Next Steps to Living on the Edge – Serving in Love
Connect:
Make the decision today to join one of the new Sunday School Classes starting Nov. 13.
Mark your calendar for the Church lunch on Sunday Nov. 6,
Invite someone from the church out for coffee, lunch, dinner in order to get to know them better.
Serve:
During a time of prayer this week ask God to help focus your thoughts, eyes and hearts of the needs of those you can serve.
Create a plan for serving those God lays on your heart.
Pray every day for those who are away on our mission trip.
Grow:
Read John chapter 13, and chapters 17-21 and reflect on the devotion we see in Jesus final hours.
Memorize Romans 12:9-13 so that it becomes a natural part of our thinking and our living.
Monday, October 24, 2011
Living on the Edge - Serving in Love
As we have been working our way through Romans 12, I have been doing a lot of reflecting back on my life and I hope that if you have been part of a small group digging into this material that you have also been doing some reflection and sharing. I think it is important for us to reflect back on our lives and identify those times when we have experienced a taste of this life on the edge so we can learn from those moments what it is that makes life so good. This week as I have looked back over my life I have come to realize that the best times of my life have come when I have been part of a community larger than just my family. In fact, one of the most formative times of my life was during High School and what made that time so good for me was being involved in my church youth group. Our youth group had one unspoken rule – everyone was accepted. Everyone was loved – unconditionally. When I didn’t feel like I fit in at school – I fit in at my church and when my friends at church were willing to be my friends at school, that acceptance and friendship lifted me up and made my life better. I didn’t just make it through those difficult years of being a teenager; I thrived during that time because I found a place where I belonged and people who served me in love.
The relationships that formed in my church were powerful and many of them have lasted to this day because we were willing to be real with one another. We laughed together and we cried together. We didn’t have to pretend to be better than we were, or different than we were because we knew that we would be accepted for whom we were, the good and the bad. Our love for one another was sincere and that is what helps strengthen relationships and that’s what forms community and it is that sincere love that helps us experience real life.
Last week we heard from Romans 12:5 that we were created to be part of the body of Christ which means that we belong to one another and the only way we will truly belong to one another is if we are willing to be honest with one another. God places a high value on authenticity, integrity and transparency in the life of the church, in fact, when hypocrisy first tried to enter into the early church, God dealt with it swiftly and harshly. The story is found in Acts 4-5, and it begins with a man named Joseph who sold a field and brought all the proceeds from that sale to the disciples and gave it to the church as an offering. The people were so encouraged by this faithful and generous act that they gave Joseph the name Barnabas, which means son of encouragement.
Now the news of what Barnabas did spread and there was a couple named Ananias and Sapphira who wanted that same recognition and praise, but they didn’t want to pay the price, so they sold some of their property and brought just a part of the proceeds to the leaders of the church as an offering but they each told them it was the full amount. In other words Ananias and Sapphira were not being honest. They wanted to appear loving and generous without have to be loving and generous and when the reality of their hypocrisy was revealed both Ananias and Sapphira were struck dead. The first sin exposed in the life of the early church is hypocrisy and it is dealt with swiftly because God knows that not be honest with one another will not only destroy the church, but it will keep relationship from forming and if strong relationships can’t form, then people are kept from experiencing the fullness of life.
This should be a sobering story for us. Think about what would happen if God judged the church this way today? My guess is that there would be no church because in different ways we are all hypocrites, we all wear masks and struggle to be transparent with one another and the reason is that we are afraid of being rejected and yet if we would be willing to be honest with others the first thing we would find is that we are not alone in our struggles which means that there would be others here to accept us and love us and even help us through the difficult times. One of the hardest things as a pastor is when people come and share with me some of the heartache and struggles of their lives and as they share with me I’ll be thinking, wow, someone else just shared with me that same struggle and I wish that I could get these 2 people together so that they would know that they are not alone and they could maybe even find support and encouragement from one another. There is a freedom that comes with being real with others and there can be healing and strength that comes in being honest and yet these kinds of relationships take time to build because they require of us courage and the building of trust which has its ups and downs.
My hope is that we will be willing to invest time and energy in building relationships in the church. One of the saddest things about the church today is that we have replaced these kinds of authentic relationships with religion. We have replaced people with programs and yet there is not one program in the life of the church that can bring us life – but our connection with people can bring life because we were created to be part of one another’s lives, we were created to be members of one another, and when we are part of that kind of strong community of faith we will experience God’s best and the power of God’s life.
So living on the edge comes when we are part of a real community and for community to be formed our love must be sincere, but it’s not enough to just be honest – we also need to be committed to one another. Romans 12:10. Devotion to one another means being willing to serve in love, it means being there for others when there is a need and while we often give lip service to this kind of devotion, living on the edge means being willing to live it out.
