The Forgiveness of Jesus - A Forgiving Father

The season of Lent is the 6 week period leading up to Easter, and in the life of the church, this has been a time for followers of Jesus to focus on a more disciplined life.  People often talk about giving things up, or starting new habits and practices, but this year we want to look at the discipline of forgiveness and to do this we are going to look at the forgiveness of Jesus.  Much of what Jesus did during his ministry was to forgive people and to talk about the power of God’s forgiveness in our lives.  So we want to take some time to reflect on this during these few weeks. 

What does God’s forgiveness look like in our lives?  How does God’s forgiveness impact us and what does it look like for us to forgive others? While taking time to think about all of this is always a good thing, this year it seems that this focus is more desperately needed.  When our world, and church, and at times our own families are so divided in so many ways, learning what forgiveness means can bring healing.  One of the foundational truths about forgiveness we will see today is that forgiveness only comes with humility and our being willing to turn to Jesus, and now more than ever, people need to come together with humility and turn to Jesus.

One of the most important things to understand about forgiveness is that it is not defined by how we treat one another, but how God has treated us.  God defines forgiveness.  God sets the standard and Jesus shows us what God’s forgiveness looks like by telling the story of a forgiving father, or a story we might know as the prodigal son.  The story is found in Luke 15 and it begins when a son, in arrogance and pride, only thinks about what he wants, and what is good for him, and asks his father to give him his share of the family fortune.  While this might not seem like a big deal, in Jesus’ day, this was a huge offense.  The son might as well have said, Dad, I wish you were dead so I could have your money now. 

Instead of pointing out the offense of his son, shaming him, or punishing him, it says the father divided his property between his two sons and gave the younger son his share of the money.  Now here’s the thing, the only way the father could have done this would have been if he sold what he owned so he could give his younger son his share in cash.  When he sold his property, the people would have started asking why, which means his son’s request would have been well known in the community.  Instead of shaming his son and holding him up to public scorn, we see the father begin to take on the shame of his son.  He gave his son the freedom and the money that he wanted. 

The son then goes off and lived a very wild life.  He squandered all he had on food, drink, and prostitutes for himself and his friends.  When the money was gone, so were his friends and he had nothing.  With no one to take him in, he found a job feeding pigs.  For a Jewish man, this would have been as low as it gets.  Pigs were unclean and to touch them or interact with them in any way would have been unheard of, but this man didn’t just feed them, he longed to eat what they were eating.  It doesn’t get any worse than this, and this is where we pick up the story.  Luke 15:17-20a.

So he heads home and this young man has no idea how his father might react when he gets there.  While he is biologically a son, this young man has cut himself off from his father when he asked for his inheritance.  He has brought shame on himself, his father, and his family, and he knows that he no longer deserves any place in his father’s house, except maybe as a slave, or servant.  He also knows that the community can judge him for his behavior.  Because of his actions, any man in the community could have turned him away.  In fact, if someone from the community had seen him coming home, they could have run out to him and broken a clay jar in front of him, it would have meant that he was cut off from their community and could not return. 

I’m not sure I have ever thought much about this young man’s journey home and what he must have been thinking, but I know what I have thought on my own journey back to God.  Will God accept me?  I have failed God again.  I have messed up my life again.  I have allowed myself to fall into bad thinking, hurtful language, and sinful behavior again.  What right do I have to return to God and ask for anything?  What right do I have to even turn to God?  None.  I have no rights at all.  There is no reason why God should accept me.  This had to have been some of what this young man was thinking.  Will my father acknowledge me?  What about the rest of my family?  What about the community?  Did he return wondering who the first one might be to run out and smash a pot in front of him? 

But the son returns and we often think of this as the first step in forgiveness.  We often think forgiveness begins when we acknowledge our sin and return home, or turn back to God.  We call this act repentance, a turning away from sin and back to God, and as we can see here that it is an important step in forgiveness, in fact, the son couldn’t have been forgiven if he hadn’t returned home, but this is not the first step in forgiveness.  What happened before this is that the son remembered the character and love of his father.  He remembered how his father had loved him when he had offended him in asking for his inheritance.  He remembered how his father was willing to be bad-mouthed and shamed when he gave him his money and his freedom.  He remembered that the father loved him first and so he can make this turn home.  God’s love for us, God’s grace reaching out to us, is the first step in forgiveness.

The first step in forgiveness is not our turning away from sin and back to God, but a still small voice, God’s voice, that tells us that no matter what we may think, and no matter how far we have fallen, and what doubts, and fears we may have, God loves us, and because of that love we can take the risk and turn toward home.  The bible says, it’s not that we loved God but that God first loved us.  The first step in forgiveness is God’s grace which reaches out to us while we are down and desperate, and it reminds us that we can get up and return home.

So he remembered the love of his father, and he headed home.  Luke 15:20b-24.

