls R.A.S.A. which stands for Receive, Appreciate, Summarize, Ask.  These are standard practices used in good listening skills.  We first need to receive the message and then we need to express our appreciation for the message and the messenger.  Then we summarize what they have said and last, we ask questions to get more information and make sure we have heard the message accurately.  This active listening skill will not only draw more information from people but will make them feel more valuable and important which builds unity and community and causes us all to be grateful.  These four skills can help us listen better and in their own way they also open the door for more gratitude and praise.  

Let me close by saying that we not only need to listen to those people God has placed in our lives but we also need to listen to those who have gone before us.  In Hebrews 12 it talks about this great cloud of witnesses who surround us and these are the saints who have gone before us and they can keep encouraging us but only if we will listen to them.  We need to stop and listen to the advice of our parents and grandparents who are no longer with us but whose lives of faith and words of love still shape us.  What kind of things did they share with us through the years?  What was important to them and what lessons have we learned from them?  The more we listen to them the more grateful we become for them and for their love and influence in our lives.  We named the saints this year from Faith Church and I am thankful for the lessons each of them taught me, lessons about dedication, service, family and faith.  I am grateful for their witness and grateful that God has welcomed them home.  They can still teach me about gratitude.

So as it says in James 1:19, let us be quick to listen.  Let us listen to others so that we can live lives of gratitude.



Next Steps
Living the Life of Gratitude ~ Listening to Others

1. On this All Saints Day, who are the saints who have gone before you that you are grateful for?  What are their lessons of life and faith that you need to listen to this week?  Write them down and share them with others.

2. Read Psalm 122 and Psalm 133.  Reflect on how they encourage us to listen to others.  Identify how listening to others can help you live a life of gratitude on your faith journey.

3. To improve your listening, practice these listening skills.  (Taken from the Julian Treasure TED Talk, July, 2011, available at www.TED.com)

     Create 3 minutes of silence (or quiet) every day.
     Learn to identify all the channels or voices that you hear in a noisy place.
     Savor the mundane sounds you hear every day.  List three sounds you will pay attention to and
                    listen to them each day.
     Practice the good listening skills of RASA
          Receive the message someone is giving
          Appreciate the message and the messenger
          Summarize the message
          Ask questions to clarify

4. To read through all the Psalms of the Ascent during this series, read Psalm 125 and 127 this week.
What lessons of life and faith do you learn from these psalms?
How might they have helped people on their journey to worship God in Jerusalem?
How can they help you?

Life Is to Enjoy God

I don’t remember what my bedtime was when I was in second or third grade, but I do remember that when that time arrived my sister would always ask my parents what time it was.  They would answer her and then say, Andy, time for bed.  My sister doesn’t remember doing this, we have talked about it, but I do because I was convinced that all the good things in life happened after I went to bed.  All the good tv shows were on after I went to bed.  I didn’t know what those shows were but I knew that they were the best and I was always missing out.  Sometimes that seems like the story of our lives, we are always missing out.

All through school I was never part of the “in” crowd and there were times I felt like I was missing out.  I wasn’t the best and brightest, I wasn’t the most popular or most athletic, I wasn’t strong or clever.  I was nominated by my senior class as most sophisticated – whatever that means when you are in high school – but I wasn’t given that honor.   I’m thinking that out of the three people nominated - I came in third.  What’s funny is that no one knew I was nominated and none of my friends voted for me.  I knew that because I actually had to show my friends that my name was in the year book.

Do you ever come to worship and look around thinking that everyone else has it all together in life and in faith and you just don’t measure up.  You look around and see people who have it all together while your life is falling apart.  You see people strong in their faith while you aren’t sure what you believe or what you are even doing here.  You see families that are living the dream while your family feels more like a nightmare.  You see people God loves and enjoys and blesses while you are sure that all God could feel about you is disappointment.  If this is where you are today – then the first thing you need to know is that you are not alone.  We are all right there with you.  None of us measure up, none of us feels worthy and none of us feel like we have it all together.  On some level we are all broken and scared and come here wondering if God can really love us.  Forget that, we come here wondering if God even notices us or knows us.

For the past six weeks we have been looking at how we can get the most out of life because we often look at our lives and feel like we just aren’t getting it right.  What we have found is that life isn’t found in all the things around us but in a deep relationship with God.  Life is to be loved by God and to love others.  Life is found when we trust God and have peace with God.  Life is being at peace with ourselves and today we are going to learn that life is to enjoy our relationship with God and that only comes when we know that God first enjoys us.  To help us understand that God does enjoy us and is concerned about us we are going to look at the story of Jesus healing a man who was in a situation similar to ours.  John 5:1-15

So here is a man looking to be healed and to get that healing he has to be the first one into the water when it is stirred, but he can never be the first one in because he is not the fastest.  I’m not sure what you picture this scene to be like, but it was not an orderly parade into the water, this was an every person for themselves race to get into the water first.  I think it looked like this.