Kathy was a recovering alcoholic who had been sober for a while when her grandmother died. Kathy’s grandmother was an important part of her life and many of us were concerned about how she was going to handle her Grandmother’s death. As I spent time with the family at the funeral home the afternoon of the viewing I saw many people come up to Kathy and offer words of love and grace and make offers of support, but then I noticed Rose. Rose was also a recovering alcoholic and was one of Kathy’s sponsors. Like everyone else, Rose told Kathy, I’ll be here if you need me and Kathy said thanks, but then Rose looked her in the eye and said, no I don’t think you understand. I will be here if you need me. I will be sitting right here all afternoon and I’ll be with you for dinner tonight and then be back here this evening and then I’ll drive you home and pick you up in the morning. I’ll be here for you and she was. Rose helped Kathy through that difficult time by being devoted to her not in words but in actions. That’s what the church needs to look like. We give too much lip service to devotion instead of actual service and sacrifice to those who are in need. I have a feeling that if we were to step out in faith and really commit ourselves to one another it would stretch us in many different ways and that kind of stretching might make us uncomfortable, but it will also be thrilling and life giving.
Think about Jesus, he didn’t just say he would love his disciples to the end; he loved his disciples to the very end. Just hours before his death we find Jesus on his knees washing the disciple’s feet. Then he offers them bread and wine at the Passover table, prays for them in the garden, forgives them as they run away when the soldiers come and then carries the cross from them because they are too weak to carry it on their own. The last 24 hours of Jesus’ life he is living on the edge and he shows us what true devotion looks like - it is radical and sacrificial, but I’m thinking that when we are willing to be that radical in our service and love – like Jesus, we will also experience the power of God in a way that will transform our lives. Living on the edge isn’t always easy, but it is where we will find God and if God is there – life is there.
Living on the edge means being part of an authentic community, it means being devoted to one another and being willing to serve in love and the time for us to do this is now. Romans 12:11 some translations record this as never lacking in zeal, which means that we need to be willing to serve God and others in love today. Too often we allow ourselves to wait and we convince ourselves that we can serve tomorrow or the next day but it is my experience that if we put it off until tomorrow it won’t get done at all. Sometimes it doesn’t get done because we are lazy and will just keep putting it off, but sometimes it won’t get done because the moment is gone and we will not have that opportunity again.
I may have shared this story before, but one of the images that haunts me to this day is of a bag lady in NYC who I saw huddled between two buildings and why I can’t get her image of our of mind or heart is because I didn’t stop and help. Living on the edge would have been for me to stop and give her my coat. I would have been cold for the rest of the day – but I would have been so excited that I made a real difference in someone’s life that being cold for a few hours would not have mattered. I never got that moment back and sometimes I wonder how many needs go unmet and how many people struggle and suffer because God’s people don’t respond to the promptings of the Holy Spirit and serve in love when God says serve.
I know that when I stand before Jesus and have to given an account of my life, all I will be able to do when that moment comes is ask God for his forgiveness. I have a feeling that it won’t be the sins we have committed that will weigh down our hearts as much as our sins of omission, that list of things God laid on our hearts to do and yet we didn’t do. This is why being able to hear the voice of God is so important. We need to hear God clearly when he calls us to serve in love because he wants us to be the ones who will meet the needs we see in others. The beautiful thing is that when we step out to meet those needs – we find life.
The last thing we need to remember as we seek to love and serve one another is that to accomplish this our focus always needs to be upward and outward. Look at Romans 12:12-13, verse 12 shows us that we need to look up and verse 13 shows us we need to look out. To be able to make serving in love a way of life and not just a program or event is to make sure our focus is first on God and Romans 12:12 shows us what a life that is focused on God looks like, we rejoice in hope, we are patient through the difficult times and maybe above all we pray. When this is our focus and way of life we will be able to serve in love not once in a while but all the time.
And then something happens as our focus becomes more and more fixed on God, the more we look to God, the more God helps us see the needs of others. Go back to the last 24 hours of Jesus - Jesus focus was during this time was God. At the table he gave thanks to God, in the garden he prayed to God and on the cross he cried out to God. Jesus is focused on God, and yet through that entire time Jesus is also focused not on himself but the needs of others. At the table Jesus gave himself to his friends in love. In the garden Jesus saw his friends sleeping and prayed for them; on the cross Jesus saw the need of his mother to be connected to a new family. From the cross Jesus also saw the needs and heard the cry of a thief and offered him life and salvation. As Jesus looked to God, God helped Jesus see the needs of others and as our hearts look to God our eyes will focus in on the needs of those around us and our minds will uncover the ways God is calling us to meet those needs.