And this is what forgiveness looks like.  The father runs out to welcome his son home.  This is a startling example of just how powerful God’s love is for us.  For the father to run he would have had to lift up his robes and expose his legs, this was shameful in Jesus’ day, but the father once again takes on the shame of his son and runs out to greet him.  And why does he run?  I have always thought he ran out to simply embrace his son, he missed him so much and was glad to have him home, but maybe there was something more going on here.  Maybe the father runs out to get to his son before anyone in the community can run out with pot and cut him off.  The community could have shamed the son, and cut him off, but if the father can get there first, he can stop the condemnation and restore his son, but he has to get there first, so he runs out to greet him. 

Not only does God not condemn us, but God’s forgiveness stops the condemnation of others.  When a woman was caught in adultery, the people wanted to condemn her, but Jesus said, those without sin can cast the first stone.  Jesus stopped the condemnation of others and offered the woman mercy.  God’s forgiveness not only lifts us up, but it begins a process of reconciliation by cutting off the judgement of others.  There is an important lesson for us here, if God forgives we must forgive others. 

But it doesn’t stop there, the father doesn’t welcome his son home as a servant or slave, he restores him as a son.  When the father asks for sandals, a ring, a robe, and fatted calf to be prepared for a meal, he is completely restoring him as a son.  Sandals were reserved for family members, while servants and slaves walked around barefoot.  The ring was most likely a signet ring which was reserved for sons, and was a sign of authority in the family.  Robes were reserved for children, and a celebratory meal was reserved for family occasions.  These were all tangible signs the father was giving his son to show him, his family and the community that his son was forgiven.  Completely. 


Forgiveness restores relationships completely.  There are no second class citizens when we talk about forgiveness with God.  God doesn’t welcome us home but then constantly remind us how we have failed, and relegate us to some inferior status, forgiveness restores us, and then it celebrates.  The father celebrated with his son, and he invited the whole community to join him, because his son had returned. 

In this story, Jesus gives us a picture of what the forgiveness of God looks like.  God’s love reaches out to us first.  Before we can even think of coming home, God’s love is speaking to us and giving us the assurance that we will be accepted and forgiven.  When we turn back to God, God runs out to greet us, and God doesn’t take away our shame as much as God takes on our shame.  Just as the father took on the shame of his son, so Jesus took on our shame when he died on the cross.  The bible said that those who hang on a tree are cursed, so the death of Jesus was not just a physical death, but a sign of Jesus taking on our shame.  And by taking on our shame, and overcoming it, we see that God forgives. 

Forgiveness means that God restores relationship.  The father is not content to welcome his son home as a slave, or servant, he is welcomed home as an honored son and then he invites the family and community to be restored as well.  Forgiveness restores and resets relationships.  And then there is a party, God celebrates.

This is what God’s forgiveness looks like and this is what is available for all of us.  God’s grace is reaching out to each one of us today, calling us to return, letting us know we are loved.  God is running out to each one of us, willing to take on our sin and shame so we can be set free, and God is restoring each one of us in a relationship with him, calling us honored, valuable, children of God.  All of us.  And God is just waiting to celebrate. 

This is what God’s forgiveness looks like and this also begins to set the standard of what forgiveness needs to look like for each of us.  It is an impossibly high standard, I know, but it sets for us a goal, and gives us a vision and some direction to what forgiveness needs to look like in our own lives and in our church, community, and world.  We can’t just sit around and wait for people to come to us to apologize, there are those times we have to do what we can to reach out in love to offer grace, and mercy, to others.  Jesus said, if you know someone who holds something against you – go and seek reconciliation.  Go to them. 

While repentance is part of the forgiveness story, the son did acknowledge his mistake and wanted to tell his father how sorry he was, the father doesn’t stay focused on the problems of the past but just sees the possibilities for the future.  This is often the hardest part we have in forgiving others.  We want to make sure people know the depth of their failure, sin, and mistakes.  We want to make sure the other person really knows that what they have done is wrong, or how they have hurt us.  It seems like we want to focus more on the offense and justice than on the restoration and the love.  We want to stay focused on the brokenness and not the healing.  We want to keep reliving the past and not write the new story of our future.  Forgiveness is not pointing out the shame others should feel but finding ways we can take on that shame so that the other person is healed and restored. 

With this as a standard, we have a long way to go, and the first step is to simply accept again, and anew, the forgiveness God offers to us.  It is only in being forgiven by God, it is only in being clothed with the power of God, and restored into a relationship with God, that we will ever be able to forgive others the way Jesus did.  So as we begin this season of Lent, let us once again humble ourselves and, remembering the amazing love of a forgiving father, let us reach out once again to accept for ourselves the forgiveness of Jesus.

 
Next Steps
The Forgiveness of Jesus – The Forgiving Father

Connect With God
• Turn to God in humility and confess your sin.
• Identify the shame you feel and allow God to take it from you.
• Read these passages that tell us we ARE forgiven
o Matthew 6:14-17
o Romans 10:9
o Ephesians 1:7, 4:32
o 1 John 1:9
o Isaiah 1:18, 55:7
• Find one way to celebrate that God forgives you.