It most definitely looked like this when Jesus was there because it said that Jesus had gone to Jerusalem for one of the festivals which meant that Jerusalem would have been packed and people from all over Israel would have been gathered at the pool looking for healing.  The man Jesus speaks to has been an invalid for 38 years.  Chances are that he had come to this pool often during that time but he was never fast enough, strong enough or clever enough to find a way to get into the water first.  He is also not popular enough to have everyone help him in or have everyone agree to put him at the head of the line.  In time he begins to think that he is just not good enough.  Sound familiar?  I am not the fastest, the most clever, the most popular, the strongest nor the brightest.  I am just not good enough.

When this is the place that we live, we have no life.  We are like this man, getting nowhere and experiencing nothing and as long as we think that we need to be the fastest, strongest, brightest or most sophisticated to find the fullness of life, we will never find it, but Jesus shows us a different way.  Look at what Jesus says to the man.  Get up, take your mat and walk.  Jesus doesn’t tell him to get into the pool to be healed, he doesn’t mention the pool at all, Jesus offers him a completely different way to find life.  Jesus invites him to just get up and walk and the man tries it and he walks.  Now here is what’s interesting, this man is not responding out of his faith in Jesus because he doesn’t know who this man is, so why does he do what Jesus asked?  That is a really good question that we don’t have an answer for, but maybe he was just sick and tired of trying to find healing and wholeness and life in the ways of the world around him and was ready to try a something new.  Maybe he was sick of the dog-eat-dog race into the pool so was willing to reach out for a different way of finding life.

But the story doesn’t end with his physical healing, it says Jesus went back to find him in the crowds and told him to stop sinning.  When Jesus says this, it’s not the is concerned about the morals of this man’s life as much as he is interested in offering him more in life.  Jesus had something more to offer him than physical healing, he wanted to offer him something better; he wanted to offer him freedom and spiritual wholeness.  Jesus wanted to offer him the fullness of life and so he goes back and seeks him out and points him in the direction of real, true and lasting life so he tells him to stop sinning.

I love how Jesus just tells this like it’s just that easy.  I don’t know about you, but every time I tell myself to stop sinning I just find myself sinning more.  It’s like telling all of you to stop thinking about the color pink – and what color are you all thinking about right now?  PINK.  It’s not that easy, but Jesus just told this man who had been an invalid for 38 years to get up and walk and what did he do?  He got up and walked.  Just like that.  He listened to Jesus, trusted him and followed him and was able to walk, so maybe if we listen to Jesus, trust him and are willing to follow him we can stop sinning – or at least be pointed in the direction of a life free from the guilt, shame and bondage that sin has on us.   The only way to find freedom from sin is to trust and follow Jesus.
The common theme through this series is that life is found in Jesus.  Life is found when we keep our focus on Jesus and when we are willing to follow him.  So freedom from sin and the shame, guilt and bondage of sin can be found in Jesus which means that the life God has for us is found when we are willing to listen and follow Jesus.  Life isn’t found in the dog-eat-dog world in which we live, it’s not found in being the best and brightest, the strongest or the fastest or even the most sophisticated.  Life isn’t found in trying harder, life is found in responding to and following Jesus.

But why does Jesus offer us this life?  Why did Jesus go back to find this man to offer him more than physical healing?  There really is only one explanation – he loved him.  He cared about him.  Jesus liked this man and simply wanted to offer him something more.  Because Jesus enjoyed this man he gave the man the opportunity to enjoy God and get more out of his life.  We enjoy God and get more out of life when we understand that God enjoys us.  God loves us.  God cares about what we are going through which is why God reaches out to us and doesn’t tell us we have to be the best and brightest but offers us a better way of living which is to follow Jesus.  God enjoys us and it is that delight that opens the door for us to fully enjoy God.

How often do we stop to think about how much God enjoys us?  Can we really grab hold of this idea that God delights in us and deeply cares about us?  Many times when we think about coming face to face with God we don’t think about the delight God will have we think only about the disappointment he will feel, but that’s not God – that’s us.  We think God could only be disappointed with us because we don’t measure up but the Bible is clear that God delights in us.  One of my favorite passages in the Bible comes from the little known book of Zephaniah.  Zephaniah was a prophet writing to the people of Israel who were struggling to be faithful to God and often failing.  They were not the best and brightest and they often lived disappointing and faithless lives and yet this is what Zephaniah said to them:
Zephaniah 3:17.  The Lord your God is with you, he is might to save.  He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.

