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.
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Living on the Edge - Seperate from the World
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.
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.
Friday, October 7, 2011
Living on the Edge ~ Surrender to God
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.
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.
Monday, September 26, 2011
Our Core Values - 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.
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