Connect with the Church
• Commit to worship during the season of Lent to learn about and celebrate God’s forgiveness.
• Pray that those in the church can truly grasp and extend to others the forgiveness of God.
• Learn about one ministry supported by Faith Church that helps spread the love and grace of God. 
• Join a class, study, or small group to explore more about what it means to be forgiven, and to forgive.


Connect with the World
• Ask God to show you the person (or persons) you need to forgive.  Pray for them.
• What group of people is God asking you to reach out to, get to know, and build a stronger relationship with? 
• Pray for this group and opportunities for engagement. 
• Identify one way you and your family can serve the community during the next 6 weeks, then serve. 

What Was I Thinking? God IS Active

Author and theologian A.W. Tozer said, What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.  What we think about God, and how we think about God is important.  it shapes us and it shapes all of our relationships.  What we think about God shapes our relationship with God, it shapes our relationships with the church, and our relationships with one another in the world. 

For the past 4 weeks we have been remembering, and learning, some deeper insights into the character of God so that our thinking about God will lead us to good decisions today and into the future.  When we know that God is powerful we want to call on him in prayer.  When we know God is present we want to lean into God for support.  When we know God is loving, we are able to find security and peace, and when we know God is holy, we want to put God first in our lives.

There is one more quality and characteristic of God that we want to address and that is that no matter what we may feel – God is active.  In fact, God is more active in our lives and in our world than we can possibly imagine.  Too often, when we feel isolated, alone, and unloved, we begin to think that God is simply not at work in our lives or in the world.  And it is in those moments we often think that we have to make decisions by ourselves and we fail to turn to God or trust God.  This is what King Asa did.

King Asa is the poster child of, what was I thinking.  He knew God was powerful, and present, and loving, and holy during his life, but he slowly began to doubt all of this and made a decision to trust the power of this world instead of the power of God.  Asa didn’t think God was active in the world, he thought God was not seeing or hearing their needs, so he aligned himself with a nation and a king that was active, and that decision cost him everything.  We cannot forget that God is active.  When things aren’t going the way we think they should – God is still at work.  When we are struggling through difficult health situations – God is active.  When we are wrestling with financial hardships – God is active.  When our families are going through hard times – God is active.  When our jobs are unpleasant and we don’t think we can take another day – God is active.  When our United Methodist denomination is divided and things seem chaotic – God is active.  God is active, and God’s movement in our lives is real, and if we can trust God’s activity, and follow the movement of God’s hand – we can find all the fullness and power of life God has for us.  We may not get all that we want – but we will find the power and presence and love and holiness of God – which brings us life.

A few weeks ago I mentioned the struggle I went through my freshman year of college.  I was feeling incredibly insecure at MSU and I tried to power up and fit into the fraternity scene, but I couldn’t keep up that image – it wasn’t me.  So then I powered down and was ready to quit college and return home.  I was feeling completely lost and alone, helpless and unloved.  It was a difficult few weeks, but here is the lesson I learned – God was more active in my life during that time then I could have possibly imagined.

I mentioned that at one point I called my parents saying I wanted to return home and my Mom answered the phone and said, no.  Well that is not all my Mom said or did.  At church she shared my situation with the mom of a good friend I graduated with, and this mom shared what was going on with her daughter, my friend, Cindy.  Cindy then wrote me a letter of encouragement and in that letter she said that when her sister had been a student at MSU many years earlier, she had been involved in a Christian Fellowship called Inter-Varsity and I should check it out.  Cindy said it might be similar to our church youth group that had sustained me through high school.

Now here is what you need to know, I got that letter from Cindy immediately after I had walked through an orientation and information center for campus groups.  I had seen a huge sign for Inter-Varsity and totally ignored it because I assumed it had something to do with sports, but I remembered seeing it.  So I went back to the sign and found the people who were connected to the group and asked about it.  They told me the first meeting was that night and they invited me to come.  At the time I really didn’t think much about all of this, but looking back, God had been active, more active than I had known or seen, and God’s activity gave hope, and direction and in time helped me make some good decisions.

God timed a conversation of my mom’s, a letter from a friend, a walk across campus, my eyes seeing the banner, and the day of the letter’s arrival and the first IV meeting being held on the same day.  God was at work in providing me a group that not only welcomed me, loved me, and helped me my freshman year, but a group that forever changed my life by helping me go deeper in my faith.  I didn’t see it, and wouldn’t have believed it in that moment, but God was more active than I could have possibly imaged.  And this was not a onetime incident.

A few years later I went to Yellowstone National Park to serve with a Christian Ministry, and the plan was for me to work in the Lake area of the park, but when I got there my job had been transferred to Grant Village and serve there.  I thought I had to work in Lake to be part of the ministry so I contacted them and they said, no problem go to Grant Village.  So I went to Grant Village and I can’t explain to you the power of the ministry team God had assembled there.  We clicked in a way that was powerful and I know that God was active in moving me to that exact location.