Psalm 18:16-19 also talks about how much God enjoys us.   Even in our worst moments when everything is spiraling out of control – God still delights in us which is why he comes to rescues us.  He sets us on a rock or in a quiet place and shows us a better way to live because he delights in us.  Jesus healed the invalid and then went back to find him in the crowds to offer him something more because he delighted in him and wanted to offer him freedom from sin and point him in the direction of finding true and everlasting life.  

God enjoys us and because he does he seeks us out and points us in the direction of true and everlasting life  That life isn’t found in the world around us.  Life isn’t found in trying to measure up to those around us or trying to be the best and get it all together, life is found when we can enjoy God and the only way to enjoy God is to know that God enjoys us.   If you are here today thinking that you don’t measure up and that God can’t be here for you because you don’t have it all together, the one thing that can make a difference and help you find more in life is to know that God enjoys you.  God delights in you just the way you are right now but God does want more for you so is offering you a better way to live.  Follow Jesus.  Listen to Jesus, trust Jesus and let Jesus forgive you and set you free.

God can change us today if we will allow him to.  Just like the invalid at the pool of Bethesda, God is here to offer us his love, a love that has the power to set us free.  That’s what we call amazing grace.  God’s grace is given to change us because God delights in us and God wants so much more for us.  It is God’s grace that opens our eyes, our hearts and sets us free from sin.  It is God’s grace that finds us when we are lost and points us in the direction of life.  Life is to enjoy God and we can enjoy God because God enjoys us.  God loves us.  God delights in us and God’s grace is here to set us free and bring us the fullness of life.

Next Steps
Life is to enjoy God.

1.  Read the following passages which remind us that God truly enjoys us.
• Psalm 18:16-19 Psalm 149:4
• Micah 7:18-19 Zephaniah 3:17

2.  When the invalid man got up and walked (John 5:1-8), he experienced the full power of God at work in his life.
• Where and when have you experienced the power of God in your life?
• What difference did it make?
• How might you describe the feeling to someone else?
• How do you experience God’s power and presence from day to day?

3.  Jesus told the invalid man to stop sinning.  The more we try to stop sinning the more we are focused on our sin which defeats us.  When it comes to living a life free of sin, Judah Smith says, the secret is not self-control.  It’s not self-discipline.  It’s not self-improvement.  It’s not self at all.  As a matter of fact, self is the problem.  The more we focus on self, the worse we become.  The secret is focusing on Jesus.
• How can you focus more on Jesus this week?
• How can you help your family focus on Jesus?

4.  The Bible says that Jesus is full of grace so as we focus on Jesus we see and experience God’s grace.
• How has God’s amazing grace changed your life?
• Name the freedom God’s grace has given you?
• How can God’s grace help you forgive yourself?

5. What qualities or characteristics of God’s nature and character do you enjoy the most?  Celebrate those this week.

Life is to be at peace with yourself.

Where are the places you go, or the things you do, to help calm your nerves or find some peace?  Do you escape to the mountains or the beach?  Maybe you walk in the woods or go for a run to feel at peace.  Maybe you less active and find peace getting lost in a good book or listening to some music.  Some people love to cook while other people like to eat.  There is even an entire category of food that helps people feel at peace called comfort food and it brings peace because it helps connect us to the traditions or our past.  While we often look to these things to bring peace to our lives, we learned last week that peace isn’t going to be found in the world around us or even inside of us – peace is found in God.

Last week in our Life Is series we learned that life is to be at peace with God and this kind of peace only comes through Jesus because it is only Jesus who brings us back into a relationship with God.  Jesus redeems us and opens the door for us to experience peace which is why the focus of our lives needs to be Jesus.  Peace with God is only half of the equation; however, the other half is having peace with ourselves.  Life is to be at peace with yourself and you won’t be surprised to hear that this peace is also found not in what we do or what we listen to or what we eat or in anything we find in the world around us, it is found in the one we trust an turn to.  Finding peace with ourselves comes from God and to help us understand how we find this peace we are going to look at the beginning and the end, the first chapter of the first book of the Bible and the last chapter of the last book of the Bible, Genesis 1 and Revelation 22.