So living on the edge comes when we are willing to invest ourselves in authentic relationship that help build up the church and it comes when we step out in faith to serve one another in love, and as Paul says, the time to live this way is now. Don’t put it off, don’t wait another day, serve in love today.
The relationships that formed in my church were powerful and many of them have lasted to this day because we were willing to be real with one another. We laughed together and we cried together. We didn’t have to pretend to be better than we were, or different than we were because we knew that we would be accepted for whom we were, the good and the bad. Our love for one another was sincere and that is what helps strengthen relationships and that’s what forms community and it is that sincere love that helps us experience real life.
Last week we heard from Romans 12:5 that we were created to be part of the body of Christ which means that we belong to one another and the only way we will truly belong to one another is if we are willing to be honest with one another. God places a high value on authenticity, integrity and transparency in the life of the church, in fact, when hypocrisy first tried to enter into the early church, God dealt with it swiftly and harshly. The story is found in Acts 4-5, and it begins with a man named Joseph who sold a field and brought all the proceeds from that sale to the disciples and gave it to the church as an offering. The people were so encouraged by this faithful and generous act that they gave Joseph the name Barnabas, which means son of encouragement.
Now the news of what Barnabas did spread and there was a couple named Ananias and Sapphira who wanted that same recognition and praise, but they didn’t want to pay the price, so they sold some of their property and brought just a part of the proceeds to the leaders of the church as an offering but they each told them it was the full amount. In other words Ananias and Sapphira were not being honest. They wanted to appear loving and generous without have to be loving and generous and when the reality of their hypocrisy was revealed both Ananias and Sapphira were struck dead. The first sin exposed in the life of the early church is hypocrisy and it is dealt with swiftly because God knows that not be honest with one another will not only destroy the church, but it will keep relationship from forming and if strong relationships can’t form, then people are kept from experiencing the fullness of life.
This should be a sobering story for us. Think about what would happen if God judged the church this way today? My guess is that there would be no church because in different ways we are all hypocrites, we all wear masks and struggle to be transparent with one another and the reason is that we are afraid of being rejected and yet if we would be willing to be honest with others the first thing we would find is that we are not alone in our struggles which means that there would be others here to accept us and love us and even help us through the difficult times. One of the hardest things as a pastor is when people come and share with me some of the heartache and struggles of their lives and as they share with me I’ll be thinking, wow, someone else just shared with me that same struggle and I wish that I could get these 2 people together so that they would know that they are not alone and they could maybe even find support and encouragement from one another. There is a freedom that comes with being real with others and there can be healing and strength that comes in being honest and yet these kinds of relationships take time to build because they require of us courage and the building of trust which has its ups and downs.
My hope is that we will be willing to invest time and energy in building relationships in the church. One of the saddest things about the church today is that we have replaced these kinds of authentic relationships with religion. We have replaced people with programs and yet there is not one program in the life of the church that can bring us life – but our connection with people can bring life because we were created to be part of one another’s lives, we were created to be members of one another, and when we are part of that kind of strong community of faith we will experience God’s best and the power of God’s life.
So living on the edge comes when we are part of a real community and for community to be formed our love must be sincere, but it’s not enough to just be honest – we also need to be committed to one another. Romans 12:10. Devotion to one another means being willing to serve in love, it means being there for others when there is a need and while we often give lip service to this kind of devotion, living on the edge means being willing to live it out.
Kathy was a recovering alcoholic who had been sober for a while when her grandmother died. Kathy’s grandmother was an important part of her life and many of us were concerned about how she was going to handle her Grandmother’s death. As I spent time with the family at the funeral home the afternoon of the viewing I saw many people come up to Kathy and offer words of love and grace and make offers of support, but then I noticed Rose. Rose was also a recovering alcoholic and was one of Kathy’s sponsors. Like everyone else, Rose told Kathy, I’ll be here if you need me and Kathy said thanks, but then Rose looked her in the eye and said, no I don’t think you understand. I will be here if you need me. I will be sitting right here all afternoon and I’ll be with you for dinner tonight and then be back here this evening and then I’ll drive you home and pick you up in the morning. I’ll be here for you and she was. Rose helped Kathy through that difficult time by being devoted to her not in words but in actions. That’s what the church needs to look like. We give too much lip service to devotion instead of actual service and sacrifice to those who are in need. I have a feeling that if we were to step out in faith and really commit ourselves to one another it would stretch us in many different ways and that kind of stretching might make us uncomfortable, but it will also be thrilling and life giving.