Fast forward about 10 years and I was appointed to Second Avenue UMC in Altoona and I really thought this was not going to go well.  This was a much different neighborhood than I had ever lived in and I wasn’t sure this was what God wanted, but God was more active than I could have imagined.  God was at work raising up people in the church, and planting seeds in the children of the neighborhood that all came together for a season of new beginnings and growth that amazed us all.  The children were ready to hear about God’s love.  They were ready to flock into the church to hear about Jesus and the church was ready to welcome them.  God was active in bringing it all together.
God is always at work and if we can open our eyes and hearts, and expect God to be at work, then we can experience the fullness of life and faith that God has for us.  Where we really see this concept at work is in the life of Jesus.  In Jesus, God was constantly at work and everywhere Jesus went, he brought life.  Those who were open and willing to see the hand of God could see the power and love that God brought, but those who refused to see God at work missed it completely.  A great example of this found in John 5:1-10.

For 38 years this man had laid as an invalid.  He had given up any hope of getting into the waters and finding healing.  God was simply not active in his life – God was silent and inactive, or so he thought.  Jesus came to him and asked if he wants to get well.  It’s an odd question, but maybe Jesus said it with a twinkle in his eye and a smile on his face because he knew what he was going to do.  Anyway, the man doesn’t have to go into the stirred up or living waters of the pool because the one who is the living water had come to him. In Jesus, God was at work and this man was willing to embrace it.  He got up and walked.

But now notice the religious leaders, they don’t look at the man who for 38 years had been begging and now was walking – they are looking at him carrying a mat.  All they see is a man breaking the Sabbath law.  They are so focused on the breaking of the law that they can’t see the activity of God, so they miss God in their midst.  They miss the life Jesus has to offer.  There are many stories of Jesus just like this, where Jesus brings God’s activity to the people, he brings in the kingdom of God in all its fullness to the people, and many miss it completely because they are not willing to look and listen for what God is doing.

If we are going to see God as active in our lives and in our world, we have to look for and listen for the movement of God.  We have to be aware that God is moving and be ready to embrace and be part of that movement.  If God is always active, and always at work, why do we so often miss it?  It’s because we are looking in the wrong direction.  I want you to take this awareness test. 

The activity of God is like the houses and the landscape changing all around us, but we are so fixed on the car, our lives are so filled with problems and details that we think we need to figure out, that we don’t even notice.  To see and hear how God is at work we need to ask God for open eyes and ears.  Here is a prayer we can pray,

God, what are you doing right here, right now?  Help me see, help me hear, so I can be part of what You are doing. AMEN.  

It was the people who took the time to look at Jesus, and what he was doing, and really listen to what he was saying that found healing, wholeness and new life.  God is active – are we listening.  God is moving – are we seeing through open eyes of faith.

Not only does God want us to see what he is doing, God wants us to join Him in His work.  I never cease to be amazed at this concept.   God wants me to join Him in His work.  God doesn’t need me.  God doesn’t want me to help because I am good at what He is doing, I’m not.  I don’t bring anything of real value to the table in comparison to God, but God still wants me because God loves me.  God is patient with me in life and in ministry because God loves me and wants me working with Him.  Amazing.

It makes me think of all those times our parents or grandparents invite us to work with them when we were children.  Maybe it is in the kitchen, or in the garden, or under the hood of a car, but when parents invite their children to work with them it’s not because our children are good at the work, and it’s not always because we want to teach them, or that they want to learn.  We invite children to work with us because of love.  We want to spend time with them.  We want to walk with them in life.

Relationships are important, and our relationship with God is important.  God invites us to be part of his activity because he wants to know us and for us to know him.  That’s it.  God is active and wants us to work with him so that we can know him more, and love him more, and find the fullness of his life and love in our lives.

As we look at the world and see division, hurt and pain, the truth is that God is more active than we can imagine and he invites us to see how and where he is working and he invites us to join him.  When we do, we will find power, love, and the fullness of life.  And when we see God at work we can join God and be part of God’s kingdom in profound and life giving ways. 

If you have ever had an experience where you have been able to see or hear the activity God, and it has made a difference in your life, then I want to invite you to tell that story to someone.  The world needs to hear that God is not dead, God is not uninterested in our world, God is not silent, and God is not inactive.  God is alive and at work.  Reflect on your life and find those moments where you can see the hand of God at work and tell your story.  Our stories not only give Glory to God but it can be an encouragement to others, and our stories will also remind others that God IS Active, more active than we can possibly imagine.  Knowing God is at work, and working with God, can help us make good choices, focus on the right things, and never have to look back on some poor decision we made and have to say, what was I thinking?



 
Next Steps
What Was I Thinking?  God IS Active.

1. When have you felt that God was silent, or inactive?

2.  Read John 5:1-15.  Identify all the ways we can see the activity of God at work in this story of Jesus.  What other stories of God’s activity in Jesus come to your mind?

3. Why do you think the religious leaders missed seeing God at work?  What were they focused on?  What were they worried about?

4. In what ways are you like those religious leaders?  What are the things that take our eyes off Jesus and blind us to the activity of God in our world?