Revelation 22:13.  Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet and Omega is the last.  So Jesus is saying that he is the first and last, the beginning and end, which means he is eternal and present with us at all times and in all places, but let’s just look at the word first for a moment.  Jesus is first has two meanings.  It means Jesus is before all things, but it also means that Jesus is better than all things.  Think about what it means to be first in a race or a competition.  The first in a race is the fastest.  The first in a competition is the best or most skilled.  The first is usually the most powerful, the most beautiful, and the most talented and that is Jesus, he is first in everything.
Since Jesus is the first in everything we can trust him for everything.  Whatever it is we are worried about – God is bigger.   Whatever problem we face – God is stronger.  Whatever we strive for in this world – God is better.  Jesus is first in all things which means we can trust him and that trust brings us peace.  The Apostle Paul said, if God is for us, who can be against us?  Can any force or power stand against us if God is on our side?  No, because God is bigger and God is stronger because God is first.  Paul says, we are more than conquerors through Christ who loves us.  And he says, I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.  The empty grave of Easter tells us that God is even greater and stronger and more powerful than death which means there really is nothing that can stand against God and if God is with us then we can be confident and at peace in all circumstances.

Not only is Jesus first which means he is bigger, better and stronger than all things, but being first means He is before all things.  Here is where we turn to the first chapter of the Bible, Genesis 1:1.  God is before all things and the very first thing God does is bring peace into chaos.  Genesis 1:2.  God is first so he is the one who brings order out of the chaos.  The deep and darkness it talks about here are symbols of chaos and confusion and it is out of that chaos God brings order.  God brings light into darkness.  God brings the heavens and then the sky and the earth into a formless void.  God brings creatures to live in the waters and then creatures to live on the land and then finally human beings to be stewards of it all.  So God is before all things and God is there to make a way for us.  God is first which means that God goes before us to make a way.

In all things, God goes before us which means that wherever we are in life and what every stress or problems we face – God is already there.  God has been there and God is there waiting to help us find peace.  We hear this in Psalm 139: 5, You hem me in behind and before – you have laid your hand upon me.    God is before us, so no matter what we face, we are facing it with God who already knows the situation and has a plan for our future.  We can be at peace with ourselves if we will trust that God is first.
God going before me was a lesson it took me weeks to learn when I worked in Yellowstone NP, and I had to learn it the hard way.  The summer I woprked in Yellowstone I was told I was going to be working at a location called Lake.  I was going to work in the dining room but I was also going to be part of a ministry team.  When I arrived in the park for my orientation they told me I was going to be working in Grant Village which immediately stressed me out because my ministry position was in Lake.  I didn’t know what to do so I talked to several people about it both at work and with the ministry and after worrying for some time they told me to go ahead to Grant Village and I could work with the ministry team in place there.  It didn’t take me long to realize that the ministry team at Grant Village was awesome and it was exactly where God wanted me.  God had gone before me into the park and provided for me a great team of people to work with, but I still didn’t have peace because I wasn’t very happy with my job.

I worked as a prep cook and dishwasher.  I basically did a little bit of everything and whatever needed to get done, but it wasn’t very exciting so when a job opened up at an ice-cream shop, I applied thinking it would be more fun.  I really thought that was the place for me, until they told me I would have to work on Sundays which conflicted with my responsibility with the ministry.  After a lot of thought, I realized I had to turn it down which didn’t bring me peace but just more anxiety and searching.

I kept looking at other jobs always thinking that something else was going make me happy.  Forget the fact that my kitchen job not only gave me every Sunday and Monday off because of the ministry team,  it also gave me every Saturday off.  That location was the only place where they worked us 4 - 10 hour days so we could have three days off to explore the park and I was the only one who got every weekend off because I had asked for Sunday and Monday and so they gave me Saturday as well.  You would have thought I would have seen God’s hand going before and providing all this for me, but I didn’t.
I kept looking for other jobs thinking a different place and different work would make me happy and bring me peace.  Eventually they offered me a different job and I took it and the first week there, I was miserable.  I didn’t like it at all and prayed for God to make a way for me to go back to the kitchen.  God made it clear that I had gotten myself into that situation and I could get myself out.  So I humbled myself, went to my manager and told him I wanted to go back to the kitchen.  They really didn’t understand, but they agreed and I went back to washing dishes and preparing meals and I never looked for another job that summer.

When I look back on that summer I can see that God had literally gone before me and worked it out for me to work in a kitchen in Grant Village.  It was the absolute best place for me to be and God had actually paved the way for me to be there.  God went first and when I realized that and accepted that, I found peace.

That experience taught me a great lesson in life and faith, God really does go before us and prepares the way for us.  God is there to give strength and wisdom when we need it.  God is there to give direction and guidance when we need it.  God is there to give us patience and love when we need it and God is there to offer us grace when we need it.  Yes, God even goes before us when we fail and need to be forgiven and Peter is the one who teaches this to us.