Think about Jesus, he didn’t just say he would love his disciples to the end; he loved his disciples to the very end. Just hours before his death we find Jesus on his knees washing the disciple’s feet. Then he offers them bread and wine at the Passover table, prays for them in the garden, forgives them as they run away when the soldiers come and then carries the cross from them because they are too weak to carry it on their own. The last 24 hours of Jesus’ life he is living on the edge and he shows us what true devotion looks like - it is radical and sacrificial, but I’m thinking that when we are willing to be that radical in our service and love – like Jesus, we will also experience the power of God in a way that will transform our lives. Living on the edge isn’t always easy, but it is where we will find God and if God is there – life is there.
Living on the edge means being part of an authentic community, it means being devoted to one another and being willing to serve in love and the time for us to do this is now. Romans 12:11 some translations record this as never lacking in zeal, which means that we need to be willing to serve God and others in love today. Too often we allow ourselves to wait and we convince ourselves that we can serve tomorrow or the next day but it is my experience that if we put it off until tomorrow it won’t get done at all. Sometimes it doesn’t get done because we are lazy and will just keep putting it off, but sometimes it won’t get done because the moment is gone and we will not have that opportunity again.
I may have shared this story before, but one of the images that haunts me to this day is of a bag lady in NYC who I saw huddled between two buildings and why I can’t get her image of our of mind or heart is because I didn’t stop and help. Living on the edge would have been for me to stop and give her my coat. I would have been cold for the rest of the day – but I would have been so excited that I made a real difference in someone’s life that being cold for a few hours would not have mattered. I never got that moment back and sometimes I wonder how many needs go unmet and how many people struggle and suffer because God’s people don’t respond to the promptings of the Holy Spirit and serve in love when God says serve.
I know that when I stand before Jesus and have to given an account of my life, all I will be able to do when that moment comes is ask God for his forgiveness. I have a feeling that it won’t be the sins we have committed that will weigh down our hearts as much as our sins of omission, that list of things God laid on our hearts to do and yet we didn’t do. This is why being able to hear the voice of God is so important. We need to hear God clearly when he calls us to serve in love because he wants us to be the ones who will meet the needs we see in others. The beautiful thing is that when we step out to meet those needs – we find life.
The last thing we need to remember as we seek to love and serve one another is that to accomplish this our focus always needs to be upward and outward. Look at Romans 12:12-13, verse 12 shows us that we need to look up and verse 13 shows us we need to look out. To be able to make serving in love a way of life and not just a program or event is to make sure our focus is first on God and Romans 12:12 shows us what a life that is focused on God looks like, we rejoice in hope, we are patient through the difficult times and maybe above all we pray. When this is our focus and way of life we will be able to serve in love not once in a while but all the time.
And then something happens as our focus becomes more and more fixed on God, the more we look to God, the more God helps us see the needs of others. Go back to the last 24 hours of Jesus - Jesus focus was during this time was God. At the table he gave thanks to God, in the garden he prayed to God and on the cross he cried out to God. Jesus is focused on God, and yet through that entire time Jesus is also focused not on himself but the needs of others. At the table Jesus gave himself to his friends in love. In the garden Jesus saw his friends sleeping and prayed for them; on the cross Jesus saw the need of his mother to be connected to a new family. From the cross Jesus also saw the needs and heard the cry of a thief and offered him life and salvation. As Jesus looked to God, God helped Jesus see the needs of others and as our hearts look to God our eyes will focus in on the needs of those around us and our minds will uncover the ways God is calling us to meet those needs.
So living on the edge comes when we are willing to invest ourselves in authentic relationship that help build up the church and it comes when we step out in faith to serve one another in love, and as Paul says, the time to live this way is now. Don’t put it off, don’t wait another day, serve in love today.
Next Steps to Seeing our Real Selves
Connect:
Ask God to help you see the real you, both the good and the bad.
Humble yourself and confess the bad. Acknowledge, celebrate and give thanks for all the good.
Help others see themselves the way God does by offering them positive words of affirmation. Make it a goal to say something positive and affirming to every person in your family (place of business or circle of friends) once a day this week. Seek out those who may struggle with only seeing the negative and offer them positive words of encouragement.
Serve:
Romans 12 identifies 7 gifts given by God: prophecy, serving, teaching, encouraging, giving, leadership and showing mercy. Identify what your believe your top three gifts might be
How are you using these gifts in your family, the church and community? If you aren’t, what are three specific ways you could use them in the next month:
Grow:
Use the following scriptures to help you see the real you:
Psalm 139:13-17
Romans 8:31-32
Isaiah 61:10
Romans 8:38-39
Philippians 2:13-14
Ephesians 2:10
Ask God to help you see the real you, both the good and the bad.
Humble yourself and confess the bad. Acknowledge, celebrate and give thanks for all the good.
Help others see themselves the way God does by offering them positive words of affirmation. Make it a goal to say something positive and affirming to every person in your family (place of business or circle of friends) once a day this week. Seek out those who may struggle with only seeing the negative and offer them positive words of encouragement.