5. A simple prayer for this week:  God, what are you doing right here, right now? Help me see, and help me hear, so I can be part of what You are doing.  AMEN

6. Identify one way you can see God moving in the world.  How can you join God in this activity?  Who can you invited to join you?

7. Tell your story.  Share a story with your small group, family, or a friend about a time you were able to see the activity of God in your life.

8. Remind yourself this week that:
• God is powerful – so we can pray.
• God is present – so we can lean in for support.
• God is loving – so we can find security and peace.
• God is holy – so we can make Him first in our lives.
• God is active – so we can join in God’s work.

What Was I Thinking? God IS Loving

What we think about God is important because our thoughts shape our behavior.  How we picture God not only shapes how we respond to God, but it also shapes how we interact with others.  For example, if we think of God as harsh, we will resist God.  Why come close to a God who only wants to be demanding and difficult?  Why allow ourselves to get close to anyone if all we think will happen is that we will get hurt?  And if we see God as judgmental, always trying to catch us and punish us for doing something wrong, then we will live in fear.  And if we only see God as someone who takes, takes away fun, joy, life, and laughter, then we are going to resist God, and we are going to resist the fullness of life that God wants to share with us.

How we think of God shapes our behaviors and our lives, which is why it is important for us to see God, and think about God, in ways that are in keeping with who God truly is.  This month we have been learning, or remembering, the truth about God’s character so that we can make wise and faithful decisions so that we never have to look back and say, What Was I Thinking? 

We learned that while the world often sees God has weak, God is actually powerful, and we can pray to God for that power to be experienced in our lives.  Last week we learned that while the world often sees God as distant, and at times we feel isolated and alone, God is present with us always, and we can lean into God’s presence to find what we need.  Today we want to explore another one of the characters of God that often goes against the conventional wisdom of the world. 

The world often sees God as harsh, and unfortunately many churches also talk about God in ways that are severe.  When the focus is on sin, judgment, and the fires of hell, we begin to picture God has a judge just waiting to catch us in our sin and condemn us.  While God is holy, and David is going to talk about that next week, God is not harsh, quite the opposite, God IS loving.  In fact, what we need to remember and hold on to is this truth – God IS Love. 

God is not love, and his actions are not loving, the way we might define it, as conditional upon our good behavior, God Himself defines love, and when we see God’s unconditional love, and when we are able to receive that love, it can forever change our lives, our families, our communities, and our world. 

Through this series we have been looking at the life of King Asa.  Asa was the king of Judah, and when he was a young man, he trusted God to be powerful, and he knew God was present in his life.  In fact, God’s presence and power were experienced by Asa for 35 years, and his love for God helped bring peace.  This is what it says about Asa’s heart.  2 Chronicles 15:12, 15, 17b. 

Asa wholeheartedly loved God.  He was able to commit himself to God completely, and worship God only, because he knew God’s love, and had received it.  But slowly, over time, Asa began to doubt that love.  Later in his life, Asa failed to trust God wholeheartedly.  He turned away from God’s presence, and power, and he failed to live in the knowledge of God’s love, and because of this, Asa made a very poor decision that cost him everything.  Asa stopped trusting in God’s presence, power, and love, and turned to the super power of his day to find an ally.  Asa formed a coalition with another king to help him fight his enemy instead of trusting in God, and that decision cost Asa the victory. 

At some point, Asa reflected on that poor decision and must have said, what was I thinking?  God was always powerful and he could have helped me if I had prayed.  God was always with us and we could have leaned into that presence for strength.  And God always loved us, and if I had remembered and received that love, if I had loved God wholeheartedly, I would have made a better decision.  If we can remember and receive God’s love, if we can love God wholeheartedly, we will make better decisions. 

No matter what we may think today, or what we hear in the world around, or what we may have learned growing up, God IS love.  God defines for us what love looks like, and God loves us.  Completely.  Unconditionally.  Eternally.  God loves us, and if we will receive that love, our lives will be transformed, and we will live with purpose, power, and peace. 

From Genesis to Revelation, what God has tried to make clear to us, and what God still wants us to remember today, is that He loves us.  In fact, if there is one verse that might sum up what it is that God wants for us, it would be this, Ephesians 3:17-18.

We read this as Paul’s prayer for the people of Ephesus, but this is really God’s prayer for us.  More than anything God wants us to know that his love for us is wide, and long, and high, and deep, and eternal.  God wants us to know that his love is
• wide enough to cover our fear, 
• long enough to reach and redeem our past.  
• high enough to support our dreams, 
• deep enough to touch insecurities. 

God loves us so much that he was not content to just tell us about his love in a book, God had to come to us in person.  God came to show us just how wide and long and high and deep his love for us really is.  Jesus is the fullness of God’s love revealed to us.  Jesus shows us that God’s love is wide enough to touch every person, it is long enough to reach into our past to forgive us, it is high enough to reach up into heaven and open a door for us and it is deep enough to set a firm foundation on which we can build our lives. 

If we can receive God’s love through Jesus, our lives will change, we will be transformed.  Not everything will be easy, not every problem will be erased, but we will have strength and power to make it through.  Let me share 2 ways that God’s love transforms us all. 