Before Jesus died, Peter failed to acknowledge that he knew Jesus.  Three times as Jesus was being questioned and condemned by the religious leaders, Peter was also being questioned and he denied that he was a follower of Jesus and that he even knew Jesus.  That failure was painful for Peter and in the days after Jesus died that failure meant Peter had no peace.  We all know what it is like to fail and let down the people we love the most.  It’s horrible and it disturbs us and it robs of peace, and that is where Peter was until the morning of the third day.  On the morning that the women found Jesus’ tomb empty, they were given this message, Mark 16:6-7.

Jesus was going ahead of them.  Once again we see that Jesus is first.  Not only was the first to rise from the grave but he is going before his disciples to Galilee, but did you notice that Jesus singles out Peter?  Jesus specifically wants Peter to know that he will meet him in Galilee.  What peace Peter must have felt when he heard this news from Mary.  Jesus wanted Peter himself to know that he went before him and would meet him in Galilee.  The door of forgiveness was opened.

So Jesus goes before Peter to Galilee but what Jesus does in Galilee is what’s really important because it is in Galilee that Peter is forgiven.  While most of the resurrection appearances of Jesus take place in Jerusalem where the disciples had been staying for the Passover, in John’s gospel we find the disciples back fishing.  They are back in Galilee and it is here that Jesus takes Peter aside and forgives him for the three times that he failed.  So even when we fail, Jesus goes before us to forgive.  Jesus is always first.

What often causes us the most distress and robs of any kind of peace of mind is our own sense of failure.  We are not who we think we should be and we are not who we think God wants us to be and that failure often keeps our hearts and minds unsettled and it can destroy our faith and wreck our lives, but God is telling us here that he goes before us to forgive us.  God is ready to forgive before we even see our need to be forgiven.  God being first to forgive and first to offer mercy and first to reach out in love brings a peace that can bring order to our chaos and light to the darkness of our lives.

There is one more way that Jesus being first can bring us peace and that is remember that no matter we are facing today, Jesus faced it first.  Whatever the stress is, whatever the anxiety is, whatever the temptation is, whatever the suffering, loss and pain is, Jesus experienced it first which means that he is able to understand what we go through and help us through.  Look at Hebrews 4:14-16.

Jesus has experienced our flesh and blood which means has been tempted in ways we have been tempted and has gone through the same suffering and pain. Jesus knows the bitter disappointment of family and friends lettings us down and he has seen great plans fall apart.  Jesus knows about loss, he knows about misunderstanding, he even knows about failure, not that he failed but he saw and experienced the pain of those who failed around him.

Jesus knows what we are going through today which means he is able to understand us our weakness and offer us whatever it is need to move forward in life.  That’s what Jesus does as the great high priest – he goes before us to God so that we can follow him to a place where we can find mercy and grace and strength.  It says we can approach God’s throne with confidence, and it is that confidence and assurance that brings us peace.  

Peace comes in knowing that Jesus is first.  He is alpha and omega, beginning and end, first and last.  He hems us in behind and before.  God was first at creation and brought peace into the deep dark chaos of the world.  Jesus is first which means he is bigger and better than anything and can help us overcome all of our problems and fears.  Jesus is first because he goes before us and prepares the way for us to experience the fullness of life and Jesus is first in that he has experienced all of life before we did which means that no matter what we are experiencing today, Jesus knows and he understands.   Peace comes in knowing that Jesus is first and we find peace by making Jesus first in our hearts and lives.





Next Steps
Life Is to be at peace with yourself

Read the creation story in Genesis 1.  Notice how God was before all things and how God prepared the way for all of life.

Read Revelation 22:13.  What does it mean that Jesus is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and end, the first and last?  Can you say that Jesus is first and last in your life?

Knowing Jesus is first brings us peace:

Jesus is first.  He is bigger and better than all things
• What problem do you face today and how is Jesus bigger?
• What thing are you searching for today and how is Jesus better?
• Where do you feel weak today and how is Jesus stronger?

Jesus is first.  He is before all things.
• What situation can you look back on and see how God went before you to provide?
• How has God gone before you in circumstances you find yourself in today?

Jesus is first.  He has experienced all things.
• What does it mean for Jesus to be your Great High Priest?   (See Hebrews 4:14-16)
• Jesus was tempted in every way we were.  In what temptations and struggles with sin does this help you?
• What does it tell us about God that He sent His son to experience the fullness of our lives and weakness?

Where do you need to put Jesus first in your life so you can be at peace with yourself?