Serve:
Romans 12 identifies 7 gifts given by God: prophecy, serving, teaching, encouraging, giving, leadership and showing mercy. Identify what your believe your top three gifts might be
How are you using these gifts in your family, the church and community? If you aren’t, what are three specific ways you could use them in the next month:
Grow:
Use the following scriptures to help you see the real you:
Psalm 139:13-17
Romans 8:31-32
Isaiah 61:10
Romans 8:38-39
Philippians 2:13-14
Ephesians 2:10
Living on the Edge - Seeing our Real Selves
After my graduation from college, my first real job was as an assistant manager of a 3 screen movie theater in South Bend, IN. I enjoyed the job and honestly, I did pretty well, well enough that my district manager offered me jobs at larger theaters in the greater Chicago area, but at the time I knew I didn’t want to live in a large metropolitan area and I knew I didn’t want to move away from my family in South Bend, so I stayed put in that little theater, and eventually moved to a 6 screen theater across the street. I was content, but I knew that I wasn’t going to be a movie theater manager all my life. It was a good job and in so many ways that experience helped prepare me for what was to come later in my life because I learned a lot about business and management and working with the public, but during those years I just knew I wasn’t really a movie theater manager. God had created me for something else, but I didn’t know what. I was struggling to figure out who I was and I think that is one of the most fundamental questions we all ask ourselves in life, maybe many times in life. Who am I? We need to come to terms with our real identity if we are going to experience God’s best for us and live a life on the edge.
Now we answer this question in many different ways. We define ourselves by what we do: I’m a pastor, a manger, a teacher, a mechanic, student or a nurse, and at times we define ourselves by what we don’t do: I’m retired, I used to be a teacher, manager or nurse. We also define ourselves by the relationships in our lives: I’m a mother or father; I’m a sister or brother, an aunt or uncle, and we define ourselves by our gifts, interests and abilities; I’m a runner, a musician, an artist, or a gardener. We define ourselves in so many different ways and yet I don’t believe we will ever discover who we really are until we begin to define ourselves and see ourselves the way that God does.
Now you might think this question should have been addressed the first week of our series, but there is a reason we are talking about it today. We will never discover our real identity until we are first willing to surrender to God and then be willing to separate ourselves from the world so that we can hear the voice of God. Paul lays out a journey for us in Romans 12 and surrendering to God and ordering our life in such a way that we are able to hear God’s voice of are the steps that will help us discover our real selves because who God created us to be is not be defined by the world and the people around us, it is not determined by our family and friends, it is not even defined by ourselves. For us to experience God’s best and discover who we really are, we need to be defined by God which is why Paul says to us in Romans 12:3 that we need to think of ourselves with sober judgment. Now sober judgment doesn’t mean we are critical and harsh with ourselves, it means we need a clear heart and mind; we need a mind separated from the messages of the world and a heart fully surrendered to God.
One of the reasons it is so important to have a clear heart and mind is because the world wants us see ourselves in one of two ways – either better than we really are or much, much worse. If we go back to the creation story, we see that the temptation that the serpent used to cloud Adam and Eve’s mind was to get them to think of themselves more highly than they ought. The serpent, who remember is Satan, told Adam and Eve that they could be like God. He appealed to their pride and ego and got them thinking more highly of themselves and that voice is still alive and well today.
There are all kinds of voices telling us that we are OK on our own and that we don’t need anyone or anything in order to have a great life, but the truth is that we all have weaknesses and we all need help and support from others. If we want an accurate view of ourselves we need a dose of humility. We can’t think more highly of ourselves than we ought to, but we also can’t put ourselves down. Humility does not mean thinking less of ourselves; it means thinking honestly about ourselves. We can’t allow our humility to turn into humiliation which means we can’t allow all the negative messages of the world to define who we are and this might actually be a bigger problem for us than pride.
Studies have shown that we are actually wired to receive bad messages more than good ones and my guess is that if we reflect on our own lives we would agree that this is true. We remember and pay attention to all the bad stuff that happens in our lives more than we do the good. We listen to the bad comments more closely, remember them longer and weigh them more heavily in assessing situations including what we think about ourselves and this all works to shape how we define who we are.
I don’t know about you, but I can still hear the name calling of the kids on the bus and the playground who called me fat and still remember what it feels like to be picked me last in gym class every time. Those negative words and actions shape us and define how we see ourselves. We may have been told 1000 times that we are valuable and wonderful and uniquely made, but it is the one critical remark that we remember, hold on to and use to determine our value and self identity. So seeing ourselves with a clear mind doesn’t just mean looking at ourselves with humility, it also means looking at ourselves to see the intrinsic value and worth that God has placed in us all.