1. Insecure to Secure.  God’s love moves us from being insecure to being secure, and I’ll let you in on a little secret, we are all insecure.  I used to think that I was the only one who was insecure in life and that everyone else had it all together, but by listening to the stories of many other people, I have come to realize that we are all insecure, and we can deal with our insecurity in 2 ways, we can power up or we can power down.

We power up when we try and lift ourselves up, make our own decisions, and do what we can to make ourselves look good.  Asa powered up when he made a treaty with the King of Aram to fight his enemy.  Asa was feeling insecure when he looked at his enemy.  He didn’t trust what he had in himself to fight against them, so he did what he could to lift himself up.  Asa made himself look good, and strong, by forming an alliance with a more powerful nation.  He powered up, and many of us try to power up in life when we feel insecure, and that can lead us to all kinds of bad decisions. 

When I first started as a student at Michigan State University, I was as insecure as it came, so I tried to power up.  I tried to make myself look good and I did what I could to fit in among my peers.  I went to the orientation meetings for all the fraternities thinking that was one way I could make myself look better.  It didn’t work.  I couldn’t keep up that image, so I then took the other road when we struggle with insecurities, I powered down.

When we power down, we talk ourselves down.  This isn’t being humble, it is feeling hopeless.  We give in to the thinking that we are crushed and defeated.  We tell ourselves we can’t do anything and that there is no hope.  After my first few weeks at MSU, I had gone from trying to power up to powering down.  I was ready to quit.  I was ready to pack my bags and head home, my insecurities were getting the best of me.  But then something happened. 

God directed me to a group of people who in their own insecurities neither powered up nor down, they looked to Jesus.  I started attending a campus group called Intervarsity Christian Fellowship, and through large group gatherings, times of fellowship, and a small group Bible study, I learned that God loved me just the way I was.  In time, God’s love filled my insecurity, and gave me a peace that allowed me to find a renewed sense of purpose and life. 

God’s love slowly started to transform my insecurities and I began to understand more fully who I was as a child of God.  By receiving God’s love, by acknowledging that we are valuable, gifted, children of God, we move from being insecure to being secure, not secure in ourselves, but secure in the God who loves us and gives us life. 

2. Striving For to Resting In.  The second thing God’s love does is that it moves from striving for acceptance, meaning, and the fullness of life and allows us to rest in these things.  Here is the most difficult thing we often have to accept about God’s love, there is nothing we can do to earn it.  God’s love is just NOT conditional.  If we are better – it doesn’t mean God loves us more.  If we fail – it doesn’t mean God loves us less.  God’s love is never changing, all powerful, and ever present, and when we receive that love we stop trying to earn it and simply live in it.

This is a hard concepts for us to understand because in our world everything seems to be conditional.  If we make the right decisions, say the right things, and behave the right way, we are loved, respected, and honored.  But if we slip up just once, all that love is gone.  All around us we see this played out on a daily basis.  As long as people in the public eye say and do the right thing, we support them, but if we find one flaw, one mistake, one misstep from today or yesterday, we toss them aside.  This way of “loving others” shapes us.  When love and acceptance are conditional and we have to strive to always make the right choice in every thought, word, and deed, we will be miserable and live in fear of our own mistakes coming to tear us down, but when we can receive God’s unconditional love, we can stop striving for acceptance and rest secure in God’s grace and peace. 

That first year at MSU, I struggled with this whole concept.  I read in John 14 that we need to abide in God, so I asked a friend, how do I do this?  He kind of laughed and said you don’t do it, you rest in it, you trust it, you accept it.  I said, right, how do I do that?  I kept missing the point.  I kept asking what I had to do to rest in God’s love, instead of simply resting in God’s love.  I was striving for and not resting in, and I still find myself striving for and not resting in. 

God’s love is this amazing gift that we don’t deserve, and can never repay.  It is a gift that touches the totality of our lives.  It is a love that is wide and long and high and deep.  When we receive this love, when we simply open our hearts and accept God’s love, in time we learn how to just rest, and feel secure.  I have learned it doesn’t come quickly, it doesn’t happen overnight, and I’m not sure we every truly come to terms with it, but the more we simply accept God’s love, the more God’s love transforms us.   

God is loving, and his love can transform our lives, so let me close with 2 final thoughts. 

1. God’s love is available today.  In this moment, we don’t have to do anything to receive God’s love other than open our hands and our hearts and our lives and ask God to fill us with his love.  For each one of us today, God’s love is available.  It is here to assure us we are accepted and valued.  It is here to quiet our anxiety and give us peace.  It is here to guide us into good decisions and a better life.  It is here to be received, today and every day, it is available. 

2. God’s love is to be shared.  In John 15, Jesus went on to say, when you keep my commands you will remain in my love.  And then he gave us just one command to follow. Love one another.  And the amazing thing about the love of God is that when we release it to others, it comes back to us 100 fold.  The more we release, or share, God’s love, the more we receive God’s love.  The more we tell others about God’s love, the more we experience God’s love.  The more we love others, the more we experience the love of God in our own lives.  God’s love is not just be received but shared and when we share it we receive more in return. 

So today, receive God’s love.  Stop powering up and trying to do it all on your own, stop powering down thinking you aren’t worthy of God’s love, and simply receive the love of God and allow that love to shape your life, allow God’s love to lead you into the fullness of life and faith and watch God’s love truly transform your life.   

Next Steps
What Was I Thinking?  - God IS Loving

1.  This past week was Valentine’s Day. 
• How were you able to receive the love of God? 
• How were you able to release (share) the love of God? 

2.  Read Ephesians 3:17-18.  This is not Paul’s prayer for the church but God’s desire for each of us.  In what ways is God’s love:
• wide enough to cover our fear
• long enough to reach (and redeem) our past
• high enough to support our dreams
• deep enough to transform our insecurities

3.  How have you experienced God’s love in each of the situations above?  Write down these circumstances to remind you of God’s love when you need it in the future.

4. We are all insecure in life.  In what ways do you power-up (lift yourself up in life) and power-down (beat yourself down in life)?  Ask God to transform your insecurities by filling you with His love.

5. In what ways do you strive for God’s love and acceptance?  How do you try and repay God for his love and acceptance?  What would it look like for you to rest in God’s love?  Read John 15:5-17. 

6. If you have never specifically asked for it, ask for God’s love today. 

7. In what ways can you release God’s love to the world?
• Who do you know that needs to hear God’s love? 
• How can you share God’s love? 
• What will it mean for you to love one another?

What Was I Thinking? God IS Present

In the fall of 1986, a friend dropped me off in Studio City, CA, at the home of my mom’s cousins.  I had just graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in Telecommunications, TV production, and I wanted to get a job in the TV industry, so Hollywood, or Studio City, was the place to be.  I had no experience, no contacts, no car, and no money and yet somehow I thought I could arrive in LA and get a job.  Have you ever made a decision that looking back on you shake your head and ask, What was I thinking?  Well this was one of those times for me.  What was I thinking?  I really thought that somehow a degree in a related field would land me a job in TV – boy was I wrong.

I quickly realized that I was in way over my head and had no real plan for how to move myself forward.  I also realized just how alone I was.  While in a city of millions, and living with extended family who tried to be supportive, I still felt isolated and alone.  I often spent my afternoons listening to a Christian radio station while in bed with the covers pulled up over my head.  It was one of the lowest moments of my life and I still say, what was I thinking?

Last week we started this series called, What was I thinking, and our goal is to learn some truths about God that can help us make faithful choices so that we never have to utter those 4 dreaded words.  Last week we learned that while we often feel powerless to change our circumstances in life, we are not helpless, and one important thing we can do when we are in trouble is to pray.

This week we are going to learn a truth that I really needed when I was in Studio City.  What I needed most during those difficult days was to know that God was with me and that I was NOT alone.  I felt alone.  I tried to hide in my loneliness.  I tried to run from my loneliness, but what I really needed to know was that God was more present with me than I could have possibly known.

Now here’s the troubling part of my story, I knew that God was always with me.  I had read that in the Bible many times and I had personally experienced God’s presence in my life.  I had already been through those times when the unseen hand of God suddenly became visible.  So while I knew that God was always with me, I had forgotten it, and I doubted it during those dark days.  In many ways I was like King Asa, the King of Judah, who felt so alone that he made a foolish decision that cost him dearly.

If you weren’t with us last week, Asa was King of Judah, and when he was a young man, Asa trusted God to help him during a very difficult time.  God not only helped Asa and the people win a battle, but God was present with them for 35 years, bringing God’s people peace.  Asa knew that God was powerful and he trusted that God was present with him, but over time, these were the very truths that he forgot.  This is often our problem.  We forget, and when problems come up we lose sight of the very truths that helped us in the past and can help us in the future.

Much later in his life, when he was once again confronted by a large army, Asa didn’t trust God to be powerful and fight for him.  Instead of leaning into the presence of God, Asa went out on his own and formed an alliance with the superpower of his day.  It was this failure to trust God’s power and lean into God’s presence that made trouble for Asa, and it is this lesson we need to learn in our own lives.  God is always present with us which means we can lean into God’s presence and find strength in God’s power.

We may not feel God with us, we may doubt that God is hanging around ready to assist, we may feel that we have wandered too far away, or sinned so greatly that God simply can’t be with us, or doesn’t want to be with us, but nothing could be further from the truth.  God is always present with us.

God is always present.  We can’t run from God, or hide from God, and we can’t even sin so greatly that it pushes God away, because the Bible is pretty clear on this, God is always present.  If nothing else, this is a truth we can read in order to remember.  In fact, I want to invite you to read this with me.  Psalm 139:1-18.