Paul gives us a hint of this in Romans 12:3 when he talks about the grace and the faith that has been given to us. Why does God give us grace and faith in the first place? Isn’t it because we are valuable to him and he wants us to see ourselves for who we really? Isn’t it God’s grace and faith which help us see ourselves as deeply loved children born from his heart and mind? God gives us grace and faith so we can begin to identify ourselves as his children. Do you know that there are only 2 times when God speaks clearly in the gospels, and do you know what he says? In each instance God is talking to Jesus and he says to him, “you are my beloved son and with you I am well pleased.” Think about it – even Jesus needed to hear from God who he really was. Even Jesus needed that sense of love, affirmation and assurance that he was a child, the child, of God.
Now what’s really interesting about those two moments of God speaking to Jesus are when they occurred. The first was at Jesus baptism as he is coming up from the waters of the Jordan River, and the second was on the Mt. of Transfiguration when Jesus’ physical presence is transfigured into all the glory and power of God. So the first time God gives definition to who Jesus really is comes after Jesus has surrendered himself fully to God in baptism. Surrender is a necessary first step in order for us to hear God define our lives. The second time is on the top of a mountain when Jesus, Peter, James and John have gone off by themselves – they have separated themselves from all the noise of the world and the chaos of crowds in order to hear the voice of God. So surrender and separating ourselves from the world are the essential steps we need to take if we are going to hear God’s voice revealing to us our real identity. I just love how God’s word only fits together and gives witness to these deep truths of God.
So seeing our real identity requires clear thinking so we can honestly confront our pride, sin and failures but also see who we are as deeply valued and unconditionally loved children of God and if we are children then part of our identity is that we belong to a family. What’s important about this is that we need to understand that experiencing God’s best for us doesn’t take place in isolation because we were created to belong. We were all created with a strong need to belong and that is because we were created to be in relationship – both with God and others – and belonging is really all about relationship.
From the time we are little we want to know that we belong to someone and something. We need to be part of a family, we want to have friends and be part of team. We want to know that our lives matter to someone and that we are noticed. We see the evidence of this strong need to belong so clearly in children and youth in a negative way as they give in to peer pressure and do things they might never do on their own just to fit in. But the need to belong is just as strong in adults as well.
We join clubs and seek out small groups and want to be part of teams because we have this need to belong and around here we see this desire to belong lived out on a very large scale every Saturday there is a home PSU game. 100,000+ people will all get together and wear the same 2 colors because they want to belong to something big and exciting called Penn State Football. We have a need to belong and what God is saying is that we have a place to belong that is not only big and exciting but it is life giving and transforming and when we see that we belong to the body of Christ - the church – we begin to experience real life. Romans 12:4-5.
So we are members of one another which not only means that we are connected to one another, but it means we have a responsibility to one another. We need to start thinking about church not as a place where we come to get our needs met – that is the consumer mind set of the world that we need to separate ourselves from –but as a place where we are willing to give and receive. While there is a lot that we can receive from one another in the church - acceptance, grace, support, help and encouragement, we also have a lot to give and when we start to connect with one another by giving and receiving we begin to see how we belong and that helps us understand who we are as God’s children. We will look at this more next week as we talk about serving in love in the context of an authentic community, but for now it is important for us to see that part of discovering our real identity and experiencing a life on the edge is seeing ourselves as a vital part of God’s family.
So we are children of God who belong to God’s family, but God also has a purpose for us and God gives us the gifts we need to live out that purpose, that what we see in the rest of Romans 12:6-9. The first thing to notice here is that we all have a gift. Paul doesn’t say you might have a gift or God might have a plan for you – it says, we have gifts - period. We each have a gift and living on the edge will come when we identify that gift and begin using it for God’s purpose. The other thing to notice is that there are different gifts. We are not all gifted the same way so we can’t look at others to define what gift God has given to us – we have to look to God, which again is why surrender and separating ourselves from the world in order to hear God’s voice is so important.
So let’s look at these 7 gifts for a moment. There is:
Prophecy – which is speaking God’s truth to a situation.
Serving – which literally means waiting on tables, so it is a practical service that meets people’s needs.
Teaching – which is helping people understand who God is and how God works in our lives and in this world.
Exhorting which is encouraging others and lifting them up. It is inspiring people to be more than they thought they could be and all God created them to be.
Giving – which means giving our time and talents and resources in ways that will better people’s lives and our world.
Leadership - which is moving people from one place to a better place
Compassion – which is reaching out to care for people in times of need.