This psalm is powerful because it talks about all the times we might feel alone, and yet in those moments God is there.  There is no place so high, or low, that God is not already there.  There is doubt, or sin, so dark that it can keep God away.  There is no decision we can make that God cannot redeem because God is always present to help us.  We might struggle, we might suffer some consequences because of our actions, but even then, God is present.  Even while I was lying in bed with the covers over my head, God was there, and God was at work in helping me find a way through the darkness.

If Asa had known that God was with him, he might not have made an alliance with the King of Aram, and relied upon the power of the world instead of the power of God.  If Asa had seen that God was there to fight with him and for him, Asa might have made a better, more courageous decision.  We need this kind of vision, we need to see God not only with us, but with us in power.

About 50 years after Asa, the prophet Elisha also faced a large army from a king looking to capture him.  When Elisha and his servant awake in the morning, this is what happened.  2 Kings 6:15-17.

At first, Elisha’s servant couldn’t see the army of God.  He couldn’t see the powerful way God was present with them, but then his eyes were opened.  How often do we find ourselves in this very situation?  We feel overwhelmed and pressed in by troubles on every side, and we think we are all alone, but the truth is that we are not.  God is always present with us, and present with us in power.  We need this kind of vision, this kind of spiritual vision, or faith, to know that God is with us.

If we will look for God, if we will ask God to open our eyes so we can see him, God will open our eyes so that we can see him.  Look at 2 Chronicles 16:9.  God is constantly searching the world looking for those who are looking for him, and if we will turn to look for God, we will find him.  God said, when you search for me with all your heart you will find me.  And Jesus said, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

There is not a time or place where God is not with us, and if we can lean into this truth, we will find the strength and power to walk forward in faith.  Here are the ABC’s of what will happen in our lives if and when we lean into the presence of God.

A – We will experience less Anxiety.  When we feel isolated and alone, we feel anxious and unsure, but when we know that God is near, we find peace.  Philippians 4:5-7.  Knowing God is with us brings a peace that passes our understanding and a peace that can guard our hearts and minds.  If I had truly known the Lord was near, the outcome of my time in LA might not have changed, but I might not have had to spend so much time hiding under the covers.  We can reduce our anxiety by leaning into the presence of God.

B – Our Behavior will change.  When we lean into God’s presence it will lead us to better choices which will lead us to a better life.  The world often tells us that God is absent and that life is simply what we make it.  To me, that is a pretty hopeless situation because I know how powerless I am to change anything.  Without God’s presence, there really is no larger sense of meaning and purpose that can help me not only make good choices, but guide my life.  But with God at our side, life takes on new meaning.

When people really feel alone in life, they often look at desperate measures to either make life full, or make life end.  Our behaviors can become desperate and dangerous when we feel isolated, but if we can truly see that God is with us, our behavior might change in many ways – for the better.  Knowing God is with us can turn our despair and desperation into power and purpose.

What would change in your life if you knew that God was with you?  What behaviors might be transformed?  What attitudes might be lifted up?  What dream might be fulfilled if you knew that God was with you?  If we had this vision, the same kind of vision that Elisha had, it might lead us to stepping out in faith because we would have more courage.

C – We would have more Courage.  If we know that God is with us, and we know that with God’s presence comes God’s power, then we will have more courage to step out in faith.  Too often it is fear that holds us back in life and in faith, but when we learn to lean into the presence of God, when we can see that God is with us, it can give us the courage to do so much more.

If you knew God was present with you, what would you do?  What change would you make?  What mission would you undertake?  What risk would be worthwhile?  What reward would you experience? Courage comes from the presence of God. 

When the people of Israel were finally on the brink of crossing over the Jordan River and taking possession of the Promised Land, Joshua was their leader and he had just one word of encouragement.   Joshua 1:7-9

Be strong and courageous, not because you are physically capable of doing this on your own, not because you are smart and have made all the right decisions, and not because you have horses, chariots, shields, and spears to protect you, be strong and courageous because the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.

If we can lean into this truth and trust that God is with us, we will have less anxiety and more courage, and with less anxiety and more courage we will make better decisions, and better decisions means that we will never have to look back at a time in our lives and ask, What was I thinking?



Next Steps
What Was I Thinking – God IS Present

1. When have you felt isolated and alone?
     • What led you to this place?
     • What helped you move beyond this place?
     • Where was God in your isolation and loneliness?

2. Read and reflect on Psalm 139:1-18.
     • In what ways have you tried to run from God?
     • In what ways have you tried to hide from God?

3. Identify three ways (spiritual practices) that you can remind yourself that God is always present with you.
     • 1
     • 2
     • 3

4. Leaning into God’s presence can change your ABC’s.
     • Anxiety
          o Read Philippians 4:5-7.
          o What anxious thoughts do you need to give
              to God?
          o How & why does prayer & thanksgiving
             remind us of God’s presence & reduce
             our anxiety?
           o Give thanks for God’s constant presence.

     • Behavior
          o What one behavior would you like to change?
          o How can God’s presence help you make
             that change?

     • Courage
          o Read Joshua 1:7-9.
          o What step of faith would you take if you
               truly knew that God was with you?
          o Take that step this week – God is with you!