Now do you notice something about all these gifts? They all focus on others - not us. When we use these gifts we are helping those around us experience more in life and that’s the work which will bring a deeper sense of meaning and purpose in life because that is the work of God. Look at the cross for a moment, the work of Jesus on the cross was never about himself. Jesus himself gained nothing by carrying the cross - in fact he died on the cross, Jesus gained nothing and yet we gained everything. When Jesus says that we will find life when we lay down our lives and take up a cross he is saying that we will experience real meaning and purpose in life and God’s best in our lives when we seek to gain nothing for ourselves but give others everything as we use the gifts God has given us. In many ways experiencing life on the edge comes when we take all that God has given us and use it for the care and well being of others, and what Paul is saying here is that when we live this way, we find our real selves.
I want to invite you to use the next steps in the bulletin this week to help you identify the real you. These steps can help us see ourselves the way God does, they can help us discover and use the gifts God has given us and therefore continue to help us experience living life on the edge.
Now we answer this question in many different ways. We define ourselves by what we do: I’m a pastor, a manger, a teacher, a mechanic, student or a nurse, and at times we define ourselves by what we don’t do: I’m retired, I used to be a teacher, manager or nurse. We also define ourselves by the relationships in our lives: I’m a mother or father; I’m a sister or brother, an aunt or uncle, and we define ourselves by our gifts, interests and abilities; I’m a runner, a musician, an artist, or a gardener. We define ourselves in so many different ways and yet I don’t believe we will ever discover who we really are until we begin to define ourselves and see ourselves the way that God does.
Now you might think this question should have been addressed the first week of our series, but there is a reason we are talking about it today. We will never discover our real identity until we are first willing to surrender to God and then be willing to separate ourselves from the world so that we can hear the voice of God. Paul lays out a journey for us in Romans 12 and surrendering to God and ordering our life in such a way that we are able to hear God’s voice of are the steps that will help us discover our real selves because who God created us to be is not be defined by the world and the people around us, it is not determined by our family and friends, it is not even defined by ourselves. For us to experience God’s best and discover who we really are, we need to be defined by God which is why Paul says to us in Romans 12:3 that we need to think of ourselves with sober judgment. Now sober judgment doesn’t mean we are critical and harsh with ourselves, it means we need a clear heart and mind; we need a mind separated from the messages of the world and a heart fully surrendered to God.
One of the reasons it is so important to have a clear heart and mind is because the world wants us see ourselves in one of two ways – either better than we really are or much, much worse. If we go back to the creation story, we see that the temptation that the serpent used to cloud Adam and Eve’s mind was to get them to think of themselves more highly than they ought. The serpent, who remember is Satan, told Adam and Eve that they could be like God. He appealed to their pride and ego and got them thinking more highly of themselves and that voice is still alive and well today.
There are all kinds of voices telling us that we are OK on our own and that we don’t need anyone or anything in order to have a great life, but the truth is that we all have weaknesses and we all need help and support from others. If we want an accurate view of ourselves we need a dose of humility. We can’t think more highly of ourselves than we ought to, but we also can’t put ourselves down. Humility does not mean thinking less of ourselves; it means thinking honestly about ourselves. We can’t allow our humility to turn into humiliation which means we can’t allow all the negative messages of the world to define who we are and this might actually be a bigger problem for us than pride.
Studies have shown that we are actually wired to receive bad messages more than good ones and my guess is that if we reflect on our own lives we would agree that this is true. We remember and pay attention to all the bad stuff that happens in our lives more than we do the good. We listen to the bad comments more closely, remember them longer and weigh them more heavily in assessing situations including what we think about ourselves and this all works to shape how we define who we are.
I don’t know about you, but I can still hear the name calling of the kids on the bus and the playground who called me fat and still remember what it feels like to be picked me last in gym class every time. Those negative words and actions shape us and define how we see ourselves. We may have been told 1000 times that we are valuable and wonderful and uniquely made, but it is the one critical remark that we remember, hold on to and use to determine our value and self identity. So seeing ourselves with a clear mind doesn’t just mean looking at ourselves with humility, it also means looking at ourselves to see the intrinsic value and worth that God has placed in us all.
Paul gives us a hint of this in Romans 12:3 when he talks about the grace and the faith that has been given to us. Why does God give us grace and faith in the first place? Isn’t it because we are valuable to him and he wants us to see ourselves for who we really? Isn’t it God’s grace and faith which help us see ourselves as deeply loved children born from his heart and mind? God gives us grace and faith so we can begin to identify ourselves as his children. Do you know that there are only 2 times when God speaks clearly in the gospels, and do you know what he says? In each instance God is talking to Jesus and he says to him, “you are my beloved son and with you I am well pleased.” Think about it – even Jesus needed to hear from God who he really was. Even Jesus needed that sense of love, affirmation and assurance that he was a child, the child, of God.
Now what’s really interesting about those two moments of God speaking to Jesus are when they occurred. The first was at Jesus baptism as he is coming up from the waters of the Jordan River, and the second was on the Mt. of Transfiguration when Jesus’ physical presence is transfigured into all the glory and power of God. So the first time God gives definition to who Jesus really is comes after Jesus has surrendered himself fully to God in baptism. Surrender is a necessary first step in order for us to hear God define our lives. The second time is on the top of a mountain when Jesus, Peter, James and John have gone off by themselves – they have separated themselves from all the noise of the world and the chaos of crowds in order to hear the voice of God. So surrender and separating ourselves from the world are the essential steps we need to take if we are going to hear God’s voice revealing to us our real identity. I just love how God’s word only fits together and gives witness to these deep truths of God.
So seeing our real identity requires clear thinking so we can honestly confront our pride, sin and failures but also see who we are as deeply valued and unconditionally loved children of God and if we are children then part of our identity is that we belong to a family. What’s important about this is that we need to understand that experiencing God’s best for us doesn’t take place in isolation because we were created to belong. We were all created with a strong need to belong and that is because we were created to be in relationship – both with God and others – and belonging is really all about relationship.
From the time we are little we want to know that we belong to someone and something. We need to be part of a family, we want to have friends and be part of team. We want to know that our lives matter to someone and that we are noticed. We see the evidence of this strong need to belong so clearly in children and youth in a negative way as they give in to peer pressure and do things they might never do on their own just to fit in. But the need to belong is just as strong in adults as well.
We join clubs and seek out small groups and want to be part of teams because we have this need to belong and around here we see this desire to belong lived out on a very large scale every Saturday there is a home PSU game. 100,000+ people will all get together and wear the same 2 colors because they want to belong to something big and exciting called Penn State Football. We have a need to belong and what God is saying is that we have a place to belong that is not only big and exciting but it is life giving and transforming and when we see that we belong to the body of Christ - the church – we begin to experience real life. Romans 12:4-5.
So we are members of one another which not only means that we are connected to one another, but it means we have a responsibility to one another. We need to start thinking about church not as a place where we come to get our needs met – that is the consumer mind set of the world that we need to separate ourselves from –but as a place where we are willing to give and receive. While there is a lot that we can receive from one another in the church - acceptance, grace, support, help and encouragement, we also have a lot to give and when we start to connect with one another by giving and receiving we begin to see how we belong and that helps us understand who we are as God’s children. We will look at this more next week as we talk about serving in love in the context of an authentic community, but for now it is important for us to see that part of discovering our real identity and experiencing a life on the edge is seeing ourselves as a vital part of God’s family.
So we are children of God who belong to God’s family, but God also has a purpose for us and God gives us the gifts we need to live out that purpose, that what we see in the rest of Romans 12:6-9. The first thing to notice here is that we all have a gift. Paul doesn’t say you might have a gift or God might have a plan for you – it says, we have gifts - period. We each have a gift and living on the edge will come when we identify that gift and begin using it for God’s purpose. The other thing to notice is that there are different gifts. We are not all gifted the same way so we can’t look at others to define what gift God has given to us – we have to look to God, which again is why surrender and separating ourselves from the world in order to hear God’s voice is so important.
So let’s look at these 7 gifts for a moment. There is:
Prophecy – which is speaking God’s truth to a situation.
Serving – which literally means waiting on tables, so it is a practical service that meets people’s needs.
Teaching – which is helping people understand who God is and how God works in our lives and in this world.
Exhorting which is encouraging others and lifting them up. It is inspiring people to be more than they thought they could be and all God created them to be.
Giving – which means giving our time and talents and resources in ways that will better people’s lives and our world.
Leadership - which is moving people from one place to a better place
Compassion – which is reaching out to care for people in times of need.
Now do you notice something about all these gifts? They all focus on others - not us. When we use these gifts we are helping those around us experience more in life and that’s the work which will bring a deeper sense of meaning and purpose in life because that is the work of God. Look at the cross for a moment, the work of Jesus on the cross was never about himself. Jesus himself gained nothing by carrying the cross - in fact he died on the cross, Jesus gained nothing and yet we gained everything. When Jesus says that we will find life when we lay down our lives and take up a cross he is saying that we will experience real meaning and purpose in life and God’s best in our lives when we seek to gain nothing for ourselves but give others everything as we use the gifts God has given us. In many ways experiencing life on the edge comes when we take all that God has given us and use it for the care and well being of others, and what Paul is saying here is that when we live this way, we find our real selves.
I want to invite you to use the next steps in the bulletin this week to help you identify the real you. These steps can help us see ourselves the way God does, they can help us discover and use the gifts God has given us and therefore continue to help us experience living life on the edge.
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